Tennessee Agency Recommends State Add Memphis-Nashville-Chattanooga Passenger Rail

Tennessee should move forward on plans to pursue a passenger rail line from Nashville to Chattanooga to Atlanta, according to a new report from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

The TACIR report asked the Tennessee Department of Transportation to move forward to determine the cost and engineering of adding that rail service.

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Tennessee Commission Reports at Least $62.9 Billion of Public Infrastructure Improvement Needs

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) announced last week the release of its 21st annual report on the public infrastructure needs across the state during the five-year period of July 2021 to June 2026.

The latest report, “Building Tennessee’s Tomorrow: Anticipating the State’s Infrastructure Needs,” indicates there is $1.2 billion or 2 percent increase over the year before. And while the costs have increased for the seven straight reporting period, they decreased when adjusted for inflation and population.

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Tennessee Agency Calls for $62 Billion in Infrastructure Spending, But Higher Taxes Unlikely

Members of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) on Monday published a report that called for nearly $62 billion in public infrastructure improvements throughout the state. This includes infrastructure for K-12 public school buildings, transportation and utilities, health, safety, and welfare, recreation and culture, general government, and economic development.

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Tennessee’s Estimated Infrastructure Costs Balloon to $58 Billion

The state’s necessary costs for infrastructure have ballooned to $58 billion for projects from 2019 to 2024. The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) issued the annual report on Monday. TACIR noted that the $3.8 billion difference from last year’s report marked a nearly 7 percent increase.

According to TACIR, the bulk of the increase – nearly $3 billion – came from transportation and utility needs, mainly for new road and sidewalk projects. Needs of the “general government” accounted for a majority of the remainder at $608 million.

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State Commission Report: State and Local Education Funding for K-12 Exceeded Basic Education Program Requirements by $2.1 Billion in 2017-18

According to a state commission report that studied education funding for fiscal year 2017-2018, the combined state and local government funding exceeded the Basic Education Program (BEP) funding formula by $2.1 billion.

The report, “K-12 Public Education Funding and Services,” was prepared by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) at the request of then Chairman of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee Charles Sargent in April 2018.

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State Sen. Gardenhire Wants to Create Incentives for Grocery Stores to Open in Urban Areas, So Called ‘Food Deserts’

  State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-TN-10) wants to boost inner-city and rural access to fresh food to fight “food deserts,” The Chattanoogan reports. Gardenhire made the announcement Monday to the Hamilton Place Rotary Club. The Hamilton County senator said he wants to provide incentives for grocery stores to open in the inner-city. The senator made reference to a Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations report from January that found 21 percent of Tennesseans live in an area considered to be a food desert. Fifteen percent live in an urban food desert, while 6 percent live in rural food deserts. The TACIR report is available here. Residents in “food deserts,” or areas with lowered access to healthy food, “tend to have a less nutritious diet and poorer health outcomes than those living in other communities,” the report says. Also, according to the report: While not always limited to food deserts, a variety of policy alternatives have been implemented in states and communities around the US to both improve access to and encourage the consumption of healthy food, including improving transportation to and from healthy food retailers, bringing the food to the customer through mobile markets or food delivery, providing vouchers for…

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