Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam recently saw both chambers of the State legislature pass his plan to improve his state. “The Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads, and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy” (or “IMPROVE”) Act is intended to improve and maintain Tennessee’s economy and competiveness for the future. It makes a lot of changes to how the state taxes us, including increases in the gas tax countered with decreases in the grocery sale tax and the eventual elimination of the Hall Income Tax.

You can read more about the Act here.

What we are most interested in, however, is the Act’s transportation provision. Much of it deals with gas taxes, but it also puts a yearly charge on electric vehicles and raises the payments on vehicles with nontraditional fuels. While the initial draft of the bill attempted to alter Tennessee’s “Open-Container” Law, permitting Tennessee’s Transportation Department to spend preexisting $18 million in federal funding on road projects, the final version did not amend T.C.A. § 55-10-416, and passengers of vehicles may still possess an open container where municipalities or counties have not passed ordinances banning open containers.

Ultimately, the Act aims at producing an additional $278 million available for road projects and limits the cost to Tennessee drivers to roughly four dollars per month. All this money (the two percent usually reserved for the General Fund included) would fund 962 projects in Tennessee’s 95 counties, giving cities an additional $39 million, and counties $78 million more. The Act also permits cities to use voter-approved sales tax supplements exclusively for building and maintaining roads, bridges, etc.

Why did the governor propose this?

Governor Haslam proposed the Act to promote economic and job growth, yes; but some of our roadways are a mess. We need more money to properly fix our roads and bridges, or people are going to get hurt. Hazardous roadways contribute to car crashes every year, and we would use that infrastructure money. While the Governor noted that about $18 million in our budget could have been used for infrastructure projects, we can’t touch it unless we create an open container law that’s in line with federal regulations, which means:

• Disallowing people to possess and drink any opened alcoholic drink inside a vehicle.
• Being applicable to all alcoholic drinks and all drivers and passengers, except for passengers of buses, cabs, limos, motorhomes, etc.
• Clearly stating where the driver and passenger areas of vehicles begin, end, and meet, where rights-of-way are on public roads, and that police need not to demonstrate they have probable cause to enforce traffic, alcohol, and other laws.

The legislature chose to keep Tennessee’s current open container law as is, which does not explicitly forbid passengers with open containers, but does allow local government to regulate this activity.  However, regardless of Tennessee’s open container law, having open alcohol in a vehicle is not recommended. An open beer in a drink console will undoubtedly raise an officer’s suspicion that a driver was drinking, even if it was the passenger.

A drunk driving conviction can cause more trouble than you might think. If you or a loved one has been charged with driving under the influence, turn to the DUI attorneys at Delius & McKenzie, PLLC. We can help and proudly serve Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Seymour, and Pigeon Forge. For more information, call us at (865) 428-8780  or fill out our contact form.