DALLAS -- Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam will not ask the General Assembly to increase the state's fuel taxes in the 2016 legislative session despite a highway project backlog estimated at more than $6 billion.
Haslam traversed the state in fall 2015 with a 15-city speaking tour to drum up support for more transportation funding, including increases in the state's 21.4 cent per gallon gasoline tax and the 18.4 cent tax on diesel. However, he said Friday that a fuel tax increase will have to wait until 2017 or later.
"We are not going to propose a bill this year to raise taxes," Haslam said in a television interview on WKNO-TV. "I've said and I'll continue to say that needs to happen in the next two to three years. I'm willing to carry that banner while I'm governor."
Haslam, a Republican, was re-elected to his second and final four-year term in 2014.
The gasoline tax is the most reliable source for additional highway funding, Haslam said.
"At the heart of it, what you pay for a unit of fuel – you're going to have to do something along those lines," he said." "There's no magic bullet out there. At the heart of it you are still going to have to have some way you pay per the fuel you buy."
Vehicle fuel economy has increased 20% since the fuel tax was raised in 1989 and is expected to improve by another 50% over the next 20 years, according to a recent University of Tennessee study.
"That [commercial] truck that used to get four miles per gallon now gets eight miles per gallon," Haslam said. "Anybody can figure out that, long term, that won't work."
A survey in November by Vanderbilt University found that 66% of Tennessee voters would support a 2 cent per gallon increase in the gasoline tax, 54% would pay an additional 8 cents, and 46% were willing to pay an additional 15 cents.
The UT study found the state's gasoline tax is the 12th lowest in the nation and the fifth lowest in the Southeast. In that region, only South Carolina generates less per year from its diesel tax than does Tennessee, researchers said.
The state has a backlog of $6.1 billion of highway and bridge projects that have been approved by the General Assembly but not yet funded, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said last year.
In November, Haslam added to that backlog list $5.4 billion in potential new projects identified by the highway department to address growth and safety issues as well as several projects suggested by local government officials.
The backlog includes 181 projects that will not be completed or under contract until 2034, and 765 new project needs that cannot be considered until 2022 at the earliest.
Measures introduced in the General Assembly would raise Tennessee's vehicle registration fees by $150 per year for electric vehicles and $75 for hybrids, and dedicate revenues from the state's 7% sales tax on tires to the transportation fund.
Meanwhile, more than two dozen groups testified last week before the Missouri Senate's transportation committee in support of proposed increases in that state's gasoline and diesel tax.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Doug Libla, chairman of the transportation panel, would raise the gasoline tax by 1.5 cents per gallon and the diesel tax by 3.5 cents. Both fuels are currently taxed at 17.3 cents per gallon.
A separate bill would add 7 cents to Missouri' fuel tax, but that would require statewide voter approval.
