How Would You Pay To Fix And Build Tennessee Roads? Governor Tours State To Ask

Gov. Bill Haslam will launch a statewide tour next week to talk about Tennessee’s roads and how to pay for them.

The governor says the goal of the six-week tour is to find ways to address “challenges on the horizon.”

“Right now we have a multi-billion dollar backlog of highway projects across this state,” Haslam said in a press release announcing the tour. “That’s only going to grow.”

The move could heat up a simmering debate over highway funding. Tennessee has long been a “pay-as-you-go” state, meaning it doesn’t borrow to maintain or expand highways. Instead, it has to have money on hand to pay for projects.

That money comes almost entirely from the federal government and the state’s gas tax. But gas tax collections have stagnated because Tennesseans are driving more fuel efficient vehicles.

Haslam has said raising the gas-tax rate is a possibility but hasn’t committed to the idea. He’s describing the tour as a “discussion,” rather than a sales pitch.

The libertarian group Americans for Prosperity and many other conservative activists have said they would fight a gas-tax hike. The AFP launched a series of meetings earlier this summer and plans more in the coming weeks.

The governor will start his 15-city tour Aug. 5 in Memphis. The tour will include stops in Nashville, Franklin, Clarksville and Murfreesboro, and it will wrap up in mid-September.