The state of Tennessee plans to freeze new construction at state universities during the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, in response to Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen’s request that state departments trim spending. The cutbacks will help bridge the state’s $212-million funding gap.

Lola Potter, public information officer with the Tennessee Dept. of Finance and Administration, says the freeze on new work will not affect current construction projects. The state is also approving funding select increases for university projects already under construction.

 “There will be no decrease in the amount of capital construction,” Potter says. “We will still have money that goes into the building fund (for maintenance and small projects).”           

The Tennessee Dept. of Transportation should be unaffected by the cutbacks, says Julie Oaks, TDOT public information officer.

“Since we have a dedicated funding source we don’t get funding from the general fund,” Oaks says. “We get about $383 million per year from the gas tax. You could say quite a bit of that funding goes to our interstate system.”

She adds that TDOT has been forced to postpone projects due to other factors, primarily the rescinding of federal funding from the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act.

“They just rescinded $66.3 million on Friday from federal funding, bringing the total to $237.7 million since December 2005 that the federal government said it won’t provide,” she said.