Mo’ Money
Since people commented that they expected me to talk about guns and eminent domain and guns (as though I’m a one maybe two-trick pony) here’s something different. Tennessee has a windfall of extra cash. Specifically, they have some “unexpected revenues” compared to budget. Of course, given how the budget of the state plays out, I have no assurances that expenses stayed in line. If revenue is up marginally but expenses are up significantly, there is no surplus.
The issue, as Stacey Campfield notes, is that the pigs are lining up at the trough to spend it. Campfield advocates returning the money to the people, a noble idea, but the state should set the cash aside for future shortfalls that it will no doubt have.
Bill Hobbs reports that spending these unexpected revenues is unconstitutional. The Tennessee Constitution says:
No public money shall be expended except pursuant to appropriations made by law.
The race to spend the money is asinine. Back when Tennessee received cash as part of tobacco settlements, the legislature blew it. They didn’t factor that this money would eventually run out. And it did. And we were in a fiscal crisis with calls for tax increases and income taxes. Some fiscal responsibility is in order here, folks. After all, you have TennCare to save and other existing operations to manage. Yet, they want to line this money up for new things?
And . . . ooh look, guns.
Note: This is the final repost of stuff I did while guest blogging at No Silence Here.
June 10th, 2005 at 4:55 pm
Thomas Sowell has a good article about suing industry to generate state revenue: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell060199.asp .
June 11th, 2005 at 12:42 am
I was going to say that the state shouldn’t be saving money for a rainy day (because they would just waste it, and tax surpluses are another way of saying over taxation). Turns out Bill Hobbs has a better reason: TN already has $4 Billion in reserve funds ( http://billhobbs.com/hobbsonline/006441.html ).