State legislative leaders like to look down their noses at Jackson city government, but they are on the verge of replicating the same mistakes by neglecting road maintenance.
Over the last two decades, Jackson city leadership has failed to maintain its streets leading to a colossal infrastructure crisis. State leaders are right behind them.
City consulting engineers from IMS are claiming it will take $2 billion to rebuild Jackson’s 1,200 miles of streets. That’s $1.6 million per mile and $11,500 per Jackson resident.
That estimate seems incredibly high, especially since a one-mile section of Adkins Road was just repaved for $170,000. Nevertheless, Jackson faces an almost insurmountable struggle to rebuild its roads.
I drive to work every day down Briarwood Drive. It is barely navigable. I have to slow down to 10 miles an hour at three different sections. I have spent thousands on bent rims, flats and front-end alignments.
In 2014, Jackson conducted a pavement condition survey. This is a computerized process using photographs, lasers and visual assessments of experts. Every section of road in Jackson was scored.
More than 73 percent of the roads were either “failing,” “very poor,” or “poor.” And that was four years ago. Most Jackson roads are beyond the end of their useful life.
If Jackson had been doing basic road maintenance such as crack sealing, the cost would be one-fourth what the city is now facing. The Northside Sun filed an open records request for Jackson’s road maintenance plan only to be informed that there is none.
Imagine not changing the oil in your car. It will keep on going until one day the engine fails. What would have cost a little bit ends up costing a huge amount. Penny wise. Pound foolish.
Now our Republican state leadership is about to do the same thing.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT), the Mississippi Economic Council (MEC), and experts from Mississippi State, Southern Mississippi and consulting agencies all agree: We must start spending $350 million more a year on road maintenance. If we don’t, the ultimate cost will be four times greater – like Jackson, an astronomical amount.
This amounts to an extra 15 cents per gallon tax. Bear in mind, the gas tax has not been raised in 30 years. Meanwhile, inflation has tripled the cost of maintenance while vehicle miles driven has doubled. Anybody can see it’s time to face the music and raise the tax.
This will save Mississippians money. For every dollar they spend toward higher gas taxes, they will save five dollars on vehicle expenses. There are numerous studies proving these savings.
Studies aside, I recently asked 10 of my friends what they have spent on car repairs because of Jackson’s awful streets. The average was more than $1,000 a year, pretty much what the studies show.
A bent rim can cost hundreds to repair and even more to replace. Front end alignments can cost a hundred dollars or more. If you don’t do the alignments, you will spend more money on tires. The vibration and wear from bad roads, bent rims, damaged tires and unaligned front ends can shorten the life of just about every part on your car.
Dick Hall, central district state highway commissioner, had this to say: “The first reaction is to shoot the messenger. The Legislature is going to make a run at doing away with elected highway commissioners because they don’t want to hear this.”
“When you let an infrastructure like this deteriorate, it costs you much more money to fix it later than if you just took care of it every day, just like your house or your roof on your house. My biggest fear is that they’ll do something, some little something, and say ‘OK. We did that.’ ”
I had a chance to ask Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves about the need for additional road maintenance. My question was this: Are you disputing the need for the maintenance? If so, what facts or studies do you have proving this maintenance is not needed? His response was mumbo jumbo.
Look folks, all the experts agree this has to be done. Common sense tells you it has to be done. My car repair bills tell me it has to be done. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
As Dick Hall put it, “The legislators drive over the streets of Jackson every day. What does it take to prove it?”
MEC commissioned a poll showing that 61 percent of Mississippians were in favor of increased taxes provided the money went directly to road maintenance.
The Delta Council is one of the best public interest organizations in the state. They recently hosted a forum for newspaper publishers. Their number one priority: Fix the roads and bridges before they collapse.
Thirty years ago, state political leaders would not dare defy the MEC, the Delta Council, MDOT and the will of the people.
But things have changed. So much political money comes from out-of-state ideological PACs, that politicians can ignore state institutions. It’s a bad thing.
With leadership, we can get this done. Six states have come to their senses and raised the gas tax. All of them already had higher gas taxes than Mississippi, which has the 45th lowest gas taxes in the nation.
Properly maintaining our roads is smart economic development. The MEC estimates proper maintenance will create 11,000 new Mississippi jobs. It sure beats giving hundreds of millions in tax breaks to out-of-state manufacturers that rarely live up to their exaggerated job creation promises.
Here’s what Tate Reeves, Phil Bryant and Philip Gunn won’t admit: They are so politically terrified of raising any taxes, any where, that they are going to cost the state of Mississippi billions of dollars.
It’s gut check time for Bryant, Reeves and Gunn. They’ve been in leadership for years. There’s no one else to blame. Time to exhibit political courage and leadership.
Wyatt Emmerich is the editor and publisher of The Northside Sun, a weekly newspaper in Jackson. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.