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NASHVILLE -- Gov. Bill Haslam's proposed 2016-17 budget calls for $35.9 million in spending to put UTC's old Lupton Library to new uses as well as well as renovate portions of the Chattanooga university's Fine Arts Center.
The project is among dozens the Republican governor wants to fund through use of $581.6 million from an estimated $850 million surplus of one-time money from Fiscal Year 2015, which ended June 30, as well as projected surpluses in the current 2016 budget.
Haslam's total proposal envisions at $34.8 billion budget for the fiscal year startingJuly 1.
In regard to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Haslam's budget specifically provides $28.43 million project, which would create a "student success center" in the former Vine Street library as well as new classrooms and other space.
Another $7.47 million would come from "other" sources believed to be from the UC Foundation.
The UTC project also includes improvement to the Fine Arts Center, located at the corner of Vine and Palmetto streets, which houses the 505-seat Roland W. Hayes Concert Hall, the 322-seat Dorothy Hackett Ward Theater and the George Ayers Cress Gallery of Art.
Last year, a UTC spokesman said that project would include technology and equipment upgrades for some of the staging areas and include areas like sound, lighting and electrical.
The governor's proposed capital project spending bonanza on new buildings and maintenance backlogs at existing ones also includes $54.69 million in upgrades for Tennessee state parks, where Haslam's efforts to privatize operations of some parks fizzled late last year amid would-vendors worries about huge maintenance backlogs.
Haslam's budget aims at addressing that. It provides $30.39 million for hospitality upgrades at two of the state's top state parks - Fall Creek Falls State Park near Pikeville atop the Cumberland Plateau and the Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns, Tenn., near Nashville.
Fall Creek Falls would also provide $3 million for a near visitor center for Fall Creek Falls.
Other proposals include a new $20 million "capacity fund" to support higher education efforts to meet the governor's "Drive to 55" program, which calls for 55 percent of adult Tennesseans to have some type of post-high school degree or certificate by 2025.
Programs supported by the fund would include programatic infrastructure costs, equipment acquisitions, renovations or expansions of existing facilities and program technology needs.
Haslam also wants $24 million statewide to continue his Empower TN initiative to push energy conservations and management in state buildings.
Other local projects include:
* $4.5 million in roof replacements at UTC.
* $2.73 million to replace the roof at the Mocassin Bend Mental Health Institute in Chattanooga.
* $500,000 for a roof replacement at Chattanooga State
* $750,000 for plumbing and sewer modernization at Cleveland State.
* $330,000 in classroom upgrades at Cleveland State.