Blog-Running on Empty: Tennessean Gas Tax Story Rife With Misrepresentations

BillHobbs.com   
December 4, 2006

State Sen. Mark Norris wasn't the only person whose views on reforming the state's gas tax were grossly misrepresented by Tennessean transportation reporter Kate Howard in a story published in Thursday's edition. Comments by Drew Johnson, director of the Tennesse Center for Policy Research, also were taken out of context in order to portray Johnson and the TCPR as favoring a plan to tax Tennessee drivers by the mile driven rather than by the gallon of gas, and to monitor drivers' mileage via GPS tracking. Johnson tells BillHobbs.com he stressed to Howard that he and the TCPR were fully opposed to such a plan. Howard's original story implied the opposite.

Howard's original story has since been pulled from the paper's website and replaced with a shorter story, but thanks to Google, I located the original version on the website of WBIR-TV. Here's how Howard portrayed Johnson's views:

The idea of a program that would ensure money goes to highways is attractive to Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. "It would be positive if money meant for the road fund will go toward the road fund instead of general needs, as it has been," Johnson said.

Johnson says Howard took what he said out of context. He writes:
The "State could require drivers to pay gas tax by the mile" article that appeared in The Tennessean and has drawn the ire of Sen. Norris also portrayed the Tennessee Center for Policy Research's view of the scheme incorrectly.

As I told the author, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research opposes a "tax by the mile" plan. Truckers and tourists who, along with state residents, cause wear and tear on our roads currently pay their fair share for road repair and construction since they pay the gas tax when they fill up (just like Tennesseans do when we fill up in other states and then drive on their roads). Unless the "tax by the mile" were a federal mandate requiring sensors be put on every car in America (a terrible idea from a big brother/government tracking aspect), the idea is completely unfair to Tennesseans. Tourists and truckers would no longer be paying their share into the highway fund and the residents of the state would have to pay much more in road-related taxes to offset the fact that non-Tennessee resident would no longer be sharing the burden of funding road work.

The author asked if there were any benefits from using this "tax by the mile" scheme. I told her that the only problem with the current gas tax is that the highway funds generated by the gas tax are raided to offset general fund appropriations. If the "tax by the mile" scheme stopped that, and all of the gas tax money went to fund road projects, then I'd be relieved in that one regard. From that statement, readers were led to suppose that the Tennessee Center for Policy Research supports this dodgy highway funding proposal.

My quotes have since been removed from the online version of the story.
I want to stress that the Tennessee Center for Policy Research unequivocally opposes the idea of forcing Tennesseans to pay gas tax by the mile. The scheme would increase the tax burden of all Tennesseans and potentially compromise civil liberty. We hope instead that the Governor and his administration and the Tennessee General Assembly will end the practice of pilfering money from the highway fund to offset waste in the state government's general spending.

It's clear that the The Tennessean owes both Sen. Norris and Johnson an apology and a complete retraction of the story. The paper also owes readers an apology for a story that was, to its core, false.