What to do with TN's budget surplus
The state of Tennessee is forecast to pull in a budget surplus of $600 million this year. I have some suggestions on what to do with it.
First, we need to fund Bredesen's new and improved BEP formula, which is used to allocate education funding to each county. That's $280 million, or nearly half the surplus.
We should put $100 million of the remainder into the state's rainy day fund. Tennessee relies on sales tax for its revenue, which is much more volatile and harder to predict than income tax revenue. When the next budget deficit rolls around, we need a cushion to help prevent yet another sales tax increase.
So, that leaves $220 million to play with:
- We could give a one-time bonus of $3,793 to each of Tennessee's 58,000 public school teachers.
- Each of the 191,000 people Bredesen kicked off TennCare could receive a one-time payment of $1,152 to help pay for the medical bills they've racked up over the last couple of years. It'd be a drop in the bucket for most of them, but every little bit would help.
- We could have a no-sales-tax-on-beer day. Everyone should call in sick the day afterward.
- Each of Tennessee's 54 state parks could receive a one-time payment of $3.7 million.
- All of Tennessee's state colleges and universities have capital improvement (building) projects in need of funding.
- Or we could just throw it away on another expensive road project we don't need.
That last one is likeliest.