Tennessee House panel approves Haslam's transportation funding bill

NASHVILLE - After two weeks of delay and open confrontation, a key Tennessee House panel this afternoon approved an amended version of Gov. Bill Haslam's proposed roads bill, complete with a 6 cent per gallon tax increase for gas, 10 cents on diesel and a 20 percent reduction in the state's 5 percent sales tax on food.

The full Transportation Committee's 11-7 vote came following an often-heated 90-minute debate in which some hard-right majority Republicans joined with Democrats in attacking portions of the plan.

Some GOP members wanted to avoid raising fuel taxes and instead break long-standing state tradition and divert existing sales tax revenues into Tennessee interstates, highways and bridge improvements and maintenance.

Minority Democrats, meanwhile, blasted Republicans' inclusion of tax cuts for corporate manufacturers and payers of the state's Hall Income Tax on interest and dividends, saying they wanted further sales tax cuts on food and chargig Haslam, Senate Republicans and House Republicans with favoring the rich instead.

Read more: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/politics/state/story/2017/mar/21/tennessee-house-panel-approves-haslams-transportation-funding-bill/418810/