After deliberating on various budget amendments early last week, the Senate and House have both passed the budget for fiscal year 2024-2025.
A summary of the 52.8-billion-dollar budget and the sometimes contentious floor discussion are recounted in this Tennessean article. A more in-depth analysis of the base budget can be found in this Sycamore Institute summary.
The three components that will be reconciled to form the final funding document are:
- The governor’s original budget released in February 2024. (capital projects detailed on pgs A129-149) with $500M in capital outlay from state/federal/other funding and $129M from school bonds/other funding sources
- The administration amendment released in March with an additional $538M from school bonds, other funding sources (pg 4)
- The legislative amendment released last week with an additional $97M allocated for capital projects
Total state/federal/other funding for capital projects: $596,374,800
Total school bonds/other funding sources for capital projects: $666,302,000
Total combined capital outlay funding approved: $1.26B
One of the biggest pieces of Governor Lee’s legislative package was to expand a statewide school voucher program. After the House and Senate failed to find enough common ground between their respective approaches, the Governor released a statement this morning that the initiative will be punted to next session.
Also in play as the legislature works to finish this week is the final language for a franchise tax adjustment and refund that will require funding in the range of $800M to $1.2B. The specifics remain to be agreed upon as the House and Senate debate timing restrictions and transparency provisions.