Ramsey favors gas tax hike as part of comprehensive plan

With gas prices dropping, the economy doing better and Gov. Bill Haslam moving into a second term, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville,agreed the timing could be right to raise the state's gas tax.

However, he doesn't support just raising the tax and not coming up with a comprehensive solution to fix the system for funding roads. And getting a comprehensive bill this session, regardless of whether the timing is good, is unlikely, Ramsey told reporters Thursday.

"I am not in favor of just raising just the gas tax. That does not solve our problem. I'm looking for a long-term solution," Ramsey said.

"It's going to take a very comprehensive bill. The timing is good...but can we have that comprehensive bill ready in time? I don't know."

Tennessee taxes 21.4 cents per gallon of fuel -- Ramsey likes to call it a "user fee" and not a tax -- and provides the state more than $650 million a year, according to the state Department of Transportation. That amount hasn't gone up for almost 25 years, and Haslam recently said a raise must happen at some point in order to address future road projects.

"There's no way the state can continue on the path that it's on, it just doesn't work," Haslam said in early December.

"We're evaluating our needs, and is this the right time to do that or not? I mean I think anybody would tell you we can't keep doing it; I think the question I think in Tennessee for the last several years has been, 'At what point and time do we have to do that?' We obviously don't want to do that until we have to."

Ramsey said everyone agrees building and maintaining roads is a core function of government. But creating a bill that does more than raise the gas tax -- he didn't elaborate on what "comprehensive" might look like--by the end of session "will be the challenge," Ramsey said.

The state also heads into the year facing the potential for budget cuts. Haslam has asked all state agencies to present budgets with a 7 percent cut; he recently told Senate Republicans he hopes they won't need to cut that much, but there will certainly be some cut.

Ramsey applauded the governor's approach to the budget and recognizing cuts are sometimes necessary.

"I admire him for that. That ought to be something you do every year, even in good times, is look at cuts to see if you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing. Every business should go through that, every family should go through that," Ramsey said.

The new legislative session starts in January.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.