Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Haslam Underwelms

The Nashville Post filed a story about Bill Haslam and the media tour that he hosted around the state following his announcement that he would be running for Governor. You can read the complete story, here.

Some snipits from the story are.

After saying Gov. Phil Bredesen "has done a lot of great things," ..
Haslam sees education as a top priority. He does not see a correlation between the dollars spent on education and outcomes.

Haslam would not commit to taking any kind of anti-tax pledge, noting that there are several examples of politicians who took such pledges only to recognize later they "weren't such a good idea."

Haslam demurred from offering specific areas of the state budget that needed trimming.

He noted that state officials continue to raise the tax rate while increasing areas that are exempt. Haslam would not commit to eliminating any exemption, nor did he offer up any potential eliminations.

Haslam was non-committal on other issues, too. While he was familiar with the Tennessee plan on judicial selection, Haslam told reporters he needs to study the issue more before he can offer a detailed position on how to deal with the sunsetting plan.

As for the controversial abortion resolution SJR 127, which would give the legislature the ability to outlaw abortion were the federal government to overturn Roe v. Wade, Haslam expressed sympathy with the pro-life cause but did not explicitly say he supported the measure.

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