Knoxville (WVLT) - Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has mixed emotions about the tax free holiday Tennessee held over the past weekend.

During these tough economic times, the governor told Volunteer TV he plans on changing the tax break's next year.

From all accounts so far the tax free holiday was a success in Knoxville and Tennessee as a whole.

"From all the accounts I've seen I think it was a good weekend," Bredesen said.

It was good for you and your family, but it didn't do anything for the state which is facing hard times.

"Very tough year, going to cut 500 million dollars from the budget, so I'm not going to be able to do much for anything as I want," Bredesen said.

And that means not doing as many tax free holidays as we have in the past. The tax holiday in the spring will likely be canceled for next year but the back to school tax holiday in the fall will remain.

"I think if we'd known last summer how bad it was going to be, we probably would have cut it back to one week this year," Bredesen said.

As for turning to the healthy rainy day fund during these tough financial times, the governor won't use it for anything but to close books or small expenses like that.

"Right now I just want to be very careful, very conservative about our money," Bredesen said.

But hopefully the economy will bounce back so we can see the return of both sales tax holidays and be able to keep our hands off the rainy day fund.

The governor says the slumping economy has nothing to do with Tennessee, it's just the state reflecting the national economic status.