Jeff Hartline Commentary: Crafting A State Budget With Both Hands Tied Behind Your Back Is An Impossible Task

by Jeff Hartline May 8, 2017 As is the habit of the Tennessee General Assembly, the last days of each year’s session are tortured with the approval of the State Budget, one Constitutional requirement that must be completed prior to adjournment. There probably aren’t a thousand regular citizens in the state (out of over 6,800,000) who understand the process, much less the details that lie therein. The vast percentage of those who do understand the current process reside inside the offices of the Executive Branch of the State, also known as the Governor’s office and the staffs that serve the House and Senate Finance Committees and the Fiscal Review Committee. On the surface, one would conclude that this distribution between the Executive and Legislative branches fulfills the intent of “Separation of Powers”. It doesn’t. As one can imagine, the people employed in the Governor’s office are “full-timers”, employees of the State of Tennessee, spending all their time executing the desires and demands of the Governor. Those specifically tasked to budget items give full attention to the nooks and crannies of the budget process and the budget itself. In the same way, the Legislative Committee staffs do the same thing. Because…

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