Together state and local governments wasted more than half a billion dollars in the last budget year, according to the annual ‘Pork Report’ from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. And the group’s director says frivolous spending is to blame for much of the state’s current budget debacle.
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is a free-market think-tank that bills itself as non-partisan. Director Drew Johnson says in 2009 state government squandered more than $200 million funding things like golf courses.
Johnson says the state owns 12 golf courses, and all but one lost money last year.
“This is a great opportunity to, without cutting very many state employees, cut a tremendous amount of money, and really show – be it the governor or state legislators – that they’re serious about cutting waste. The golf course is really the first place they should start.”
The report (pdf) says running golf courses cost the state over $2 million last year. Johnson slammed renovations to the governor’s mansion and art funding as well, saying that money could instead be used to preserve state jobs.
The report also calls upon lawmakers to establish a commission to plumb Tennessee’s budget for wasteful spending. But while Johnson argues the state wastes hundreds of millions, the current revenue shortfall is well over a billion.
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