Gov Lee On Investment Into Tennnessee Tech In Proposed Budget

Governor Bill Lee’s proposed budget has over $100 million allocated for Tennessee Tech capital projects.

Lee said those projects include a new construction manufacturing engineer building and renovations to Johnson Hall.

“The future of our state lies in our children, and our young people including those making their way through our universities,” Lee said. “Tennessee Tech is a significant educator and a very important university in our state system.”

Lee said the principals of the state budget are the same as a business. Lee said the state can spend these significant investments by not getting ahead in reoccurring spending.

“If we structure it right, it allows us to spend the significant surpluses that we have, but it doesn’t set us up for reoccurring burdens on our balance sheet as it were going forward,” Lee said. “You have to be very thoughtful about how you spend this kind of significant surpluses of money without burdening future generations.”

Along with capital project investments, Tennessee Tech will benefit from a four percent salary pool increase. Lee said through the budget, he wants to retain educators.

“The only way to do that is to make sure pay is appropriate for one thing along with a lot of other investments that we make in our education,” Lee said. “We’ve fully funded what’s called the outcomes based formula. Basically, we’ve fully funded our public higher education institutions. We have increased the HOPE scholarships amount.”