President Trump's first 100 days
- Congress OKs short-term spending bill, averting government shutdown over weekend
- Trump tells NRA: 'You have a true friend' in White House [video]
- Trump: National monuments a 'massive federal land grab'
- Local anti-Trump activists target state GOP elected officials
- Trump administration says Iran complying with nuclear deal
- Trump declares U.S.-Russia relations may be at 'all-time low'
- Gorsuch sworn into Supreme Court, restores conservative tilt
- U.S. strike on Syria is widely hailed, but angers Russia
- U.S. launches missile attack against Syria
- House intelligence committee chair steps aside
- White House says 'reality' changing with regard to Syria
- U.S. vows to uphold Russia sanctions until it respects pledges
- As GOP schism grows, Trump attacks fellow Republicans
- Trump revives threat to change libel laws
- Senate GOP needs Pence to break tie on family planning funds
- Trump administration seeks delay in ruling on climate plan
- Trump vows efforts to fight nation's opioid addiction crisis
- House sends bill to Trump blocking online privacy regulation
- House sends bill to Trump blocking online privacy regulation
- White House eyeing $18 billion list of social program cuts
- Watchdog to examine cost, security of Trump's Florida trips
- White House looks to bounce back after health care loss
- Trump signs legislation rolling back Obama-era regulations
- Trump's border wall with Mexico faces all kinds of obstacles
- Trump attacks conservative lawmakers over health bill
- Trump, GOP leaders pull troubled health care bill off House floor [video]
- Trump OKs Keystone pipeline, calling it 'great day' for jobs
- House GOP leaders delay vote on health care repeal bill
- Big GOP donors spending millions to stop Trump health care bill
- Trump feels 'somewhat' vindicated after Nunes intelligence briefing
- Comey: FBI probing Trump-Russia links, wiretap claims bogus
- GOP leaders propose health bill changes to help older people
- Trump to meet Iraqi premier as anti-IS policy takes shape
- Trump says Dems 'made up' allegations of Russia interference
- While Trump talks tough, U.S. quietly cutting nuclear force
- Trump says Germany owes 'vast sums' to NATO
- House panel gets Justice Department information about Trump's wiretap claim
- Trump would end subsidies for rural airline service
- Trump OKs changes in GOP health care bill, winning support
- President Trump, German Chancellor Merkel talk job training
- Trump's proposed budget features steep cuts to fund military, homeland security and aid veterans
- President Trump defends wiretapping claims at joint news conference with German Chancellor Merkel
- Trump budget cuts could cut $2 million of block grants for Chattanooga
- Trump pledges to fight 'terrible' court ruling blocking latest travel ban order [video]
- President Donald Trump speaks at rally in Nashville [video]
- Trump's first budget boosts military, cuts domestic programs
- Trump arrives at The Hermitage for historic visit to Andrew Jackson's home
- Trump announces challenge to Obama-era fuel standards
- White House meeting on Saudi underscores kingdom's influence
- President Trump to lay wreath at Andrew Jackson's 's tomb at Hermitage in Nashville
- Trump White House sees influence of shadowy 'deep state'
- Busload of local Trump supporters heading for president's Nashville rally
- Trump earned $153 million and paid $36.5 million in taxes in 2005
- 14 million would lose coverage under GOP plan, according to Congressional Budget Office
- Justice Department asks for more time on wiretapping evidence
- House committee wants evidence for Trump's wiretap claim
- Tax credits work differently in 'Obamacare' and GOP plan
- Trump administration dismissing congressional budget experts
- Trump on charm offensive with former rivals
- No more love for WikiLeaks from Trump after CIA hacked
- Trump's promises vs. the Republican plan on health care
- As president, Trump seeks answers on his own wiretap mystery
- New travel ban eases some legal questions but not all
- House GOP releases bill replacing Obama health care overhaul
- Trump tours private school in Florida, promoting choice
- Environmental programs face deep cuts under budget proposal
- Officials: New Trump order drops Iraq from travel ban list
- Trump looks to refocus his presidency in address to Congress
- Trump budget to increase defense spending by $54 billion
- Trump toasts nation's governors ahead of health care talks
- Trump condemns anonymous sources as staff demands anonymity
- White House bars major news outlets from gaggle
- A look at the legal path ahead for the Trump travel ban
- White House expects Justice crackdown on legalized marijuana
- Trump vows to fight 'epidemic' of human trafficking
- Conservatives learn dealing with Trump can be complicated
- Trump administration lifts transgender student bathroom guidance
- Millions targeted for possible deportation under Trump rules
- Trump Month Two: Talks on health care and on tax overhaul
- Trump praises new African American museum during first visit
- Trump denounces anti-Semitism in newly forceful condemnation
- Trump tries to move past controversies, toward legislating
- Revived by rally, Trump turns back to governing
- Outside of Washington, Trump slips back into campaign mode
- Trump gets out of Washington for campaign-style events
- Trump praises his 'fine-tuned machine,' says media dishonest
- Trump ushers in changes in Obamacare, could lead to higher annual deductibles
- A month into presidency, Trump prepares for a campaign rally
- Trump White House wrestles with a crush of crises
- Trump says U.S. will deal with North Korea 'very strongly'
- North Korean missile launch is Trump's latest test
- AP FACT CHECK: Are immigration raids result of Trump policy?
