Norris, Pinion Say No to Further Transportation Cuts

State Gazette, By John Leeper
March 12, 2006

AS HEADS OF TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEES IN SENATE AND HOUSE, STANCES OPPOSE GOVERNOR 

          State legislators Mark Norris and Phillip Pinion said Friday they would fight Gov. Phil Bredesen’s decision to transfer additional dollars out of the transportation fund, given the state’s growing infrastructure needs.   

          Republican Sen. Mark Norris and Democratic Rep. Phil Pinion met with local government and business leaders at the Lannom Center Friday morning for a legislative breakfast.  Both men chair transportation committees in their respective legislative bodies. 

          “The state is about $26 billion in arrears on infrastructure funding,” Norris said.  “We’ve fallen $8 billion further behind in roads over the last three years.” 

          Pinion pointed to a number of critical road projects affecting Dyer County that needed to be undertaken or completed for the sake of economic development and public safety.  At the top of his priority list were Interstate 69 and the widening of Highway 78 between Dyersburg and Tiptonville into a four-lane.  Both of these thoroughfares are critical to the economic success of the new river port at Cates Landing in Lake County.  He believed it was time for the state to finish construction on Route 104 to Trenton and to widen 211 between Dyersburg and Newbern to account for the increased traffic load brought about by Dyer County High School. 

          “That is a matter of public safety,” Pinion said. 

          Another project he wanted to see get under way was widening Route 77 that goes from Newbern to Dyer.   

          The transportation program in Tennessee is funded by state highway user taxes and fees, which are dollars collected from vehicle registration fees and taxes on gasoline and diesel, and federal funding.  No money from the state’s sales tax is used in any of the programs of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. 

          Since the mid-90’s Tennessee’s highway program has been debt free.  There are no bonds on which to pay interest.  The last bonds for highway purposes were sold in the 1960s.  This conservative approach to funding the highway program is often referred to as a “pay-as-you-go” program.

          Norris pointed out that since Gov. Don Sundquist’s administration dollars have been removed from the transportation fund and applied to other state needs.  He said that on average that amounted to about $65 million a year. 

          This year, Washington law makers threw the state’s transportation committees a curve when a Defense Department appropriations bill rescinded about $60 million in federal revenues that TDOT would have received. 

          “This was done in December, halfway through the budget year,” Norris pointed out. 

          Norris said he had informed Bredesen through a letter that he did not believe it was wise to dip into the transportation fund this year. 

          Norris admitted that Tennessee’s federal funding has improved overall with passage of the new national transportation bill.  The tax collected at the gasoline pump by the federal government is 18.4 cents per gallon.  Tennessee only received about 78 cents back for every federal dollar collected.  Under the current federal transportation act, Tennessee receives about 90 cents back for every federal dollar sent to Washington from Tennessee motorists.  Overall, Norris said it amounted to an approximate 10 percent increase over the next eight years.