Supporters of a comprehensive state road and bridge maintenance plan haven’t been able to persuade the state’s political leadership that it is important enough to become an urgent priority, but that situation may change.
The formation of working groups to recommend changes in Mississippi’s taxing and spending policies could open a way, or recommend one, that slows, even eventually stops, the deterioration of highways and bridges.
The non-partisan Mississippi Economic Council presented a plan for a $375 million per year program, but it never left the driveway in the 2016 legislative session. Speaker Philip Gunn, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Gov. Phil Bryant didn’t put their mark on the plan. Without that endorsement, the Legislature isn’t likely to act.
Scott Waller, executive vice president of the Mississippi Economic Council, says MEC is not going to give up.
It is instructive to remember that some legislative leaders, some state officials and hundreds among Mississippi’s civic leadership worked for decades before winning passage of the 1987 highway program, which built the first statewide four-lane system.
It is those roads, and others added by the Legislature in the Vision 21 program, we’re riding on now. The oldest of those are crumbling, including their bridges and thousands of others up and down the state.
Gunn acknowledged last week “we’re looking for a stream of revenue” to pay for the road and bridge needs.
Late in the 2016 session, House Transportation Chairman Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula, and Ways and Means Vice Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, developed what was described as a “broad tax reform bill” that reportedly made numerous changes to the state’s tax laws while also raising additional money for transportation, presumably through an increase in the tax on gasoline and motor fuel.
Sensing a lack of support for the proposal, however, Busby never introduced it to the House.
In general terms, the proposal helped spur Gunn’s call for the formation of the working groups.
Gunn has indicated it might take the working groups two years to formulate some of their goals and make recommendations to the Legislature.
The MEC study and others have concluded the 18.4-cent-per-gallon tax on motor fuel, enacted in 1987 for that program, no longer produces enough revenue to pay for the growing and costlier infrastructure needs.
Our state has more highway miles and more cars and trucks traveling roads and highways than in 1987. Tax revenue is weakening because of fuel efficiency, and it is inadequate because of higher maintenance and construction costs.
The working groups appear to create an opportunity for transportation progress. We hope it can become passable legislation in sooner than two years.
The Northeast Mississippi
Daily Journal, Tupelo
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