State Senator disputes Tennessean reports

Norris says daily paper has misrepresented his position on fuel tax for two days running

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Mark Norris

State Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville) may not be granting any interviews to The Tennessean anytime soon. For the second day in a row, he says, the daily has today misrepesented his policy position on gasoline taxes. And he says the reporter and editors involved refuse to acknowledge their mistakes.

Norris, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, tells NashvillePost.com that he and his staff have worked exstensively the past few weeks trying to bring Tennessean reporter Kate Howard up to speed on transportation issues.

Howard, who just recently moved into the state, has been dubbed "Ms. Beep" by the Gannett-owned paper and is slated to be its full time transportation reporter.

Yesterday, Howard and The Tennessean reported that Norris was floating the idea of a new tax that would charge Tennessee motorists by the mile, something that really is being considered in Oregon, and that the monies collected would pay for shortfalls in Tennessee's highway infrastructure budget. Capitol Hill insiders familiar with Norris's track record on infrastructure and taxation were shocked by the report.

So was much of the public, apparently. The story generated more than 80 comments on the newspaper's website, and a quasi-poll packaged with the story attracted more than 5,000 votes. The feedback in both cases was overwhelmingly negative toward Norris and his supposed idea. 

Norris tells NashvillePost.com that he and his staff met with The Tennessean's editorial staff and Howard yesterday in an attempt to clear up matter, hoping for clarification of his position in today's paper. Instead, he says, today's article makes it appear that he is backtracking on an issue due to pressure from readers of the daily paper.

"This issue was never on the table," Norris insists. "In a long conversation with Howard, I was giving her examples of other types of user fees after I said I was against raising the gas tax and against establishing tolls on top of a gas tax that the Bredesen administration is not even using. The transportation trust fund needs to be repaid by the administration out of existing revenues."

Norris is referring to a move made by Gov. Phil Bredesen that perpetuated a budget tactic by former Gov. Don Sundquist, diverting transportation trust funds to the general fund in order to pay for other state programs. Norris feels that the transportation fund should be restored to its entirety now that the state is operating under a budget surplus.

Norris feels the meeting yesterday was fruitless. "I asked for a retraction," he says. "They promised a correction, and I got neither."

Through his secretary, Tennessean editor Mark Silverman told NashvillePost.com that he would have no comment on the assertions by Norris. He also did not respond to a question about the unusual treatment of yesterday's story on the newspaper's website: It was the lead item on the site Thursday morning, but by late afternoon all reference to it had been removed from the homepage.

"It is apparent that they will do anything to sell papers," Norris fumes. "I am sick about this. The misrepresentation is unfair to the taxpayers."