A lot has changed in Middle Tennessee’s cities, towns and communities since 1990. Tennessee’s fuel tax has not.
The Middle Tennessee Mayors Caucus met at the end of 2014 and took a hard look at how the state’s gas and fuel tax, which provides funding for transportation improvement, is stuck in 1990. Meanwhile, mayors are dealing with the realities of serving a fast-growing and booming region in 2015.
The tax is set at 21.4 cents per gallon and has been since 1990. From that 21.4 cents, 7.9 cents goes to local governments, 12.8 to the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the remainder to the state’s general fund.
Forty strong, the mayors’ group sees an urgent need for an increase in the tax to keep up with inflation and deal with transportation issues and has placed increasing the tax at the top of their legislative agenda.
Gov. Bill Haslam said (continue reading)