Since 1997 the state has been tracking local infrastructure needs from wastewater plants to roads to schools.
Now, for the first time, those needs have a price tag.
A new report from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovermental Relations, or TACIR, says the state needs 24-billion dollars in infrastructure improvements through 2008. Transportation accounts for 90-percent of those needs.
TACIR’s Lynnisse Roehrich-Patrick is the primary author of the report. She says half of the money is expected to be there.
“It’s not as though the other half is just not going to get done. It’s more a matter of saying, “Look folks, we need to be planning for this, we know that this need is out there, and if for example, the federal money dries up then we need to be thinking how it can be funded at the state and local level.”
Patrick says she hopes the report gets the attention of local leaders who have the power to get projects funded.
The report does show that most schools are in good physical and financial shape. Patrick says that is largely due to a legislative mandate to make class sizes smaller, which changed the funding formula to favor school construction needs.