Roads, child care, budget: Tennessee 2023 State of the State

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gov. Bill Lee gave his fifth State of the State speech on Monday night.

Lee introduced the Transportation Modernization Act during his speech, which will benefit state roads without the burden falling on taxpayers.

“Right now there is $26 billion backlog of projects across the state. Simply put, we are way behind. And we have to change the way we fund and build our roads and our bridges,” Lee said.

Lee plans to extend the coverage for mothers, children, and families this year. He says that they have saved enough money in order to cover more families than the state has been able to cover in the past.

“The way that we can support and strengthen families is by making it possible for parents to be there worry free for every second in the first few months of life,” Lee said.

This year, Lee is proposing a $100 million grant for nonprofit crisis pregnancy centers, along with providing $4.7 million to extend postpartum health coverage for women under TennCare.

“And now with a pro-family landscape in the background, using just the savings in this first year, we will further strengthen postpartum coverage, providing services to more than 5,000 more mothers. Close the coverage gap for parents and reach an additional 10,000 children in total offering services to nearly 25,000 more women, children, and parents in need,” Lee said.

Lee also talked about improving the public schools. He will provide more funding to the Department of Children’s Services. He has a plan to increase safe neighborhoods across the state.

To make sure children are safe at school, the governor proposes $24.7 million be used for more than 100 Homeland Security agents in each Tennessee county.

And after seeing how effective the SafeTN app can be, $357 million will be used to expand the state’s law enforcement communication network.

“These agents specialize in preventing acts of violence and terrorism, and we should enhance their role in our school safety strategy. We have done a lot to make schools safer, but I do not want to look up months from now and think we should’ve done more,” Lee said.

The governor says he plans to cut taxes again, spending $412 million on tax relief.

This includes more than $288 million for a one-time, three month sales tax holiday on food from August 1 to October 31 of 2023.

Along with tax being rescinded on groceries, the governor plans to invest more than $150 million in annual tax relief for small businesses and adding an additional $250 million to the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

“Tennessee’s healthy Rainy Day Fund is one of our greatest strengthens in that endeavor. The bottom line is it enables us to recruit more companies and more jobs all across Tennessee,” Lee said.

In the budget, the governor plans on spending roughly $53.4 million on foster homes and adoption, proposing a $10 million grant program to support the mission of foster and adoption nonprofits.

“We are also proposing more than $190 million in additional resources to support the mission of to provide for the safety of our children,” Lee said.

Watch the full speech from Lee below:

You can find more news from across the state here.