A Tennessee lawmaker says toll roads are not off the table in discussion to ease congestion across the state

Gov. Bill Lee says he’s heard all the complaints Tennesseans have about our roadways, and he says his main focus during his second term will be improving infrastructure.

“I hear about this everyday — whether it’s at a political event, a campaign event or at a meeting at my office or sitting around at your dinner table — I bet that you talk about the fact there is too much congestion, too much traffic and too many potholes,” Lee said in his victory speech earlier this month after securing another four-year term.

But doing so costs money, and Lee says he doesn’t want to raise taxes or build toll roads. So in the days after his speech, Lee met with the Department of Finance & Administration to go over the transportation budget. Officials explained that if no extra money is spent on infrastructure in the next 20 years, commute times will increase by 60% and an extra hour in drive time could be added to those traveling between major cities like Memphis and Nashville.

Currently, the state has around half a billion dollars to spend on new roadway related construction, and that money comes from the gas tax. But even that money, which hasn’t kept pace with inflation, is starting to dwindle.

Transportation officials claim as much as $2 billion a year is needed moving forward to ease congestion on roadways.

The lawmakers who oversee transportation haven’t ruled anything out. Sen. Becky Massey, R-Knoxville, is the chair of the transportation committee and says they have a lot of questions to answer and soon.

With revenue from gas taxes decreasing and Lee’s promise to not raise taxes or build toll roads Massey wonders how that can be done. For her, that means some sort of user fee may need to be put in place, such as tolls.

“We’ve got to start looking at how, as we move more toward the cars that get 60 miles per gallon, as we move toward more electric vehicles, how we’re going to fund our road going forward when our gas revenue is going down,” said Massey.

Massey says she became familiar with toll roads after her daughters moved to Texas.

“It was kind of almost like an optional road. It wasn’t the only way to get to work,” said Massey. “You know, you could get on the main interstate and not pay, and they’d take you over an hour to get to work, or you could get on the toll road and be there in 15 minutes.”

This idea isn’t new to Tennessee. In 2007, former Gov. Phil Bredesen signed the Tennessee Tollway Act into law. It allowed for a pilot project to be done allowing tolls on one bridge and one highway, but those never came to fruition and the idea has since stalled.

Massey says that doesn’t mean it can’t happen here, but that any pilot may need to start smaller. She says in Atlanta, for example, they have added what are known as high-intensity lanes to price the most congested roadways.

“And in that is like a toll lane that you could take. And, you know, almost if we ever did anything in that direction, I say that would be probably the first option,” said Massey.

Whatever the plan is, legislators will have the final say during the upcoming session. But it’s clear that while for Gov. Lee toll roads and tax increases are a no-go, lawmakers haven’t taken anything off the table just yet.