(The Center Square) – Tennessee’s infrastructure needs for the next five years are at least $77.7 billion, with transportation and utilities accounting for more than half of that amount, according to a report.
The number is $9.5 billion, or a 14% increase from last year, says Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.
“The total cost of transportation projects increased by $4 billion (11%), largely because of new projects ($3 billion) and cost increases in existing projects ($4 billion),” the report said. “The increase was largely offset by $2 billion in completed projects, $441 million in cost decreases, and $166 million in canceled projects.”
Gov. Bill Lee included $1 billion in additional funds in his fiscal year 2026 budget for transportation projects. Another $80 million will be allocated from the general fund, using income from tire sales, the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee was told Tuesday by Finance and Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson.
Democrats have been critical of the Lee administration’s handling of infrastructure funding.
“Today, Tennessee has a $78 billion dollar backlog of infrastructure projects – roads, bridges, schools, water systems – critical investments that we cannot afford,” Rep. Johnny Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said in his prebuttal to Lee’s State of the State. “Republican fiscal mismanagement is so bad that they argued the necessity of toll lanes on state roadways just to pay for road projects.”
The education sector needs $18.9 billion, mainly because of the school renovations needed in the Metro-Nashville, Wilson and Rutherford school districts, according to the report.
The $12.4 billion needed for the health, safety and welfare sectors is driven by $484 for water and wastewater and $475 for law enforcement, the report said.
The remaining categories had less than $4 billion in deficits – recreation and culture ($3.4 billion), general government ($3.7 billion) and economic development $239.4 million.
The infrastructure challenges are not limited to the state’s larger cities, according to the report.
“In general, it has been the case throughout the history of this inventory that the more people living in a county and the more that population grows, the more infrastructure the county will need,” the report said. “However, relative to their populations, counties with small populations need just as much or more infrastructure than counties with large populations.”
The 279-page report breaks down the needs by county.