McCormick says state may consider new road debt before increasing gas tax

House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, addresses the House chamber in Nashville on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, about a bill to extend in-state tuition to non-citizen students who are lawfully present in the United States. The bill ultimately fell short by a single vote.
House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, addresses the House chamber in Nashville on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, about a bill to extend in-state tuition to non-citizen students who are lawfully present in the United States. The bill ultimately fell short by a single vote.

Tennessee House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick says the state may consider new road debt before it increases road taxes. And he says the state is researching "some reaction" to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage.

Speaking to the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club on Monday, the Chattanooga Republican said something must be done to ensure the state's roads and bridges are in good shape.

Tennessee has historically been a pay-as-you-go state with regard to transportation projects, and it has paid for projects from funds raised by the state gas tax. But the 21.4-cents-per-gallon tax hasn't been raised in 25 years, and vehicles have become more efficient.

photo State Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga

At the same time, federal highway dollars are waning for the Volunteer State.

An Associated Press report this year showed Tennessee's piece of the Federal Highway Trust Fund went from $110 per capita in 2003 to $145 in 2008 and back down to $132 in 2013.

"We have always paid as we went. Some states issue bonds for these things - I don't know if we want to do that. I'm not advocating that, but it's something we need to consider before we go for a big tax increase. And it would not be a penny increase, it would be a very large increase," McCormick said.

Gov. Bill Haslam said in February he would wait until the next General Assembly session before he proposed legislation to deal with transportation funding.

And using bonds was one of the options listed in a state comptroller's office report.

Comptroller Justin P. Wilson said early this year his office wasn't making any recommendations, only suggestions.

"I think there's an acknowledgment of the issue, and I think it's widespread in the General Assembly," Wilson said. "But we have yet to coalesce around a solution."

McCormick also told the Pachyderms state legislators have formed an ad hoc committee to research the state's next move after gay marriage bans were struck down by the Supreme Court last month.

The group is being lead by Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Juliet, "to determine what we could be done about it, short of an armed revolution," McCormick said.

He said the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was passed in 2009 under Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, should allow religious leaders to decline performing a same-sex marriage on religious grounds, but there are many others in the wedding business.

"If we think we can accomplish something and help people from being in a position they don't want to be in, especially our county clerks, we will try to do that," McCormick said.

In an interview after the meeting Monday, McCormick said last month's other high court ruling on the Affordable Care Act - and the subsequent Nashville visit by President Barack Obama - likely will not make passing Haslam's Insure Tennessee program any easier.

The program aimed to tap federal dollars under the Affordable Care Act to extend health insurance coverage to an estimated 280,000 low-income Tennesseans.

Republican-led Senate committees killed the proposal twice last session.

"Maybe that will take away one of the objections of the opposition, but there are others," McCormick said.

Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrog don@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.

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