TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Apr 27, 2020

Finance Commissioner Butch Eley announced a state hiring freeze in a memo to department heads today, the Tennessee Journal reports. Departments are also instructed to put off equipment purchases not related to the COVID-19 response or work-from-home initiatives. Exceptions include “mission critical areas necessary for the public welfare.” Promotions, demotions, and transfers within agencies are not covered by the freeze unless they lead to an increase in the employee count. Eley writes that the “economic effects of the worldwide public health crisis brought on by COVID-19 will ripple through the state’s economy and have a negative impact on the state budget” thereby requiring “each agency begin to restrain discretionary spending … until further notice.”