The state got word Tuesday that it would have to give up $190 million in transportation funds it had not yet contracted out to road builders. The federal highway bill expires at midnight, but state transportation officials are counting on a last-minute proposal to overturn the rescission requirement.
If the federal government kept the $190 million budgeted for Tennessee, projects all over the state would have to be reprioritized. Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Ed Cole says the regional planners for the state’s urban areas would lose the most. They’re called Metropolitan Planning Organizations.
“The MPO’s assemble project monies over several years, and so if they’ve been assembling money but have not yet obligated that money under a contract, for example to do a highway or a transit project, then that’s the eligible area for a rescission to hit.”
At least $30 million from the Nashville-area MPO is at stake. Director Michael Skipper says he hasn’t yet started the process to determine which projects will move to the backburner if the highway funds are lost.
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