The Tennessee house passed its version of the state’s 26-billion dollar budget last night, with several differences from the senate version passed earlier in the week.
The house version gives 34-million dollars in operating funds to higher education to keep tuition increases low, and 10-million dollars for a film industry incentive package. House Buget Sub-Committee chair Harry Tindell says these amounts are more than the senate’s version.
“It’s a juggling process and we knew we needed some money to invest in bringing this industry back to Tennessee and we were able to achieve that.”
Representatives Chris Clem and Brian Kelsey were the only two not to vote for the budget—both are republicans. Kelsey says the 400-million budget surplus should have been given back to taxpayers.
“Of the 400-million, we’re only giving less than five percent back to the tax payers and I think that’s significant. We need to be giving all this money back to taxpayers. And there are certainly provisions in here that are worthy of being funded, but we’re just like a bunch of kids at Christmas time.”
Senate leaders say they will likely concur with the house version today.
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