- Trump cites voter fraud in NH without providing evidence
- Trump says he might give travel ban a tweak or a makeover
- Trump responds to ruling on travel ban: 'SEE YOU IN COURT'
- U.S. appeals court refuses to reinstate Trump's ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations
- Trump says media 'doesn't want to report' extremist attacks
- White House expresses confidence travel ban will be restored
- U.S. judge temporarily blocks Trump's travel ban nationwide
- Trump moves to scale back financial regulations
- State Department says fewer than 60,000 visas canceled under Trump's order
- U.S. sanctions target two dozen people and companies in Iran following ballistic missile test
- Trump pledges to end political limits on churches
- Congress scraps Obama rules on coal mining, guns
- Trump tweets that Iran is 'on notice' for firing missiles
- Trump to Mexico: Take care of 'bad hombres' or U.S. might
- Trump praises Douglass, other famous African Americans
- Trump honors fallen Navy SEAL during unannounced trip
- Speaker defends Trump's order, warns of protests
- Local attorneys see widespread confusion over Trump's immigration order
- Trump supporters say they are happy with immigration order
- Veterans protest travel ban, saying it hurts interpreters
- Trump fires acting attorney general over executive order defiance
- White House: Immigration order 'small price' for safety
- Corker, Alexander call Trump's immigration ban 'poorly implemented' and 'confusing'
- Judge grants temporary stay after Trump immigration ban
- Trump's crackdown on refugees, citizens from 7 majority-Muslim countries takes effect
- Trump signs 'new vetting measures' to guard against terror
- Trump wants to slash EPA workforce and budget, official says
- Trump will pay for border wall with 20 percent tax on Mexican imports, spokesman says
- Trump poised to seek new military options for defeating IS
- Trump signals changes to U.S. interrogation, detention policy
- Trump calls for probe into unsubstantiated voter fraud claim
- Draft order would halt refugee processing for Syrians
- Trump intends to announce his Supreme Court pick on Feb. 2
- Trump warns he's ready to 'send in the Feds' to Chicago
- Trump moves to build border wall, cut sanctuary city funds
- EPA contract freeze, media blackout leave states confused
- Trump dogged by insecurity over popular vote, media coverage
- Trump moving forward with border wall, weighs refugee cuts
- Trump expands anti-abortion ban to all U.S. global health aid
- President Trump moves to advance Keystone XL, Dakota Access oil pipelines
- Trump administration places horse 'soring' ban on hold
- Trump tries to streamline manufacturing permits
- Trump moves to pull U.S. out of big Asia trade deal
- White House kicks off first full work day with daily briefing [video]
- Trump freezes new regulations until his administration can review them
- Trump signs first executive order
NASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Haslam says he and President Donald Trump are "100 percent on the same page" for the need for new spending on crumbling or new transportation infrastructure, but he doesn't think fellow Republican Trump's idea for public/private partnerships to finance the work will help Tennessee for one simple reason.
Tennessee pays for its road maintenance, improvements and new construction without taking on debt and resulting interest payments by issuing bonds. It's strictly pay as you go.
"We would love it where it came along the line of traditional 'x' cents per gallon and our portion of that money would come back to the state," Haslam said this week of the president's approach. "So far I haven't heard anything like that."
Rather, the governor noted, "I've heard of a lot [about] infrastructure projects that took the form of public/private partnerships, which is just another form of debt which we don't do in Tennessee."
During his campaign, Trump called for massive transportation investments, with new expenditures ranging from $500 billion to $1 trillion. But now as president he has expressed a preference for attracting the money from the private sector through financial incentives.
Investors would bid on a project that they would build and maintain for a set period, recovering costs through tolls paid by motorists each time they use roads and bridges or state payments.
In the meantime, Haslam has embarked on an ambitious transportation plan of his own to address a $10.5 billion Tennessee backlog of nearly 1,000 projects. They range from interstate expansions and new interchanges to state highway improvements.
It has at its core a proposal to boost Tennessee's fuel taxes for the first time since 1989. The state's gas tax would rise by 7 cents to 28.4 cents per gallon while diesel would increase 12 cents to 30.4 cents. Haslam says inflation has eroded what was 28.4 cents per gallon nearly 38 years ago to about 11 cents because of inflation.
The governor's proposed fuel increase would raise $227.87 million while other measures including a $5 to $20 increase in vehicle registration fees depending on vehicle type, a $100 fee on electric vehicles, a 3 percent charge on rental cars and 15 cents per gallon tax on natural gas- fueled vehicles.
The total package would raise $278.5 million more per year for the state plus new revenue through tying increases every two years to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation. Increases would be capped.
Tennessee's current $1.87 billion transportation budget relies on $1 billion from the federal government's own fuel taxes which are shared with states but haven't been increased in years.
"We agree there needs to be infrastructure work so the president and I are 100 percent on the same page," Haslam told reporters this week. "We would love it [a Trump proposal] if it was something that followed traditional revenue where states get 'x' percent of that revenue and we could count on that for our long term needs.
"So far," Haslam added, "we haven't heard anything along those lines."
At Trump's request, Tennessee has joined other states in forwarding a list of projects that are set to start if the money was available.
"I think their request to us was that can you us some examples of infrastructure projects that are ready to go - I don't want to use the old 'shovel ready' term - but projects that are ready to go," Haslam said. "So we forwarded those lists of big projects that we know we need and are ready to hit the ground running."
Tennessee has offered up seven projects totalling $1.1 billion.
If traditional federal revenue was forthcoming and the projects funded federally, Haslam said, "those could obviously come out of our project list."
Haslam's list includes U.S. 127 in Cumberland and Fentress counties north of Chattanooga. Planned improvements of the highway and bridges is projected at $159.4 million.
Other major projects on the state's list include:
- Alcoa Highway - Knox County/Blount County - $183.1 million
- Lamar Avenue - Memphis - $252 million
- I-440 - Nashville - $50 million
- State Route 109 - Wilson County - $18.5 million
- I-40 - Jackson - $66.3 million
- I-69 - Obion County - $236.7 million.