Toll roads could be in Tennessee future, say chairmen

BILL HILES
StateGazette.com
October 26, 2005

Tennessee’s two legislative transportation chairmen each said Monday they would entertain the idea of toll roads in the state.

“I have no problem with toll roads because they’re user fees in which a motorist decides to pay a toll to drive on a better road,” said Rep. Phillip Pinion, D-Union City, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. “I think toll roads could be a good idea if a community wanted to connect to another community and the traffic count on the state road between the two didn’t have a traffic count high enough to warrant an improved (state) road.”

“I’m interested in discussing the issue as part of the state’s long-term transportation plan,” said Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee. “I’d certainly entertain the idea.”

Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely said last week he wants the state to consider building toll roads, but he first has to persuade Gov. Phil Bredesen that motorists should pay tolls on top of state and federal gasoline taxes that total 39.8 cents per gallon.

Nicely said for-profit private corporations would operate and maintain the toll road. "Within the next two to three years, we're going to have to make some hard decisions on how we're going to have to finance our system for the next two decades," Nicely told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

"I think we need to start talking about them right now," he said. "I don't think (we need to be) necessarily jumping into them in the next year."

Some other states, including Texas, Florida and Virginia, already are using or considering such options to pay for new roads.

Pinion said he fears the state gas tax will be insufficient to fund the state’s road program in a few years.

“I don’t ever want to see all our roads as toll roads, but we may be facing a crisis in road funding in a few years and I don’t see any will to raise gas taxes,” he said. “Our gas taxes are declining because they are per-gallon, and high gas prices are causing people to buy less gas.”

Norris said he hopes a full discussion can take place to fully air pros and cons of building toll roads. “I don’t know what the governor’s reservations are. I’d like to hear them.” He said he expects the issue to be debated during hearings on the long-range transportation plan after the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Nicely said financing options such as toll roads will be "a major piece" of transportation plan discussions.

Tennessee lawmakers would have to approve building toll roads or any "public-private partnerships" contracts with corporations to buy rights of way (and) construct and maintain new roads for at least several years.

Such corporations typically use toll revenues to pay off construction costs.

Pinion said there would need to be a provision where the roads revert to state ownership after 20 or 30 years, but the state might then contract with the private corporation to maintain the roads.

Nicely said the proposed "Orange Route" beltway around Knoxville would be a good candidate for a public-private partnership.

Georgia is one of 20 states with laws allowing some form of private investment in roads. No projects have been approved under Georgia’s 2003 law, which allows private companies to propose road and rail projects.

Norris said he has met with Nicely and other TDOT officials about building new roads as toll roads. "They’re open-minded, as am I, to the idea," he said.

Gas tax revenue alone may not be enough to pay for the roads that will be needed in 10 or 20 years, said Norris, who co-sponsored a bill during the last session to build a toll bridge connecting Hendersonville and Nashville. That bill died in committee, as did another bill to study the feasibility of using a toll road to fund the U.S. Highway 64 bypass through the Ocoee Gorge.

Toll roads have been pitched before. Legislators in 2004 proposed turning part of U.S. 64 in Polk County into a toll road, and building a new, 300-mile, four-lane toll road connecting Nashville and Johnson City. The latter project carried an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. Both bills died in subcommittees.

Public-private partnerships had mixed results in Virginia, where they have been used most frequently, according to a study released in January by the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The road-building projects proposed under that state’s 10-year-old law have been funded mostly through tolls and tax money, not private investments, the study noted. Jim Regimbal, author of the study and a principal with Fiscal Analytics Ltd., said public-private partnerships aren’t a bad idea, but states shouldn’t look at them as the main source of funding for new roads.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.