Tennessee

As of July 7, 2022, Tennessee had reported 15,296 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days, which ranks Tennessee 16th-highest in the nation. Since the start of the pandemic, Tennessee has reported 2,136,213 total cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s 31,281 cases per 100,000 people, which ranks Tennessee fifth-highest in the nation for total cases.

As of July 7, 2022, Tennessee had reported 10,241,989 vaccine doses administered to the CDC. That’s 149,974 doses per 100,000 people, which ranks Tennessee 43rd-highest in the nation.

At the start of the pandemic, Governor Bill Lee issued a stay-at-home order. It began on April 2, 2020 and lasted 25 days, making it the third-shortest shutdown in the nation. Tennessee began its “phase one” reopening on April 27. In late September, Governor Lee lifted restrictions on businesses in most counties. In April 2021, the governor ended statewide public health orders. The state is now fully “reopened.” This paragraph was last updated on October 1, 2021. For the more information, please see the New York Times.

Tennessee’s private employment is up 31,500 jobs, or 1.2 percent, since January 2020. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data release, the mining and logging industry experienced the greatest percentage decline in employment across the state, reporting 2.3 percent (100) fewer jobs since January. The largest total number of jobs lost was 3,700 (1.0 percent) in the health care and social assistance sector.

The pandemic’s economic downturn had notably disparate effects on different workers, industries, and racial groups. For example, the accommodation and food services industry was hit particularly hard and unemployment rates were typically higher for Black and Latino Americans. Learn more about the variations in Tennessee’s finances, economics, demographics, and politics on it’s state fiscal brief page.

Tennessee’s Budget Actions

Governor Lee released his FY 2023 budget proposal and gave his state of the state address in January 2022.

Tennessee enacted its FY 2022 budget in May 2021. The enacted budget included $42.8 billion in total spending.

Under the American Rescue Plan, Tennessee will receive $3.7 billion in direct state fiscal aid and $1.8 billion in local government aid from the federal government. As of January 2022, Tennessee had spent part of its ARP funds on capital construction, broadband expansion, public health programs, economic development, and refilling its unemployment insurance trust fund.

According to NASBO, Tennessee’s recent expenditure totals (general fund spending/total spending, including federal transfers) were:

Tennessee’s total state tax revenue collections from the second quarter of calendar year 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 (combined) were 2.7 percent higher than over the previous (combined) four quarters. State tax revenue changes varied significantly across the states during this period, ranging from a 39.3 percent decline in Alaska to a 12.3 percent increase in Idaho. Overall, 18 states of 50 states reported lower revenue collections over that period in than the prior four quarters (download the state tax revenue data here).

Tennessee has not yet reported data for fiscal year 2020. (Tennessee’s fiscal year, like most state fiscal years, runs from July to June.) Most states experienced revenue declines in fiscal year 2020. A state’s tax revenue might be up, down, or steady depending on the prevalence of the novel coronavirus, the state’s major economic sectors, and its revenue structure, among other things. Additionally, while all states moved tax deadlines during the pandemic, different states reported this ‘shifted’ revenue in different quarters and fiscal years. This might also affect a state’s reported revenue growth.

Learn how to access and download state revenue collections data and revenue forecasting data for every state at the State and Local Finance Initiative’s data subscription page.

From January 2020 to May 2022, Tennessee lost 13,500 state and local public jobs, a 3.5 percent decline.