The General Assembly has reconvened and the wait has begun to see if funding will return to Warren County’s Driver Testing Center.

McMinnville Mayor Jimmy Haley is urging the state to do just that, at the request of Senate Transportation and Safety Committee chair Sen. Paul Bailey.

City government is in its second agreement with the state to pay $4,000 a month in rent on the building, a stipulation by the state in order to prevent its closure until funding can be restored. An additional year was required after state representatives gave assurances full funding would be restored in the 2017-18 fiscal year budget. It was not. The current agreement ends June 30, 2018.

The city’s desire to foot the bill is fading. Some officials voiced discontent when the agreement was under consideration last year.

“When they come back and deny us again, are we going to keep doing this and keep doing this? I don’t think so," Alderman Everett Brock said in June. "This is a bad idea, folks. I know it’s going to prevent a hardship, but let’s lay the thing out so the state understands this. They aren’t going to understand it if we fund it."
Haley urged the city board to approve the funding last year.

“I think this is the right thing for our citizens,” Haley said in June. "I’m assured our residents, for the large part, believe this is an important enough service to preserve.”

Warren County government is paying half the city’s $4,000 expense.