The effort to retain our Driver Testing Center in Warren County appears to have hit the skids.
During a county Budget and Finance Committee meeting Monday, County Commissioner Terry Bell announced the news is not promising for the state to restore funding for the center in its 2017-18 budget, a requirement for the facility to remain open after June 30.
“The Senate Appropriations Committee met and didn’t mention returning funding to the Driver Testing Center,” said Bell. “It wasn’t listed on their agenda and they didn’t even mention it. That’s not good. If it’s not in there, that usually means it probably won’t be.”
State Rep. Judd Matheny confirmed on Tuesday there has been no state funding earmarked to keep McMinnville’s center open.
When asked about center funding, Matheny said, “None is in the budget. We tried every which way.”
Bell told attendees at Monday’s meeting the news came from County Executive Herschel Wells, who “just wanted us to be aware of it.”
After closing on May 31, 2016, the Driver Testing Center reopened almost five months later after an agreement was reached between the city of McMinnville and the state of Tennessee to restore funding until June 30. There was a grand ceremony in October with several state officials in attendance to commemorate the occasion.
Per the agreement, if the city pays rent on the building, a total of $4,000 a month, the state would pay all other costs such as utilities and employee salaries. County officials agreed to reimburse the city half its cost.
The agreement was made after state lawmakers said a push would be made to restore Driver Testing Center funding in the state’s 2017-18 fiscal year budget if the city would pay the rent until that time. City officials, hoping the temporary fix would lead to a permanent one, agreed. However, there is no written agreement funding would be restored.
If the state decides not to restore funding, local officials will have two choices: foot the entire cost, including what the state is currently paying under the agreement (excluding salaries), or allow the facility to close June 30.
“So, it’s going to be on our backs to keep it open?” asked Commissioner Diane Starkey.
Bell stated, “If the state doesn’t include this in its budget, and it doesn’t look like they are going to, and we want to keep it open, we’ll have to pay everything – rent, utilities, janitorial services.”
It has never been clear why the state closed the Driver Testing Center last year during a time of unprecedented budget surpluses.