FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 12, 2010

ROBERTS: LEGISLATORS SPENT RAINY DAY FUNDS BEFORE THE RAINS CAME
Springfield – Kerry Roberts, Republican candidate for Congress in Tennessee’s sixth congressional
district, said today that budget votes in past years by state politicians are why the state government
won't be able to afford much in the way of flood relief this year.

Roberts urged Republicans in the state legislature to reject Gov. Bredesen's budget proposal to spend
$15 million on buying land for parks and “preservation of wetlands” and divert that money to flood relief
and recovery. Tennessee only has about $17 million on hand for helping local governments in Middle
and West Tennessee with their share of disaster-related costs, far less than the likely actual costs, and
in the last three years state government increased spending excessively while reducing the state's re-
serves.

“Spending $15 million for park land and wetlands preservation when 42 counties - including eight in
the Sixth District - are federally-declared disaster areas due to flooding is just wrong,” Roberts said.
“Thousands of Tennesseans, including many in the Sixth District, are facing a long and costly recovery
because of the flood, and state government is already going to be very limited in what it can do to help
because of excessive spending in recent years.

“My opponents in this race – state senators Diane Black and Jim Tracy – have repeatedly voted for
state budgets that spent too much and saved too little, and now the state faces big budget cuts and
very limited resources for flood recovery,” Roberts said.

Records show that since Black's arrival in the state House in 1999 and Tracy's arrival in the state Sen-
ate in 2003, they each have voted for a series of state budgets that, collectively, spent $1.6 billion
more than allowed by the state constitution's provision restricting the annual growth of the state
budget. By ignoring the spending limits, they have voted for $1,667,300,000.00 in annual recurring ex-
cessive spending – money that could have been saved in the state's emergency reserves. The state's
reserve fund has dwindled from $750 million in 2008 to just $335 million at the end of the current fiscal
year.

“Reserve funds are often called 'Rainy Day Funds,'” said Roberts, a Certified Public Accountant and
small business owner. “Now, with thousands of Tennesseans enduring a real disaster caused by too
much rain, it's clear that Senators Black and Tracy made a mistake in spending that money rather than
saving it for a rainy day.”

Eight counties in the Sixth District are federally-declared disaster areas because of the floods: Clay,
DeKalb, Jackson, Macon, Robertson, Rutherford, Smith and Sumner.

Learn more about Kerry Roberts at www.kerryroberts.com.

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Contact: Kerry Roberts for Congress, 615-469-7351

Paid for by Kerry Roberts for Congress, Inc.