Committees of the state House of Representatives passed a spending bill Monday night that doesn’t include some deeper cuts proposed by Republicans.
The budget that cleared the House Finance Committee also restores reductions made by Governor Phil Bredesen in the areas of children’s services and mental health.
Democratic committee chair Craig Fitzhugh says those cuts, however, will have to be made the following year. But he says the one-year compromise should get bi-partisan support in the closely-divided House.
“Certainly we’re not going to have a unanimous vote for the budget in the House, but I think we will have more or less, more or less, all of the Democrats and certainly a substantial number of the Republicans, if we can take it by how many Republicans sit on the House Finance Committee.”
Republican House Speaker Kent Williams is describing the plan as a “compassionate budget.” But Republican House Majority Leader Jason Mumpower says many of his members consider yesterday’s committee decision “a very preliminary vote.”
The measure would protect many state workers from layoffs until the end of June 2010 and would issue bonds for bridge projects and higher education buildings. Neither provision is included in a version debated by the Republican-dominated Senate. Both bills head for respective floor votes Tuesday.
The AP contributed to this report.
WEB EXTRA:
The bills which moved out of the House Finance Committee are these:
HB 2389 Fitzhugh/SB 2357 Kyle
HMO tax to 5.5% from 2%. This is the “omnibus bill,” which makes various changes particularly in how funds move from one pocket to another in the budget. For instance, a percentage of money from the tobacco settlement money, ordinarily used for agricultural education, is moved to the General Fund. The Omnibus Bill also deletes the otherwise-automatic pay increases which would have gone to district attorneys general and Tennessee Highway Patrol officers.
The Senate version passed on the Senate floor last Friday, 31-0.
HB 2275 Fitzhugh /SB 2318 Kyle
The “technical corrections bill.” This fine-tunes how many taxes flow into state coffers – some of those changes being quite far-sweeping. For instance, the bill allows a favorable tax provision for companies that invest one billion dollars in the state, benefiting Volkswagen and the two solar cell manufacturers that have located in the state.
The Senate version passed in the upper house last Friday, 26-5.
HB 2391 Fitzhugh/SB 2356 Kyle
This is a bill that allows the state to spend more money than is officially forecast to come in. Usually this would be a politically explosive provision, but this year it is needed so the state can spend federal stimulus money which is outside the state economists’ normal projections.
This bill is on the Senate floor calendar today [Tuesday].
HB 2390 Fitzhugh/SB 2358 Kyle
Authorization of bonds for capital funding.
In the Senate, the bill is on the Senate floor today [Tuesday].
Potentially a divisive question between Republicans, who want to bond fewer bridge projects, and Democrats, who back the governor’s plan to build as many bridges as possible in order to put a maximum number of Tennesseans to work on the projects.
House Speaker Kent Williams requested a roll-call vote on this issue in the House Finance Committee, where it passed 22-8.
The debt service – payments on the bonds – will be about $76 million a year. Budget administrators told the legislators the amount is programmed as a recurring amount in budgets in future years. The administration says the bonds will not cause bond rating agencies to lower the state’s rating. .
The appropriations bill is SB 2355 Kyle/HB 2392 Fitzhugh
The bill is on the Senate floor calendar today. The appropriations bill along with the others can be heard as early as today – but had not been officially set on the calendar as of this morning.
The House Calendar and Rules Committee was expected to meet today to actually sent the bills to the floor.