12/29/2003

No red or Persian carpet for us - To help decorate and to cut down on the wear and tear, we recently bought a 4' x 6' area rug for the entrance way to our Nashville office. Please note, it's not red and it wasn't purchased at some fancy decorators. In fact, Sharon went shopping and spend $123 at The Salvage Store in Nashville. Now, that's how to spend public funds.

Budget Cuts - Governor Bredesen has asked all state departments including us to prepare for a 5% budget cut in FY05. That's not 5% of our entire budget, but 5% of our state funding and that's about $74,000. So far, we are going to be able to fund this cut from the growth of other revenue sources. This would include the local share of the state sales tax, codes fees, and training fees. Last year this wasn't possible because the sales tax was also cut. The upshot is that while we won't be able to restore any of the positions we lost last year, but we shouldn't lose any more this year.

With that in mind, I think I can fairly say: