We’ll learn which highway projects Governor Haslam will fund over the next 3 years on Thursday

March 31, 2016

Collins Parker,

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Republican Gov. Bill Haslam is releasing his plan for road construction in Tennessee on Thursday.

The governor tells reporters that the plan will identify the specific projects that will be funded in the next three years.

Haslam has been making a case for increasing the state’s gas tax for the first time since 1989 as a way to help cover a $6 billion backlog in transportation project funding. The governor has said that roads cost three times as much to build than when the tax was last increased, and that drivers pay less because cars get much better fuel mileage.

But lawmakers have been reluctant to take up the measure in an election year, and the governor has acknowledged that a gas tax is unlikely to be considered this year.