WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Bredesen to offer buyouts to 2,000 workers

Bredesen to offer buyouts to 2,000 workers

Governor Phil Bredesen announced plans in a press conference Wednesday to offer buyouts to 2,011 state employees.

The governor now says $468 million must be cut from his budget plan announced in January.

Last week, he had talked about layoffs but now thinks he will be able to trim the state's workforce by 5% through the buyouts.

Bredesen said it is anticipated the buyout will save $64 million in salaries next year.

He could not yet say what would be in the buyout package but said they will run into the "tens of millions of dollars" and the amount for each worker will likely be based on how many years of service he or she has.

State reserves will cover the cost.

The state will begin to offer the buyouts in June and target the 6,000 or so state employees with at least 30 years of service.

If not enough workers take up the offer, involuntary cuts will follow.

47,000 people are currently employed by the state of Tennessee.

Officials with the Tennessee State Employees Association praised the decision to make the buyouts voluntary which will help avoid navigating through the state's complicated civil service rules for laying off workers.

To come up with the other $400 million needed to fill the deficit, Bredesen identified several areas where money he wanted to add to next year's budget will have to be trimmed; $55 million from higher education, $86 million from kindergarten through twelfth grade and $25 million from pre-k.

Bredesen also hopes to save 1% to 2% across the board in various state departments.

He also plans to slow the expansion of the "medically needy" category of the state's Medicaid program "TennCare."

He, however, could not attach a dollar amount to either.

While critics have said the state's $750 million "rainy day" reserves should be tapped into, Bredesen said he's against that move for fear the budget picture could get worse in the future.

Bredesen will present a more detailed revision of the state's budget plan in an address to lawmakers on Monday.