In the popular words of the day, Bredesen’s…chickens…are coming home…to roost!

Pastor always said that sin was fun for a season.  And the spending orgy that took place last year was indeed politically euphoric for so many who really don’t like to think about what happens down the road.  And so the taxpayer tree has not yielded the fruit Bredesen wished for.  And the tobacco juice didn’t bring in the dollars the way those who think you can tax your way to prosperity thought it would.  

The clouds have moved in.  Talk of $550 to $650 million less than projected.  And the bunker building continues.  Will it be finished in time for a going away party for laid off state employees?

From the Nashville City Paper:

“I think we can do it in a way that’s not terribly painful for a lot of people,” Bredesen said of the layoffs. “But I’m just going to have to step up to that issue and deal with it.”

Pay raises for state employees, originally proposed at 2 percent, are already off the table, Bredesen said, saying he wouldn’t “lay somebody off and give somebody else a pay raise in this environment.” 

Yes, we can’t give somebody else a pay raise in “this environment.”  But let’s walk down memory lane and look at the environment just a short while ago:

Nancy Amons of News Channel 4 WSMV in Nashville blows the lid off of Bredesen’s payroll.

A Channel 4 I-Team investigation has discovered that while TennCare was cutting 170,000 people’s health coverage, it has been giving raises and promotions to its top officials.

Our I-Team investigation found that as the number of people on TennCare was shrinking, TennCare’s payroll actually increased by $3.5 million. Also the number of administrators making more than $100,000 a year has doubled in the last three years.

And:

From Tom Humphrey:

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen announced salary increases of up to 63 percent for top state government officials Wednesday, saying the new rates make their compensation “a little more reasonable.”

and:

For Goetz, that means a $32,412 annual pay raise, or about 21 percent.

For Seivers and Kisber, the increase is $69,336 per year, or 62.63 percent. They would have been making $110,664, including a 3 percent pay raise for all state employees that took effect on July 1, without the increase.

And:

By JESSICA FENDER
Staff Writer

Top Tennessee officials’ paychecks now outstrip those of their peers in neighboring state governments by as much as $62,000 a year, according to data from a nonprofit study group.

And:

Oh yes, Tom Humphrey gets the best stuff:

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen defended the pay raises already granted top state executives Tuesday and said Deputy Gov. Stuart Brunson is an “obvious” candidate for one of the salary increases to come in the near future.

“I just need to put my head down and take the criticism, get it done and get it over with,” Bredesen said at a news conference where questions focused on pay increases already announced and those to come.

“Just because it’s politically difficult to do, these salaries have been depressed,” he said, contending that “a number of my commissioners” would have left their jobs before the end of his gubernatorial term without the increases.

And:

Bredesen Pork Proposals Raise Questions of Political Payoffs
Half billion dollar giveaway of tax dollars favor campaign contributors, cronies
NASHVILLE – Nearly every proposed private, nonprofit and non-governmental recipient of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s last minute half-billion dollar budget request have ties to the Bredesen administration, according to an examination by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

Governor Bredesen’s 2008 Budget.  Real Budget or Wish List?

Little Phil said he wants a bunker, a Pre-K expansion, some pork…