What happened: The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR), a nonpartisan research organization formed by the General Assembly in 1978, reported Jan. 2023 that the state has $62.9 billion in unmet infrastructure needs – a $1.2 billion increase year over year.
Why it matters: The number is taken from a five-year inventory of outstanding projects (July 2021 through June 2026). The Transportation and Utilities category topped the list of unmet needs at $35.2 billion (an increase of $750 million from the previous year). The TACIR report follows the recent announcement of Gov. Bill Lee’s (R) “Build With Us Initiative” in Dec. 2022, which outlines a number of different funding solutions to address unmet infrastructure needs.
Read about Gov. Lee’s initiative here.