The House and Senate passed the state’s FY14-15 budget this week as legislators rapidly approach the end of session.
According to an article by Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Tom Humphrey, House Finance Committee Chairman Charles Sargent (R-Franklin) said that this budget marks the “first time in institutional memory” that the General Assembly has approved a state budget without adopting any amendments proposed by individual legislators.
Although they ultimately failed, legislators filed several amendments as attempts to provide some type of state employee raise as well as full funding for the Complete College Tennessee outcomes-based formula.
These amendments included ones filed by Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville) and Rep. Mike Harrison (R-Rogersville), which appropriated over $20 million the Complete College funding formula if tax revenues rebounded. These measures were ultimately withdrawn.
Simply put: The budget, which now heads to the Governor’s desk, includes no state dollars for higher education employee salary increases or the outcomes-based funding formula for the coming fiscal year. These items, although included in the original budget proposal, were removed primarily due to lower than anticipated state revenues.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission recommended in November that $29.6 million be provided to fund the Complete College formula to meet the production and outcomes successes of the top performing Tennessee higher education institutions.
Tags: Budget, complete college tennessee act, funding, Governor Bill Haslam, Higher education employee pay raises, higher education funding in Tennessee, outcomes funding formula, Performance, TN General Assembly, TN state budget