NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee conducted his Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Hearings on Tuesday, reviewing a wide range of requests from department leaders across the state.

The Department of Safety and Homeland Security asked for funds to improve bandwidth and driver services centers across the state, after department leaders said bad internet had prevented centers from being able to process licenses.

“We've had centers actually shut down during the day because they don't have enough bandwidth of internet to carry the system and to issue driver's licenses across the state, and it shuts down; it stops all the traffic in those centers. So we're trying to increase the amount of that so we have a better system,” Commissioner and Governor’s Homeland Security Advisor Jeff Long said.

DHS leaders also requested more than $5 million to help give drivers services employees step raises, amid those workers experiencing a 21% turnover rate.

In addition, the department is asking for roughly $19.7 million to increase starting pay for troopers. That would put Tennessee ahead of the starting pay for troopers in Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky. 

In addition, Tennessee Highway Patrol officials requested more than $3 million. That would go towards step raises for current troopers.

Here's what department leaders had to say about their call logs.

"Calls for service 2019, at the beginning of your administration, 441,000," Col. Matt Perry with the Department of Safety and Homeland Security said. "We had 961,000 calls for service last year, and that's everything that comes into a dispatch center... The ability to send troopers anywhere and everywhere at any time. We are at a place we've never been, and so a few more positions is going to get us that much closer to the perfect spot."

The THP currently has a little over 1,340 troopers, and the goal is to get to at least 1,500. The THP requested about $27 million to go toward hiring more staff.

Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Will Reid also requested funding. Without more funds, he said the state would have to choose between starting new projects and maintenance like filling potholes.

Reid said the TDOT relies on two major revenue sources to keep up with Tennessee's infrastructure needs: funds the department gets from the federal and state gas taxes.

However, department leaders said that with more fuel-efficient vehicles, those revenues haven't kept up with Tennessee's road demands.

Reid is requesting $500 million from the state to help keep his department running. But he also hinted at another possibility for revenue: expanding plans for toll lanes also known as Choice Lanes. 

"I would also mention that it's not just a project, it's a program," Reid said. "We have several other locations that we're looking at that we're showing good signs of being potential revenue generators and most importantly a key part of addressing the congestion issues we see across the state...."

"Without a change to sustainable funding going forward, we're going to be back at 2018 levels with a state that since 2018 has grown at over 6.5% in population," Reid said.

Reid said the federal gas tax rate was last raised in 1993, and the state's gas tax was last adjusted in 2017.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-news/tennessee-gov-bill-lee-conducting-fiscal-year-2027-budget-hearings/