When the Mississippi Legislature convened in January, the general consensus held there were two issues which must be addressed above all others: the state budget crisis and funding for our deteriorating roads/bridges.
With less than 30 days remaining in the session, there has been no meaningful progress on either issue. All bills that would have addressed those concerns are dead.
Meanwhile, bills that would require cursive writing to be taught in elementary schools, competitive bidding on space in the Capitol rented to media and licensing for fantasy sports operators are very much alive.
Priorities, right?
Quite frankly, our view of the Legislature has gone from disappointment to disgust.
Barring a dramatic change of heart, our legislators will leave Jackson having achieved little of real value, unless you consider the teaching of cursive writing to be the sort of landmark legislation that will forever alter the course of our future.
At the heart of this intransigence is a failure to acknowledge what all of us know by now: Our state needs more revenue and needs it immediately.
Over the past 14 months as sales tax revenues continue to fall below projections, Gov. Phil Bryant has cut funds for state agencies five times for a total of more than $200 million.
There is no reason to suspect sales tax revenues, the primary source of our state’s income, will magically improve. In fact, the state’s own economist projects only modest growth, if there is any growth at all, in the foreseeable future.
Bills that would have raised revenue — requiring sales tax on online purchases and a state lottery — are currently dead.
Meanwhile, the red ink grows, even at a time when the condition of our roads/bridges become worse. We know when a need is neglected, the situation only gets worse. So it is with our roads and bridges. The longer we fail to address these needs, the more costly those repairs will be.
At this moment, it is estimated it will take $3.5 billion to put our roads and bridges in good working order. How much will it cost if we simply kick the can down the road?
House speaker Phillip Gunn has suggested that there could be money set aside for road/bridge repairs in the bond package presented at the end of the session. But that, too, is problematic.
State Treasurer Lynn Fitch noted that last year the state failed to pay the full interest payments on the current $4 billion bond debt. So the idea that borrowing money to help fix roads is not a solution, but an effort to duck responsibility for raising taxes.
At this point, any reasonable person must admit that raising taxes is a necessity, albeit an unpleasant one.
Two of the least painful efforts to do that — Internet sales tax and the lottery — have been killed.
That said, we must question if the Legislature has the will and courage to do what must be done.
To date, that answer has been a resounding “no.”
If that’s still the answer in April, our legislators will have failed us and failed us profoundly.
You can write that down, in cursive, if you like.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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