More road funding plans are emerging to rival Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal that would include the state's first gas tax hike since 1989.
Republican Rep. David Hawk of Greeneville has released a counter-proposal to instead divert sales tax collections to the road fund. And the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a group that has fought Haslam on issues like Medicaid expansion, plans to reveal its own proposal on Thursday morning.
Haslam wants to raise about $280 million per year to tackle a more than $10 billion backlog in road and bridge projects around the state. The governor wants to raise that amount by hiking the state's 21.4-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline by 7 cents, and the 18.4-cent tax on diesel by 12 cents.
