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State spending cap may get makeover

March 21, 2013 7:49AM

TNReport.com takes a look at a bipartisan measure that would  analyze the “Copeland Cap,” which places a limitation on state spending growth. The online news bureau points out that the Beacon Center has pressed for the reforms that may be discussed by the state’s funding board.

Committee chairman Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said he believes adding a two-thirds House and Senate floor-vote requirement to override the cap would be a good place to start. That’s also an idea pushed by the free-market Beacon Center of Tennessee, which identified the “runaway spending” permitted under the Copeland Cap as an issue for lawmakers in its policy guide. “(A supermajority requirement) would allow lawmakers to curb spending, while still preserving their ability to raise needed funds in times of emergency or disaster,” the Center says in its guide. (See page 13.) The Beacon Center also supports tying the cap to population growth plus inflation, rather than personal income growth.

Read the entire article on the measure here.