The Lee Administration released its amendment to the 2024-2025 fiscal year proposed budget. The amendment adjusts the governor’s original proposal based on the state’s revenue trends. Along with most of the key UT investments the governor proposed at the beginning of the year, the amendment adds authorization language and additional funds to
support UT partnerships.
Additional investments include:
- $6.5M recurring to build out a dental clinic in Kingsport, TN that will expand service
opportunities for the Healthy Smiles Initiative led by the UT Health Science Center. In
partnership with the Tennessee Department of Health, the Healthy Smiles Initiative
works to address the current shortage of dentists in Tennessee and improve health
across the state by making dental care more readily available. - $2.5M non-recurring for TNGO (Transportation Network Growth Opportunity). In addition
to the director position approved in the governor’s initial budget, these programmatic
funds will strengthen Tennessee’s economic development strategy to attract more
research and development, engineering, and innovation jobs that will leverage UT’s
researchers, graduates, and innovation assets in sectors such as mobility, defense, life
sciences, and quantum. The University of Tennessee served as an initial architect and
advocate for TNGO. - Authorization for the UT Knoxville campus to use its own money to complete the
planning and design phases for a new chemistry building, which will help ensure there is
no delay with the project.
Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson presented an overview of
the revised budget to both Senate and House Finance, Ways, and Means Committees today.
He highlighted how the FY25 budget is significantly smaller than the budgets from the previous
three years, which experienced massive surpluses in tax revenue and historic amounts of
federal flow-through funding. The Commissioner shared that this year’s budget is more
conservative due to state tax revenues returning to “normal.” The legislature will now consider
the Administration’s proposed budget in the coming weeks, and the University will continue to
advocate for our top budget priorities to be included in the final budget.
