The latest attempt to patch the state budget may leak through again.
According to Rep. Larry Scroggs (R-Germantown), it’s too early to tell if the temporary sales tax bill will pass in the House.
The temporary 1 percent sales tax increase that would be enacted from Apr. 1 through June 30 has been postponed on its way to the House.
After being passed by the Senate, the bill then went before the Finance, Ways and Means Committee. Next, the bill has to be passed by the Calendar Committee before moving on to the House either this morning or Monday evening.
According to Scroggs, at least one day must elapse before a bill can move from the Calendar Committee to the House.
“After the bill goes through the Calendar Committee, both parties’ caucuses will determine whether or not they have enough votes to pass the bill on to the House,” Scroggs said. “Nobody wants to place the bill on the floor if there aren’t enough votes to pass it.”
Governor Don Sundquist said once the bill gets to him, he won’t veto it but won’t sign the bill either, so it may become law without his signature.
According to Scroggs, with bills as critical as this one, the House normally doesn’t take them up on Monday evenings, given some representatives’ tendency to change their position over the weekend.
In the end, two versions of this bill may end up going back to the Senate.
“The bill can be used as a vehicle to send a message to the Senate or as a vehicle to raise revenue,” Scroggs said.
The original version of the bill passed by the Senate would meet about half of the shortfalls in this year’s budget.
“By combining the revenue that this temporary tax would raise with all of the money in the rainy day fund, we would just cover the deficit for this year,” Scroggs said.
However, as with most tax increase bills, this temporary tax increase would most likely become permanent eventually, according to Scroggs.
Even with this permanent added revenue, the outcome is bleak for higher education.
“The revenue from this tax would create $7.5 million for the whole year,” Scroggs said. “This would be just enough money to maintain the current government operations and programs without any improvements.”
This means that the $4 million to 5.5 million improvement proposal that Gov. Sundquist signed for would be impossible, according to Scroggs.
“With the current costs and improvements taken into account, the cost is just too much more than the revenue,” Scroggs said. “Higher education funding would most likely be left where it is now, at 88 percent.”
According to University of Memphis President Shirley Raines, University administrators will continue to work with the government for the benefit of higher education in Tennessee.
In a press release, Raines said, “We encourage students, too, to tell their legislators how important sufficient state funding is, not just for higher education overall, but for students individually.”
