Tennessee lawmakers have prioritized school vouchers and law enforcement during a lean budget year — and the last of Gov. Bill Lee’s term in the state’s highest office.
The state’s $58 billion budget is down $1.5 billion from last year as Tennessee contends with inflation. The Tennessee State Funding Board has forecasted shrinking revenue in the year ahead.
The legislature approved an expansion to Lee’s signature school voucher program, although not as many seats as the governor wanted. While Lee proposed an additional $112 million for 40,000 vouchers, the statehouse only approved 35,000. Still, the final budget granted Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship the full figure of $112 million for added scholarships, bringing the total cost of the program to $300 million. A House spokesperson told WPLN News that the surplus will not be spent on scholarships.
Lee secured an additional 50 state trooper positions to aid the Memphis Safe Task Force, but the legislature slashed money the governor had earmarked for youth programs in the city.
Again splitting from the governor, the statehouse invested $7 million to feed children who may have limited access to food during the summer months. Pledging that money means the state is again eligible to receive $84 million in federal funding for the summer EBT program, something Lee had opted out of, instead sponsoring a state summer food aid program much smaller in scale.
The legislature also cut a $43 million program to provide low-income households with free diapers.
In the past, Lee has budgeted for tax-free holidays, like a 2023 measure that made groceries tax-exempt for three months to help families struggling with inflation. There is no tax relief included in Lee’s last budget. While Republican leadership has floated different ways to cut down on the state’s grocery tax, none of their proposals made it across the finish line.
Tennessee has one of the highest grocery taxes in the nation at 4%. Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, led an effort to end the tax last year. While ultimately unsuccessful in the statehouse, the push appeared to give Behn a boost in December’s special congressional election, narrowing the gap between Democrats and Republicans in the GOP stronghold from 22 points in 2024 to less than 9 points the following year.
Republicans in the statehouse have largely focused on immigration enforcement over affordability concerns, carrying a legislative package from the White House to help carry out the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
After sending the budget to the governor for approval last week, the statehouse has spent its last week in session focusing on immigration bills with price tags that are not accounted for in the budget:
- A proposal to require local law enforcement to sign an agreement to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would cost local governments $1.2 million in annual training and personnel costs, according to state projections.
- Another proposal to limit when non-English speakers can be on the road and require drivers to prove English-language competency for a long-term license would cost more than $400,000 annually.
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