Unconstitutional and Indefensible
The governor's proposed budget is $20.5 billion, a billion dollars more than last year. Since he took office, Gov. Sundquist has presided over average annual spending increases of almost $1 billion a year - the budget was $13 billion when he took office in Jan. 1994.

This year, the state is spending $19.48 billion, making the proposed budget 5.4 percent larger. Inflation over the past year has been under 3 percent.

Sundquist claims to have "cut" $400 million from the state budget since he took office, but the real truth is the budget has grown almost 58 percent since then - 7.25 percent per year or around $930 million per year - and the governor is asking for the largest tax increase in state history and an unconstitutional 3.25 percent flat-rate income tax to fund new programs and new spending.