TN Budget Hearings

By Angela Hatton

Nashville, TN – With Tennessee facing a revenue shortfall of potentially 800 million dollars this year, Governor Phil Bredesen will begin hearing from his Cabinet about budget needs for next year. K-12 education department officials speak today. The cuts are likely to be lightest in education, making it a bellwether for what other departments can expect. Bredesen had previously projected the shortfall at between 300 and 600 million dollars. But that was before September's returns came in at about 80 million dollars lower than expected. Lawmakers already made almost half a billion dollars worth of cuts in May, including reductions in higher education funding and buyouts for more than fifteen-hundred state employees.