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Teachers, state workers won't get raise, Haslam says
State dealing with budget shortfall
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NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam said Monday he won’t be able to give state employees and teachers a pay increase next year mainly because of reductions due to an ongoing decline in revenue collections, which state officials are evaluating.Haslam said poor revenue collections are forcing him to make $150 million in reductions for the remainder of this budget year that ends June 30, and $160 million for next year. Sales tax collections have fallen short by $33 million, and franchise and excise taxes — also known as business tax collections — are down $215 million.The governor said state officials are investigating to try to find out why collections continue to fall short of projections.“It’s our job to be digging to try to figure out if something changed fundamentally about that business or have they found a way to lower their tax payments to us,” Haslam said.Despite the low revenue collections, Haslam said he expects about $73 million in new revenue growth, of which $62 million will go to education.