The News You Don't Get To Read

Intrepid and dogged Nashville blogger Bill Hobbs noted last week that, once again, Tennessee is running a revenue surplus. As of December, the State has taken in $82 million more than expected! And we are only at the half-way point in the fiscal year.

I've waited all week to see if the local paper would print the news. Unbelievably, as of Sunday, they have not! If all you relied on was the Commercial Appeal for your news, you'd never know this important piece of political and governmental information. I find this shocking and depressing, to say the least. While they have space for all kinds of pictures of (hopeful) readers, they can't find time for something that you couldn't learn from other local sources!

Hobbs also did some further digging, contacting State Comptroller John Morgan, and learned that the surpluses are even more impressive. For this fiscal year, the State expects to run a surplus between $114 and $177 million dollars! For next fiscal year, the State is now expecting a surplus of $317 to $387 million dollars. Astonishing.

Bredesen is already making plans to spend the money, rather than take a more prudent approach. I have my own proposal, which I'll outline later this week.

And the Commercial Appeal didn't think you needed to know.