Ramsey says cuts necessary to help Tennessee through budget crunch

[Old Coot]

Kingsport Times-News

JOHNSON CITY — Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey was in Johnson City on Thursday evening to speak at the Northeast Tennessee Republican Club’s meeting, at which the gubernatorial hopeful discussed Tennessee’s budget crunch and a couple of bills in Nashville.

For the current fiscal year’s budget that was passed last year, state officials estimated sales tax would grow 2.2 percent — the lowest amount of growth in several years — because they recognized the economic downturn, Ramsey said.

He also said franchise and excise taxes — the state’s second-largest source of income — was estimated as flat, with no growth anticipated. However, these adjustments were still not enough, Ramsey said.

“Not only is sales tax not growing at 2.2 percent like we had hoped for and budgeted for, it’s falling by about 6 percent — an 8.2 percent gap,” he said. “Not only is franchise and excise tax not flat like we had hoped it would be, it’s down by 23 percent.”

http://timesnews.net/article.php?id=9014149

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Ron Ramsey goes on to say that he intends to be the next governor.