Rep. Marc Gravitt told members of the Pachyderm Club on Monday that he supported the IMPROVE Act, that raised the gas tax while cutting the food tax, because it provides so much help to his District 30.
He told the club that when he considers legislation he looks first at the effect on his district, then on the county, then on the state as a whole.
"It includes seven projects that we desperately need in District 30, including the redesign of the I-24/I-75 split, which will be over $66 million. It is the number one project in the state. It is the busiest intersection in the state of Tennessee with over 100,000 vehicles passing each day."
He said the seven projects total over $212 million.
Rep. Gravitt said he was not in favor of the transportation bill when it included "indexing" that would gradually raise the rate. He said if indexing had been in place when the last gas tax went into effect in 1989 that the tax would now be 39 cents instead of 21.4 cents.
He noted that the bill includes a $100 per year charge for owners of electric vehicles, which he said will require them "to pay their fair share."
On the school bus seat belt bill he said he got advice from a relative who is a school bus driver,asking "who is going to be responsible for seeing that the children buckle up?" He said the driver has other duties - mainly driving safely, and he said adding bus monitors would be very expensive.
The speaker said the relative also mentioned the fact that in a fight children may use the metal end of the belt as a weapon.
And he said it would be dangerous for children to be strapped in during a fire on the bus.
But he said Governor Bill Haslam seems intent on getting some form of the bill passed.
Rep. Gravitt said most groups he speaks to almost all in the audience start out saying they are in favor of seat belts on school buses. But after they hear some of the cons, many change their mind. He said he was surprised that many in the Pachyderm Club started out opposed.
The speaker said Tennessee for the second year incurred no new debt, and the rainy day fund was increased to over $800 million.
He said TDOT has now been fully repaid for money the state had to borrow during a recession during the Bredesen administration.