Haslam budget cuts state jobs but includes raise

Gov. Bill Haslam’s first budget proposal eliminates nearly 1,200 government positions, gives a raise to remaining state workers and makes the deepest spending cuts in higher education and TennCare.
The new Republican governor’s $30 billion budget plan sticks close to the blueprint from his Democratic predecessor for coping with the end of $2 billion in federal stimulus grants that helped offset the steep revenue drop of the Great Recession.
The state’s revenue collections have improved in recent months, but the governor has said Tennessee’s finances won’t fully rebound until 2014.
One major change Haslam made in former Gov. Phil Bredesen’s cost-cutting plan would restore $30 million to keep open the privately-owned Whiteville Correctional Facility in Hardeman County. Bredesen had wanted to close the prison and move inmates elsewhere.