AGA’s 2015 Professional Development Training

David Thurman
Director, Division of Budget
State of Tennessee


David Thurman has been with the State of Tennessee for twenty-seven years. He began his career in 1988 as a budget analyst and had an opportunity to be involved in the development of the funding formula for K-12 education, which is still in use today – 23 years later. In 1995, he was hired by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission as the Director of Higher Education Budgeting. As director he was responsible for developing appropriation and tuition recommendations for each of the higher education institutions. In 1998, the General Assembly, in an effort to establish their own resource for fiscal and budget issues, created the Legislative Budget Office and recruited David to help staff. He served as a legislative fiscal analyst for ten years until promoted in 2007 to Director. In 2011, he returned to the State Budget Office as director. David has a BS degree in Finance from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from Middle Tennessee State University. He and his wife Jill have been married for 20 years. They have two sons and make their home in Nashville.

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