(The Center Square) – Tennessee Democrats and Republicans joined together to support a bill that would allocate $80 million from the tire tax to fund road improvements.
The bill passed its final legislative hurdle Tuesday with a unanimous vote by the Senate after a unanimous vote in the House on Monday.
Gov. Bill Lee added $1 billion to the general fund budget as a first step to overcoming a $30 billion backlog of road projects that built up over decades.
“We have worked to maintain our roads and our bridges and our highways,” Lee said in response to a question from The Center Square. “We have not spent the money that we need to to expand those. We put a strong effort in maintaining, which is why we have a good road system that people are fairly satisfied with. We have congestion however and that has to be addressed.”
The Department of Transportation relies on the gas tax to fund roads.
“Inflation eats up the increase in time,” Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, said of the gas tax during a discussion on the floor. “Having a regular, additional source of funding from the general fund is very, very helpful.”
The allocation from the tire fund will increase to $95 million in the next two years. Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said the issue will be waiting for lawmakers when they return next year.
“I don’t think we should confuse ourselves that we are making a long-term fix here,” Yarbro said. “We’ve never been in a situation where we’ve been dependent on the general fund to fund our roads and we don’t want to be in that situation.”
