75th Anniversary Annual Convention
September 12, 2005
“Safely Keeping Tennessee on the Move”
Good morning, and thank you for the kind introduction, Dave. Dave Huneryager is my kind of guy. He got farther with Roadway Express than my father did. Dad was with Summit Fast Freight out of Akron, Ohio and, at one point, was offered a job with Roadway by Gaylon Rauch, but he had to move to St. Louis to do so, and my mother ultimately changed “their” mind about moving.
Chairman – elect Pat Quinn: It is a real coup for Tennessee to have a Tennessee trucker assuming the helm of the American Trucking Association during the coming year, and I certainly look forward to working with you.
I appreciate the opportunity to address you particularly in light of some recent developments which should underscore the importance of your involvement at the state level. I encourage you to get involved, if you’re not already, and to maintain contact with your state elected officials.
The Tennessee Trucking Association’s motto is "Safely keeping Tennessee on the move." As Chairman of Transportation and Safety, I feel right at home with that. I want to talk with you briefly this morning about the legislative outlook for the General Assembly in 2006 because I intend to keep your motto in the forefront.
I want to talk about 3 things this morning: 1) our road fund and the importance of restoring it; 2) the gas tax and the importance of rejecting a moratorium on it; and 3) the importance of emergency preparedness in Tennessee.
Keeping transportation and safety in the forefront won’t necessarily be easy. Corruption in government and the need for ethics reform will doubtless dominate the headlines. The ongoing plight of Tennessee’s victims of TennCare will continue to torment all of us who do care.
But Tennessee’s other essential needs cannot go unmet. Tennessee truckers know better than most what our roads mean. One in twelve Tennesseans is a trucker. Some 193,000 men and women deliver 85% of household goods alone in this state. Trucking is a $6.3 billion industry in Tennessee.
That is one reason why it is so crucial that we restore full funding to the road fund. Since Phil Bredesen took office, more than $217 million generated from user fees for transportation have been diverted for needs other than transportation. At the same time, Tennessee’s infrastructure needs have continued to grow and have increased by $7.8 billion (57%) to $21.6 billion. According to the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations on which I have served during the period in question, the largest increase in need during this time, from $8.3 billion to $9.1 billion, has been in transportation and utilities. Transportation needs alone represent $8.1 billion (about 38%) of Tennessee’s total infrastructure needs.
We are falling behind in Tennessee. Much of this is attributable to the transportation needs of local governments which were also hit hard by the Governor’s decision to withhold state shared taxes. We have 14,162 miles of roadway to maintain in Tennessee, and over 8,000 bridges, not to mention rest areas and weigh stations.
On the more positive side, the federal Transportation Equity Act recently signed into law by President Bush was the result of many years of effort by elected officials at all levels. In the final analysis, thanks to Senators Frist and Alexander, Tennessee is guaranteed growth in federal transportation funding of not less than 19%. But that increase will require increased state matching funds if we are to take advantage of it. Now is the time to budget for the increase in state matching funds which will be required if we are to embrace this opportunity to invest in the future.
By the same token, we must resist politically motivated, short-sighted efforts to impose a 30 day moratorium on the gas tax. 47% of TDOT’s annual funding comes from the State User Tax – just under $710 million. The governor has taken as much as $65 million of that revenue per year for needs other than transportation. Most of that revenue is needed each year for highway safety, maintenance and traffic operations improvements. Even though we had a net surplus in revenues for the year just ended, user tax revenues came in under budget. So we cannot afford to fall prey to politically expedient calls to suspend these revenues at a time like this. It would be penny-wise and pound-foolish to do so.
Today’s Memphis Commercial Appeal editorial calls for a 30 day moratorium on the state gas tax. The net effect would be a drop of about .50 cents a day for the average Tennessean, but it would amount to a loss of as much as another $50 million from the road fund. Thus, under our current budget, we could lose over $100 million this fiscal year alone. That’s too much give for too little get.
I understand that fuel prices affect your business. They are about 10% of the overall cost of delivering goods. Even though you can pass that cost on to the consumer, I want you to know how much we appreciate your cooperation in helping us address fuel conservation and air attainment standards by working with us to reduce the speed limit to 55 mph in urban areas this year. During the year ahead, I want you to know that we will work with you to address problems for your industry created by split speed limits and lane restrictions. The safety aspect of split speeds and lane restrictions, particularly coupled with Tennessee’s “move over” initiative, is a real concern.
And I ask you to work with me in making a serious effort to utilize alternative fuels in Tennessee, like BioDiesel, which I have worked hard to encourage since I came to the Senate 5 years ago.
Finally, when it comes to safety, no one can deny the importance of emergency preparedness in the wake of the Gulf Coast disaster. The question on everyone’s mind is whether we are better prepared today than we were before 9/11?
Last week, I wrote Governor Bredesen about the need for us to work together in a concerted effort to improve communications and coordination of incident management and response in Tennessee.
In 2000, and again following 9/11, the General Assembly recognized Tennessee’s vulnerability to a wide range of emergencies, from natural disasters to terrorist attacks, and updated our statutes governing emergency management responsibilities and powers. Among other provisions, an Emergency Management Plan was required including a chain of command, systems for coordinating volunteers, establishing systems for communication including computerized telephone emergency warning systems, and to ensure the availability of equipment and supplies.
When I became chairman in January, I met with administration officials and requested a copy of the Emergency Management Plan. It never came. My office did some research and found an electronic version of a plan which to my knowledge has never been circulated. It is nearly 500 pages in length. It took hours just to print it off the computer. A plan such as this is no plan at all.
Last week, one of Tennessee’s first responders from Task Force One returned to West Tennessee from the Gulf Coast. He has a story to tell of needs to be met. He said when he arrived there were no boats to be had for the rescue effort. So they commandeered private boats. But then there were no paddles. So they used 2 x 4’s. And when he arrived home, he realized there are no boats in Memphis either. And he wants to tell his story.
So we will hold hearings to listen to the men and women who are in the best positions to know what we can only fear, and that is that we are not prepared to meet the challenges which lie ahead. But we will get prepared. And we will get the tools to do the job the way it will have to be done.
Let me conclude by saying, as we look ahead, there is an awful lot of hard work to be done and difficult days to endure, much of it having nothing to do with transportation. I have already introduced legislation to address immigration reform, protection of private property from government takings, tort reform and property tax relief for senior citizens. But as your Chairman of Transportation and Safety, rest assured that nothing will be more important to me during the coming year than working with you as, together, we safely keep Tennessee on the move.
