Ramsey Says Substantial Agreement on Budget Still Leaves Sticking Points

The speakers of Tennessee’s House and Senate have agreed to a budget that will go up for floor votes this week.

Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Kent Williams spent an hour Wednesday going over a summary of the new spending plan. Ramsey says they are in substantial agreement on the draft budget, but he left himself wiggle room.

“We’ve still got little sticking points. You can get hung up on the fine details here, I hope that’s not the case.”

Some things appear settled – for instance, the tax break for homeowners who lost their residences in the May floods is still there. But a similar break sought by the National Federation for Small Business may be in trouble.

Legislators forecast they will work Friday and perhaps Saturday to wrap up the budget. The fiscal year begins July first.

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Ramsey says any given item in the proposed budget could create a problem.

“It’s always in the details. I think the basic concept is there. We’re sitting down right now and looking at it line by line, to make sure we’re on the same page. We don’t want any misunderstandings. We don’t want to get to this point forward and say, ‘well, I thought you agreed to Line 56,’ and we didn’t.”

For instance, House members are trying to get funding for a program that addresses infant mortality. Ramsey says there is no proof that the program works.

“We’ve not yet to find exactly what they’ve done. We’ve asked for a report, just a one-page report, ‘What have you all produced?’ And we’ve yet to be able to find that exactly. I know Brian Kelsey in particular has been asking for that. We don’t want to cut anything that legitimately doing something. For the life of me, we can’t figure out exactly what they do.”

According to testimony to finance committees, the program is not a direct service to clients.