Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam wasn’t ready to say the state has recovered from the recession. But his $31 billion budget proposal outlined in the Monday, Jan. 30, State of the State address included a robust building program mixed with state pay raises and plans to cut more than 1,000 state jobs.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam delivered his State of the State address this week. A number of his proposals impact Memphis’ higher learning institutions.
(Photo: AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Two of the city’s higher education institutions got important capital commitments in the proposal.

And Haslam devoted more of his speech before the Tennessee Legislature to higher education than he did to K-12 education reform, which took center stage in his first State of the State address a year ago.

Haslam’s budget includes $264 million for capital outlays in higher education that were among the first victims of the recession. With the outlays came a cautionary note from Haslam that college and university presidents must work to keep tuition rates “to a minimum.”

There is $13.2 million for the University of Memphis, which breaks down to $4 million for the second year of the U of M’s operation of Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn., and another $8 million for building maintenance on the Memphis campus.

The budget also includes $1.2 million toward planning and design of the university’s new biology facility. The university wants to continue its move toward a higher profile as a research university.

Haslam will be on the University of Memphis campus Friday, Feb. 3, for a Greater Memphis Chamber luncheon.

Also in the budget: $21.7 million for a new patient diagnostic simulation center at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Other West Tennessee highlights include $25 million in funding for the West Tennessee megasite in Haywood County, the last of the three state-designated sites that is undeveloped. The state hopes to lure a major manufacturing business to build a factory on the land, and the legislature approved one for each grand division of the state.

“It’s critical that we finish the infrastructure,” Haslam said of the state funding for the megasite.

He and his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, have each been criticized for not committing to infrastructure up front as the state tries to lure an industry to the site instead of waiting for a tenant to commit and then providing the funding for infrastructure improvements.

Haslam confirmed his belief in the use of state “fast track” grants similar to those used in Memphis economic development projects in recent years as he announced the budget proposal the legislature is now considering includes an additional $70 million in the grants.

Haslam also said he is loosening some of the ground rules for use of the money to allow the state to respond more quickly and in a more flexible way as economic development opportunities arise.

On the K-12 education front, Haslam said he saw “no good reason to wait” on moving ahead with plans for new teacher evaluations as the state continues to research and weigh which evaluation models work the best.

And he linked the reforms in hiring and retaining teachers with a broader call for changing the system of hiring state employees.

He complained of a state hiring and promotion system in which state employees can move too freely from one department to another. As a result, the number of state employees can’t be reduced beyond a certain point. He called it “an antiquated system that limits who we can hire.”

Haslam announced a “salary survey” that will take a new look at how much state jobs should pay and compare the pay to wages in the private sector.

Haslam said state revenue projections are “just now recovering” to 2007 pre-recession levels.

His budget proposal would restore $100 million of the $160 million worth of funding cuts in “core services” designated two years ago during Bredesen’s administration.

But Haslam held to his belief that even with a recovery from a recession, state government will change the way it operates.

“Our role in state government is to provide services that Tennesseans aren’t able to get on their own – we build roads, offer higher education options, guard prisoners, help families adopt children, care for the mentally ill, patrol highways, serve veterans and perform hundreds of other services,” he told the legislature. “My job as governor is to make sure we are providing those services in a customer-focused and effective way.”