NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Opponents of Gov. Bill Haslam’s transportation funding bill were outmaneuvered in the state House on Wednesday when the governor’s bill survived what was considered its toughest legislative committee.
Meanwhile, a rival measure was soundly defeated.
While the governor’s bill was amended to remove proposed fuel tax hikes, the bill remains in control of lawmakers friendly to Haslam’s plan to begin tackling the state’s more than $10 billion backlog in road and bridge projects.
The state chapter of the Americans for Prosperity brought in dozens of gas tax opponents wearing bright T-shirts, and a former radio talk show host pumped up the crowd alongside a mascot dressed as a gas can.
It ended up being for naught, as the dejected crowd watched Speaker Pro Tem Curtis Johnson, R-Clarksville, step in to break a 4-4 tie and send the governor’s bill to full House Transportation Committee.
Andrew Ogles, the state director of Americans for Prosperity, denounced the new version of the bill as a “Trojan Horse.”
“My guess is it will go back to its original form,” Ogles told the Chattanooga Times Free Press, adding that he would have hoped for the panel to kill Haslam’s bill in favor of the rival bill sponsored by Rep. David Hawk, R-Greeneville.
But Hawk’s bill, which would have dedicated 0.25 percent of all sales tax collections to road projects, was later defeated on a 5-3 vote. Hawk suggested in his comments that his approach was more straightforward.
“I’m a policy guy; I detest playing games,” he said.
Haslam spokesman David Smith called the vote in favor of the governor’s bill a “first step a thorough legislative conversation about how we as a state pay for our roads and bridges.”
Haslam and Senate Republican have expressed concerns about changing the state’s traditional way of paying for roads at the fuel pump, so it’s likely that his administration will try to bring back the fuel tax proposal down the road.
Under Haslam’s original bill, the state would increase the state’s 21.4-cent tax on each gallon of gas by 7 cents and the 18.4-cent tax on diesel by 12 cents. The bill would also increase taxes on cars rented in Tennessee and vehicle registration fees to add nearly $280 million per year in transportation funding.
The governor wants to balance that revenue increase with an equivalent amount of cuts in other areas, including the sales tax on groceries, the tax on earnings from stocks and bonds and corporate taxes paid by large manufacturers.
While Haslam’s legislation lives to see another day, there is a growing call among both Democrats and Republicans for the governor to include deeper cuts that will directly benefit middle-class Tennesseans.
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