On Tuesday, the Haslam Administration released its proposed budget amendment. The Administration’s budget amendment provides an opportunity to alter the original budget proposal based on the State’s revenue trends.
Citing strong sales tax numbers and revenue increases from “a one-time event,” the Administration amendment increases funding for education and health and doubles the contribution to the State’s ‘Rainy Day’ fund.
The proposed budget amendment designates $29 million in recurring dollars to K-12 education, specifically to increase state funding of health insurance coverage for teachers.
“All of our additional recurring money is going to fund K-12 education in addition to the $144 million from our original budget proposal. We are also making significant investments in higher education,” Governor Haslam stated.
There are nearly $300 million more than anticipated in non-recurring funds. As a result, the budget amendment proposal includes a number of non-recurring investments, including $120 million to fund the state’s commitment to a new Tennessee State Museum and $36.5 million in additional funding for the ‘Rainy Day’ Fund.
For UT specifically, the budget amendment includes:
- $4.52 million in non-recurring capital outlay, to be divided as follows:
- $1 million in construction funding for a new wind tunnel at the UT Space Institute
- $3.52 million for additional capital maintenance projects at UT Martin and the UT Space Institute
- $3 million in non-recurring revenue to support UT-ORNL’s Advanced Manufacturing initiatives and supplement a $250 million federal grant in this area
These proposed additions to the FY 2015-2016 budget will be considered by the legislature in the coming weeks.
Tags: budget amendment, FY16 Budget, Governor Haslam, UT