Times-Free Press Endorses Bredesen for Re-election
From the Chattanooga Times-Free Press: Tennessee’s Democrat Gov. Phil Bredesen deserves re-election on the basis of his very fine service in many respects during his first term in office. Gov. Bredesen entered office four years ago with the daunting task of balancing Tennessee’s budget — without a tax increase. He did it in a reasonable and efficient way. Tennesseans have strongly and correctly indicated they do not want to adopt a general state income tax in any form. Gov. Bredesen has adopted that point of view, says he does not propose a state income tax and does not expect any such issue in a second term.
Gov. Bredesen was able to bring much-needed major reform in the workers’ compensation law. It had been costing Tennessee businesses far too much. Worse, it was discouraging new businesses from coming here and providing jobs, and was threatening to drive some existing businesses out of our state. Gov. Bredesen was uniquely able to correct this as a Democrat with the Legislature under Democrat control.
Gov. Bredesen’s biggest test has been dealing with the horribly out-of-control costs of TennCare, our state’s substitute for Medicaid, for the medically indigent. He has had limited success in this — but not because he didn’t try. His initial effort was sound — cut off none of the one-fourth of Tennesseans on TennCare, but put reasonable limits on doctor visits, hospital days, prescriptions, etc. But that sound approach was blocked by lawsuits and hecklers. So he has done the best he could with other adjustments. While they are not as good as his initial plan, they are better than most alternatives.
The governor has been a friend to business, industry and economic growth, working to bring new business investment and new jobs to Tennessee.
The biggest challenge remains to provide adequate, fair state funding for K-12 schools and for higher education. Both are undernourished, and both suffer gross inequities. We hope Gov. Bredesen will devote his primary emphasis in his second term to alleviate these problems.
For example, Chattanooga and Hamilton County, like other populous metropolitan areas, pay big sums in state taxes — but get back too little for education. Of the 136 school districts in Tennessee, Hamilton County gets least (about $2,200 per pupil), compared with the rural district that gets most (about $4,400 per child). This terrible inequity is a result of rural dominance of the Legislature, lawsuits that got more money for rural schools and a badly flawed Basic Education Program fund distribution formula.
Major reform is demanded in the name of fairness and educational success.
Higher education funding changes are needed, too. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, for example, is compared with a list of alleged “peer” universities (which are not really comparable), then their funding is averaged and UTC gets less than the average. That’s ridiculous.
There surely will be some old problems continuing and some new ones arising in the governor’s next term, but education adequacy and equity should get first priority.
If Gov. Bredesen were running for a national office, with issues quite different from those within Tennessee, we are sure we would have some strong philosophical governmental differences. But since he is dealing primarily with state and not conservative-liberal issues, we believe he will continue to handle them well.
Gov. Bredesen has several insignificant challengers in the August Democrat primary, and will surely prevail, on merit. Republicans will select their gubernatorial nominee in August to challenge Gov. Bredesen in the November general election.
Monday, June 26, 2006
