State of the State of Tennessee (Memphis, Knoxville: sales, house, unemployment rate)

[leonard]

What is the financial condition of the State of Tennessee?

Does the State budget have a surplus, a deficit, in good shape or bad?

How is Tennessee doing as my State, California, is a mess.

[alleycat]

Tax revenues have been lower than expected this year, which has caused the state to reduced the funding of a number of departments; most notably in the governor trying to reduce the number of state employees by a couple of thousand (this is still being worked out) and less money for higher education.

However, there is a "rainy day fund" of millions of dollars of surplus that hasn't been touched. The state constitution requires a balanced budget, so Tennessee generally doesn't get in quite the financial mess that some states do. I believe the state's bond rating is something like the second highest rating (I could be wrong about that), which indicates the overall financial health is fairly good.

[jabogitlu]

Not completely sure but we aren't floating above the economic crisis. The University of Tennessee System and the Tennessee Board of Regents Universities have had their budgets cut overall by 10% this year, after reductions last year as well.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by leonard

What is the financial condition of the State of Tennessee?

Does the State budget have a surplus, a deficit, in good shape or bad?

How is Tennessee doing as my State, California, is a mess.

There are 12 US Federal Reserve Regional bank districts that you can look at here. It was last updated in September. Memphis, for example, is not in the same one as Knoxville. Click on the map for the one that interests you:

Fed: Economy has weakened as consumers turn cautious - USATODAY.com

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes monthly economic indicators by state. They are about two months behind but you can look at it to see how it's trending. Here's Tennessee's. You may want to compare it to California:

Tennessee Economy at a Glance

Note: If you scroll down you can look at different parts of Tennessee.

[jguillot]

Originally Posted by leonard

What is the financial condition of the State of Tennessee?

Does the State budget have a surplus, a deficit, in good shape or bad?

How is Tennessee doing as my State, California, is a mess.

The State of Tennessee does not have to spend billions of dollars on illegal immigrants like California does. Tennessee spends more wisely.

[hiknapster]

Note that Knoxville has the lowest unemployment rate at 5.4 percent.

[kamoshika]

Tennessee's in better shape than most states but is definitely feeling the ill effects of the national & global economic slide. On a per-capita basis, California's budget gap is about 10 times greater than ours.

State budget problems worsen

Tennessee faces continued budget crisis

Tennessee may tap reserve, cut budgets deeper

[Capt. Dan]

Tennessee doesnt have a bunch of silly commissions that require funding like California. Commissions that tell people what color they can paint thier house etc. Commissions that feed a billion ppm of mercury to rats so they can prove it causes cancer. {Tennessee already knew that] Just seems like Tennessee has a little more common sense when it spends $$. Although it would be hard to prove that while a multi million dollar hole is being dug under the capitol so the First Lady can entertain in style while thousands of children go without health care!

[Tony1790]

OK,

Just a dose of reality before this thread delves into a TN is great, no problems and california is a bunch of nut burgers...however true that may be

1. TN is laying off several thousand employees, cutting funding by 10% to higher education, among other things. Considering the smaller size of TN to other states I think those are significantly bad numbers.

2. TN is already millions behind on projected revenue, this is still early on in the fiscal year, this problem isn't going away, expect to see some for of "emergency" action by the state in the next few months. If that means another attempt at an income tax, who knows, but that would be my guess for the 2nd or 3rd action within the next 6-10 months.

3. TN is largely funded by sales tax, we are heading into a recession/depression on a global level, when people are losing their jobs, losing their life savings in the stock market and generally scared, what do they do with their personal financials....they consolidate, they withdraw....they spend less money and hunker down. That's what I'm doing.

4. TN is basically a poor state, it did poorly during the great depression and i imagine it will do poorly in relation to states with larger fiscal/financial pockets.

Now in comparison to Kalifornia, TN will do fine, Calif is screwed three ways to sunday with the illegals, the idiots running the state and the high, high, high paid state, county, city workers and their pending retirement accounts and falling, falling, falling home values.

Doesn't matter what state you live in, they all "project forward" on their spending plans and they've all been looking through rose colored glasses, now that the shiate has hit the fan, you'll see all sorts of "emergencies". Just look at the "emergency" to bail out Wall street bankers. We can't fix roads or give health care to people, but the tax payer can cushion the hard landing for some bankers and get NOTHING in return!

Take care, pull some cash out of the bank, pay off bills if you can, buy and store a little food and think about a plan B.

Tony

(I used to think I was paranoid, even I didn't think I'd see what has happened just this week to our economy and system of laws and finance)

[leonard]

I appreciate the reply's.

A States financial condition will be of interest to anyone moving there. Especially for anyone retiring as a fixed income suffers more if taxes are raised. I hope some can keep this thread alive as any new data comes through, especially on an income tax or other tax.