http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=3650981

Bredesen says big issues loom in second term
Published 07/03/2006
By HANK HAYES -Kingsport Times-News

KINGSPORT - Gov. Phil Bredesen said in an interview last week that Tennesseans have been "very tolerant of the fact that I have had a lot of fix-it stuff to do" in his first term in office, but they expect him to deal with issues like illegal immigration and improving the state's education funding formula if he is re-elected.

The "fix-it stuff" Bredesen referred to included improving the state's financial situation and slowing down the growth of TennCare, the state's multi-billion-dollar expanded Medicaid program.

"I think (Tennesseans) expect a continuation of a number of things that were characteristic of the first term," said Bredesen, a Democrat elected in 2002. "I think they expect a continuation of good budgeting without major new taxes to support it. ... I believe they expect the continued focus on education. ... I think they expect as issues arise we will continue to address them, and that's kind of happening right now on the immigration issue. ... It has raised its head very strongly in the last six months. I think people expect that issue to be addressed."

Bredesen's likely GOP opponent in the November election, state Sen. Jim Bryson of Franklin, has taken the governor to task for "killing common-sense illegal immigration reform that would require the Tennessee Highway Patrol to turn illegal aliens over to federal authorities."

Bredesen promised he would have a plan to deal with illegal immigration.

"My whole political persona has been don't grab the first glittery thing that comes along, but try to understand the problem and how you can fix it," he said. "I'm working on what I want to do about this. ... I want to help solve the problem. We've done a few things so far, I think the most visible which has been to send out a volunteer call to the National Guard and make available about 100 troops (to help seal the U.S.-Mexico border)."

When asked if Tennessee has enough National Guard troops - considering that many have been deployed to Iraq - to deal with a disaster inside the state, Bredesen said "we're in trouble" on equipment needs.

"What's happened, of course, is that we've deployed a lot of people overseas," he said. "When that happens, they send their equipment with them. And probably quite sensibly, much of that equipment remains overseas rather than hauling it all back here. Since a lot of what the (National Guard) 278th (unit) has, for example, is the ability to do heavy engineering work, the loss of that equipment is a real blow to the state's ability to deal with a Katrina-like disaster. I have actually spent a considerable amount of time talking with people in Washington and talking with the Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) about the importance of putting some financial muscle into getting these National Guard troops resupplied."

Bredesen also said Tennesseans are expecting a "real hard look" at the Basic Education Program (BEP) that allocates state dollars to individual school systems across the state.

Northeast Tennessee lawmakers and school officials have often complained that moving BEP funding from a countywide to a fiscal-capacity funding model would rob them of millions of state dollars.

"It's getting long in the tooth, and the disparities are getting kind of obvious now," Bredesen said of the BEP funding formula. "It is a complicated formula. There are some areas of our state ... probably the loudest complaining is Hamilton County, they feel they just don't get their fair share. ... I think teacher pay needs to be even more fully incorporated into the BEP. ... I think that there are a number of additional obligations that schools have now that were not so prevalent when the BEP was originally embedded - specifically English language learners, at-risk students, etc. I think those need to be more fully incorporated in the formula."

Bredesen noted a simple redistribution of BEP dollars between rural and urban school systems wouldn't make political sense because there will be winners and losers.

"I also don't think you can turn to a school system and say, ‘Well I've changed the formula here. Now can we get $40 million less than you got last year?' " he said. "I think anything you do has got to keep it whole through the process and be something where you work your way through into a different set of formulas over a period of time. I've told local school boards and superintendents and elected officials ‘Don't get excited until you see what it is we're doing.' "