Governor forum focuses on choice lanes, data centers, affordability

Candidates for governor squared off in a three-person forum on Tuesday night as the Democratic nominee and two independents tried to sway voters ahead of Election Day. 

Memphis councilwoman and Democratic nominee Jerri Green and independents David Hatley and Lauren Pinkston met at Middle Tennessee State University to talk data centers, transportation, vouchers and affordability. 

Republican nominee and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn declined to take part. 

Both Pinkston and Green took questions from reporters after the forum, while Hatley declined. 

Some key issues discussed are as follows:

Data centers

Green previously has said she wants a statewide moratorium on data centers. Pinkston takes a similar approach, with Hatley previously having told WSMV the state needed to take a break on allowing data centers. 

They agreed on Tuesday night they would place data centers on hold if they were governor. 

“I was passing legislation and guardrails about data centers before running for governor,” Green said.

“I have been trying to protect Memphis. I have been standing up as recently as last week. Elon Musk and his like need to go. There have been other counties who have passed moratoriums. When we let these tech corporations get ahead, they will take over.”

Hatley — who is from a small community in East Tennessee — feared how it would affect rural places like his own. 

“There are two in Cleveland that are over 1,000 acres,” Hatley said. “These data centers are coming. If they want to come to Tennessee, they need to play by our rules. There’s a reason the property taxes are the fastest growing in this country. We need to make guardrails, and they need to pay for your power and water.”

In August, Blackburn told sister publication Williamson Scene she didn’t anticipate statewide regulations on the topic. 

“Communities are going to make decisions about if they want to recruit a data center,” Blackburn said. 

‘Choice’ lanes 

Since legislative approval, “choice” lanes — roadways that require a driver to pay a toll — have been controversial since the start. 

That has only continued after the Transportation Modernization Board voted in August to select the group to oversee the $9.2 billion project on Interstate 24 between Murfreesboro and Nashville.

The Post reported in October that a group sued the Tennessee Department of Transportation, claiming it failed to provide public records requested about whether the bidding process was fair. 

Already, Tennessee’s transportation infrastructure is lagging, many critics claim. The next governor will face a backlog of $58 million in unfunded projects statewide. Lawmakers have hemmed during the past few sessions on how to pay for roads. Tennessee is a no-debt road system, meaning the legislature cannot issue bonds for those initiatives. 

Like other Democratic candidates, Green promoted paying for roads with funds generated from legalizing cannabis, an idea floated by Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville. 

“We can make it happen in our state,” Green said. “There’s not a reason to let our tax dollars go across state lines. We have to invest in public transit.” 

Pinkston feels the idea starts at the top with leadership at the Tennessee Department of Transportation. 

“Every day we aren’t investing in this,” Pinkston said. “The way we solve the pressure on the roads is not by appointing a commissioner who is our best friend or giving the contracts over to private companies.”

In an interview with the Williamson Scene, Blackburn declined to provide a pinpoint plan to tackle the statewide issue with roads. 

“It is going to be up to me to work with federal, state, local, and see if we can't get more of this backlog taken care of,” Blackburn said in August. “We have to have infrastructure that is going to meet our growth needs.”

Affordability 

How Tennesseans can afford the cost of living is becoming an increasing problem. 

Nonprofit think tank the Sycamore Institute found that 1.2 million Tennessee households struggled to afford basic needs in 2024. 

The three candidates said they want to end the grocery tax, a measure supported by both Republicans and Democrats in the legislature. Yet, the two parties haven’t reached bipartisan support on how to fund the measure. Green echoed the call for taxing corporations to find money to eliminate the grocery tax. 

“I grew up in a tuna helper family, not a hamburger helper family,” Pinkston said. “And I know how hard it is to stretch that dollar to make those ends meet.”

Others thought about freezing the gas tax, which Democrats asked Gov. Bill Lee to consider, while gas and diesel prices have trended up due to the conflict in Iran. 

“Tennesseans are hurting,” Hatley said. “I have been across the state for months and months now. I’ve heard a lot of people, and they are hurting. They are on fixed incomes, and the costs continue to go up. Inflation continues to go up. We owe it to Tennesseans to reach out and do whatever we can.” 

Meanwhile, Pinkston said she would like to invest in land trusts, a concept in which the government buys a piece of property and develops its with affordable housing. Individuals acquire the structures, accumulating equity over time, while the government maintains ownership of the land on which the houses sit via a ground lease. 

“The local government can put that land into a trust,” Pinkston said. “Those homes would be a lot more accessible for people to buy their first homes.”