NASHVILLE - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he believes he'll have the votes needed to pass his road funding bill today on the House floor, but fellow Republican opponents, who've filed dozens of hostile amendments, hope one will prove fatal to the gas tax hikes that would pay for it.
While alternately describing his administration as "optimistic" and even "confident," the governor also told reporters Tuesday, "I've learned enough in this instance, you never know how many votes you have until it goes up on the board.
"There's a whole lot of people who thought they had something passed and it didn't," Haslam added. "I don't have a specific number for you. It'd be speculative to say. But we're confident, we are, but we're obviously still working."
Haslam needs to get 50 votes to pass the bill in the 99-member chamber.
House Assistant Majority Leader David Hawk, R-Greeneville, opposes Haslam's plan to raise gas and diesel taxes, respectively, by 6 cents and 10 cents over a three-year period.
"Your guess is as good as mine" as to how many votes the governor will have for his IMPROVE Act, he said.
"I feel good," said Hawk, who plans to offer an amendment that would use existing sales tax revenue from new and used vehicle sales to pay for state and local road and bridge improvements.
Haslam and allies have spent much of their time in recent days seeking to persuade majority Republicans and minority Democrats to vote for the governor's IMPROVE Act, which seeks to raise gas and diesel taxes for the first time since 1989. It also would raise several fees.
The legislation seeks to raise $350 million annually to replenish the state's stand-alone highway fund where revenues are flat, plus help cities and counties with their road needs. But the bill also cuts three general fund taxes where revenues are flush.
Those reductions total some $400 million and include a 20 percent cut in the state's 5 percent sales tax on food sold in grocery stores. Another provision allows corporate manufacturers to take advantage of a new income formula. Yet a third continues reducing the Hall Tax on individuals' investment income.
Haslam and various advocacy groups say the new fuel tax revenue is ne cessary to tackle 962 highway and bridge projects totaling $10.5 billion.
The list of projects includes more than $400 million in Chattanooga and nearby counties.
But any sort of tax increase is meeting fierce opposition from a number of Haslam's fellow House Republicans, who hold 73 seats in the chamber (there's one vacancy). Senate majority Republicans, however, largely back the plan, having been instrumental in pushing Haslam to make the amount of general fund tax reductions greater than the fuel tax increases.
The result, Haslam and Senate GOP leaders say, is a bill under which the average Tennessee family would save a few dollars more per month beyond the additional money they would pay at the pump.
At last count Tuesday, there were 76 timely filed amendments to the bill, plus four filed after the 2 p.m. deadline. Two amendments were sponsored by Transportation Committee Chairman Barry Doss, R-Leoma, who is carrying the governor's bill.
A number of opponents' amendments resemble those filed by Rep. Dan Howell, R-Georgetown, who is trying to remove Bradley, Polk and Meigs counties, which he represents in part or entirely, from the fuel tax increase provisions.
Others' amendments seek to remove sales taxes on guns or ammunition purchases by various groups, including veterans. One Republican is seeking to eliminate the state's 5 percent sales tax on groceries completely. A Democrat wants to kill the corporate manufacturer and Hall Tax changes.
The list goes on and on and any amendment that is successful could land the bill in hot water, forcing it back to the House Finance Committee, a House and Senate conference committee or dooming it.
Some lawmakers hope to find something that can duplicate the oddball coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans that torpoeded the state's Common Core education testing several years ago.
If the House approves the bill in a shape Haslam and Senate GOP leaders can accept, the Senate could move to pass the measure later today.
"We can't come this far and then not decide," Haslam said. "And if we're going to decide, it needs to be a plan that adequately addresses our budget as well as our road needs. And, at the end of the day does what ours does: Biggest tax cut ever, larger tax cut at the grocery store than the tax increase at the gas pump."
Asked if he's engaging in any political horse trading, Haslam said, "No. There's obviously things where people, when I go talk to them, there's things they are concerned about. So we'll listen just like we would."
He noted "we obviously have an amended budget to come, which we're doing this time of year all the time. People come to me saying we'd like X, Y, Z. So we're not horse trading, but I'm listening as people come with needs for their districts, just like I have six budgets prior to this."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.