Dear Colleagues,

Last week I wrote noting that Tennessee was a little late this year...

The message is the same this week.

As you know from press reports, Governor Sundquist today vetoed the state's
appropriation bill.  Chattanooga legislators, like their colleagues across
the state, are divided on whether or not they will vote to override the
veto when they convene August 7th.

In the delay, we remain rather severely restricted to the "continuing, no
new revenue, no tuition increase" budget.  Consequently, until the
legislature and the Governor settle on a replacement budget, niether the
Board of Trustees nor UTC can move forward to consider allocations for 2001
- 2002.

Looking at potentials on August 7th, the Legislature could vote to override
and put the appropriations bill described earlier into law.  Or, the
Legislature could fail to override, leaving the severe continuation budget
in place and forcing serious cuts to nearly every state budget, certainly
including UTC's.  The Governor has indicated his veto was based on his
belief that the current appropriation bill was inadequate - and dangerously
underfunded even at that.  Perhaps that signals the Governor's wish or
liklihood to ask the legislature to consider again a re-examination of the
revenue structure in Tennessee as well as different appropriation levels.

The implications of the delay - not to mention the huge negative impact of
merely "continuing" with last year's budgeted numbers - require us to
continue for the time being the hiring freeze and delayed purchasing
implemented in June.  Only critical faculty and justifiably urgent support
positions can be requested at this time. Only purchases critical to opening
the academic year are possible until the budget is resolved.  Not resolving
the budget beyond the current "continuing budget" is unthinkable, but, of
course, we have to consider that possible disaster as well as possible relief.

We will have time to catch up on personnel and purchases after official
state budget action and after the Board of Trustees subsequently considers
our budget requests and personnel pay plans.

I will keep you informed as best I can.

Bill