Tennessee Legislators Say That One-Time Money Should Not Fund Ongoing Projects

Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov & Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce / Facebook

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

Even though the state of Tennessee has a budget surplus over $1 billion, state legislators from Hamilton County are warning against investing those funds into ongoing programs.

At a Tuesday Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce event, State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga-District 10) showed up wearing a tie featuring the Grinch.

“I wore this today because I know somebody here is going to ask for money,” Gardenhire told those in attendance. “I think one of the biggest challenges we’re going to have in the Legislature is how you allocate your money and balance your expenses with recurring revenue. Everybody wants a tax cut, but if we’re going to provide the services on a recurring basis to the citizens of this state, we’ve got to be careful how we spend our money and not spend one-time money on recurring projects.” 

According to State Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson-District 11), the state is dealing with increasing costs that come along with the increasing revenue. Inflation has led to the pressure to increase wages to maintain a staff of qualified employees in state government. 

Watson noted that the state is going to have to make “a substantial investment in our state employees to stay competitive in the marketplace.”

The state is also looking at increased expenses for road and building maintenance.

“Over the past two or three years, we have embarked on the largest capital improvement projects that the state has ever been engaged in,” Watson said. “Unfortunately, many of those capital projects have been influenced by rising building costs. The challenge of inflation is that it can appear to give you a rosier condition than really exists and it can make things cost more than what was originally budgeted.”

Currently, the majority of funding for road work comes from the state’s gasoline and diesel fuel tax. The state portion of the tax was raised in 2017 by then Governor Bill Haslam as part of his Improve Act.

Last week, Governor Bill Lee announced a potential plan to allow for toll lanes within the state. He stated that they were needed to help with traffic congestion in highly populated areas. Lee also proposed that yearly fees on electric vehicles be increased from $100 to $300 per year.

Watson noted that the amount seemed excessive but did concede that some increase was necessary to keep up with the continually rising costs.