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| Tenn. Governor Wants Department of Correction Budget Tightened |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/24/2003 |
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Nearly $30 million in budgets cuts proposed by the Tennessee Department of Correction didn't satisfy Gov. Phil Bredesen, because much of it depends on renegotiating contracts that aren't necessarily renegotiable. Also, Bredesen had asked for $35.6 million in proposed cuts. 'Let's get the numbers locked down a little tighter,' the governor said. Bredesen, who has been holding open budget hearings since last week, will finish them, then sit down and write the budget plan he must present to state lawmakers next month. The fiscal year begins July 1. 'My problem is - and it got worse this morning - we're spending more than we've got coming in. The plane is diving and I need to pull it up,' said Bredesen, a licensed pilot. He asked Correction Department officials to work with staff from his office and the Department of Finance and Administration to determine before the end of the week whether contracts to provide health care for state inmates, house state felons in local jails and run the state's prisons could be rewritten to help the state in the short-term. For example, contracts with Corrections Corporation of America to manage three state prisons and with Correctional Medical Systems, which provides health-care services to state inmates, all include annual increases to account for inflation. Bredesen was told there had been no effort to renegotiate the contracts and that the state doesn't really have any leverage to force it. 'We have to depend on their goodwill and desire to be part of a solution,' he said. Also on the table are contracts with counties that house state inmates. The state could save some $14 million by lowering the amount of money Shelby and Davidson counties are reimbursed, by capping the rate at $35 per inmate per day. Shelby County now gets about $50 per inmate per day and would bear the burden of the lost state revenue - some $12 million. Correction Commissioner Quenton White said that in the 61 counties that don't have contracts with the state, the reimbursement rate would drop from $35 to $29, which would save the state another $5.7 million. |
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