Near-Record Revenues
Amid all the talk of "shortfalls" and "deficits," one fact remains curiously omitted from mainstream press coverage of the Tennessee budge debate: Tennessee tax revenue this current fiscal year will be the second-highest ever, and come close to matching the record revenue total set last year.

While the final numbers won't be in for three more months, the state has collected $6,168 billion in total tax revenues in the first 10 months of the year. That's $616.8 million per month, which is $4 million more per month than the state collected just two years ago - and puts Tennessee on pace to collect $7.4 billion in revenue this year.

That would be more than the $7.34 billion the state collected in fiscal year 1999-2000, just two years ago. That, incidentally, was the first year Tennessee tax revenue ever topped $7 billion.

Last year, FY 2000-01, the state collected a record $7.63 billion.

This year, Tennessee is on pace to once again top $7 billion in tax revenue and at the very least Tennessee will, when the books are closed on this current fiscal year, have enjoyed its second-best year ever for tax collections.

With the economy recovering in the nation and across Tennessee, it is not impossible that revenue in the last two months of the fiscal year could improve on the $616.8 million per month average so far this year and push the total toward last year's record.

The fact that revenue is off a bit compared to last year's record is not a major shock. As everyone knows, Tennessee and the nation have endured a mild economic slump. The good news for Tennessee taxpayers: all that mumbo jumbo about the tax code being obsolete is pure malarkey. Ignore the games the administration plays comparing actual revenue to fuzzy "estimates" - the state's tax code provided a record revenue last year. And this year, despite the economic slump, it will provide the second best revenue total in the state's history.

The tax code is healthy. It's the spending code that needs reformed.