Gov. Bill Haslam says a plan to pay for roads won’t be at the top of his list of priorities for this year’s legislative session.
Despite two tours of the state to highlight the need, Haslam says a proposal will not be in his annual batch of bills when it’s released next week.
State lawmakers have begun floating their plans to pay for roads. Those include raising the registration fees for alternative vehicles and diverting sales tax revenues off of tires.
Haslam says those are just short-term fixes. But he’s not ready to offer the legislature a long-range plan.
“I think there’s some more education that has to happen before we can get enough people in the legislature comfortable that this is the right thing to do for now.”
Haslam says the state needs to find new revenue sources or raise its tax on gasoline, which currently brings in about $300 per driver each year.
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