As he begins his second term, Gov. Bill Lee outlined proposals in his fifth State of the State address to cut taxes and transform transportation, including some plums for Northeast Tennessee such as $40 million to turn the old workforce development complex into the Carter County Higher Education Center.

All well and good, except that the governor also proposes to spend nearly $30 million on a program of benefit only to the state employees who work for us.

A big issue is roads. The governor said that the state is behind on transportation projects to the tune of $26 billion and will introduce a plan to engage public-private partnerships to build additional choice lanes on urban highways, ensure electric vehicle owners pay their share in maintaining our roads, and provide “a delivery model that builds rural and urban projects faster, all without the burden falling on Tennessee taxpayers.”

Lee said toll roads are not on the table. Instead, Lee proposes allocating $3 billion to build “choice lanes” and other new roadways.

He also plans to propose an additional $3 billion to the Tennessee Department of Transportation and $300 million to the local highway program to help communities build and maintain their own roads.

Lee also said he plans to revitalize all “brown sites” in Tennessee, restoring them for economic development; provide a one-time, three-month sales tax holiday on food from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31; provide small business excise tax and franchise tax relief; expand access to TennCare Services; increase bed capacity in the Department of Children’s Services provider network; and budget $125 million for teacher pay raises, $6.3 million to expand the Tweetsie Trail in Carter County and nearly $2 billion to address capital improvements and maintenance including at Tennessee State Parks.

But the governor also proposed — again — a $27 million paid family leave program for state employees, an effort that failed after he suggested it during his 2020 State of the State address. It would provide 12 weeks of paid family leave to 38,000 state employees. Worse, it would be retroactive to March 1, 2020.

Does that mean state employees who had a baby over the past three years will get 12 weeks paid leave when the baby is now several years old, or, the equivalent in cash? Why should state employees get a benefit not generally provided in the private sector?

-Kingsport Times News