Depending on where you stand on the Legislature’s need to fund road and bridge repairs and its need to keep the budget balanced, there was some good news and some bad news in the House on Thursday.
The House unanimously pushed out an infrastructure bill that would pull more than $100 million from the state budget and divert it to road and bridge funding around the state.
With 118 votes in favor and none against the bill, legislators approved House Bill 722, which would divert 35 percent of use tax revenue to counties and cities for road and bridge repair and maintenance. Many out-of-state businesses voluntarily pay the state use tax for online purchases and other transactions.
The House hurriedly introduced the bill on Wednesday. Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, who is the vice-chairman of the Ways and Means Committee called it “the most significant piece of legislation that I’ve seen in my time at the Legislature on local levels.”
When pressed, Lamar had no answer for how the state could make up those funds to pay for other state budget needs.
Counties and cities would each receive 15 percent of the tax funds. The Mississippi Development Authority would manage an additional 5 percent to provide grants to cities and counties for maintenance and reconstruction of roads and bridges.
“Make no mistake about it, this money is coming from the general fund and if this body confirms this legislation, we’ll be making a statement that we want to prioritize road and bridge funding in the state of Mississippi,” Lamar said.
Ways and Means chair Rep. Jeff Smith, R- Columbus, said this diversion would result in a roughly $108 million hit to the general fund.
“We feel like between now and conference time we will have a method to come up with a plan to beat the shortfall,” Smith said.
Others were skeptical about the strategy.
“I guess my concern is that this appears to be just a Band-Aid approach,” Rep. Willie Perkins, D-Greenwood, noted when the bill first came up on Wednesday. Leflore County, which he represents, would receive $519,000 under the bill, he said.
“That wouldn’t even begin to fix everything,” Perkins said.
Democrats objected to taking up the bill after it passed out of committee Wednesday, and called a caucus meeting the next morning to read and discuss the legislation. On Thursday, most members voted in favor of the bill (Democratic representatives Kabir Karriem, of Columbus and Jarvis Dortch, of Raymond, voted present).
At a press conference after the meeting, the House Democratic Caucus told reporters that while they felt uncomfortable voting for a bill that may result in cuts to state agencies and services, it is important to address the crisis of transportation in the state.
“We’ll be working the rest of the session to make sure that $108 million does not come on the backs of the people of the state of Mississippi but it adheres to the benefits of cities and counties at the same time,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez.
The House also approved an amendment introduced by Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Charleston, which states the bill is “just the first phase in a needed comprehensive state and local road, street and bridge improvements plan.”
“You cannot have a comprehensive plan unless you have an influx of money from somewhere else — diversion will not get it,” said Johnson, who co-authored the amendment. “What we’re committed to is making the public understand that you have to invest money to do something about the roads and push the Legislature to make the hard decisions they failed to make.”
HB 722 is the latest in a series of road funding efforts in the House early in the current legislative session. Last week, members voted for three road and bridge funding bills. They await action in the Senate. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves has remained silent on the issue.
Local officials seemed hopeful about the prospect of any movement.
In 2016, the Mississippi Economic Council published a study recommending that the Legislature appropriate an additional $375 million for MDOT, with $300 million going towards infrastructure improvements. MEC offered several suggestions for funding the additional highway funds, including a gas tax increase, an extra $10 on the annual license tag fee and a general sales tax increase.
Mike McGregor, president of Pontotoc County Board of Supervisors, echoed the frustrations of local officials across Mississippi who just want action. He said diverting more of the use tax to counties would be welcome but he could also stomach a five to seven-cent increase in the state’s 18.4 cent fuel tax, which has not risen since the 1980s.
“It (getting a portion of use tax revenue) would be good news, but you got to have some money from somewhere. There’s certain ways they can get it. It looks to me that the gas tax would be the easiest. In my opinion, your mom and pop that don’t use the road much, it won’t cost them as much. The people that use the roads get taxed on it. That’s the way it should be,” McGregor said.
Diverting part of the use tax to roads emerged late last year as a more palatable alternative to other revenue boosters such as increasing the sales tax.
“Aging infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges facing cities and counties across the state. Anything the Legislature can do to help us make repairs to this aging infrastructure, primarily by returning tax money to the local governmental agencies, is very appreciated and much needed,” said Vincent Creel, a spokesman for the City of Biloxi.
Creel said there are a lot of things to factor into the cost of maintaining infrastructure, including complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act and updating roads to fit today’s standards and traffic counts — not the standards of decades ago when many of the structures were first built.
“There’s not enough money to be able to do it. (Tax revenue) that can be returned to local government — and the returned part is a big thing — by just sharing the revenue locally, that is very welcome,” Creel added.
A spokeswoman for Reeves said he would review all proposals the Senate receives from the House.
Contributing: Kendra Ablaza
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Rob Peter to pay Paul
Sigh. It is so very sad that investigative journalism is flat dead in Mississippi. One would think someone would be able to connect the dots as to WHY on earth would a bill from a neophyte representative (Lamar) even make it to an affirmative vote so rapidly. It’s because the will of the Oxford Plantation continues to seek power and dominance to the best of it’s ability, and apparently always will – sadly for all the wrong reasons, and as long as their descendants have children. Never! continues to be their rebel yell cry.
For the uniformed, “Trey” or John Lamar III is a descendant of L.Q.C. Lamar – and who filed the Articles of Secession for the State of Mississippi. He believed that freedmen and other black Americans weren’t fit to vote, and promoted “the supremacy of the unconquered and unconquerable Saxon race”. He was a Lt. Col. in the Confederate Army, and afterwards strongly opposed (and voted against) Reconstruction after the Civil War. Counties, buildings, and roads are named for him in Oxford further continuing the delusional, past-clinging traditions of the Old South. His political success is more than likely being quietly engineered with the help of his parents (and many others of the Plantation) and of course who are no strangers to political graft and incestuous dealings. Example? Mom was a Supreme Court justice who also served on the IHL Board overseeing colleges and universities. Her husband is the lawyer representative for one of those colleges, and Little Lord Trey was elected (unopposed) in District 8 (Tate and Lafayette/ (Oxford) and whose Committee memberships include, ready for this? Vice-Chair of Ways and Means (tax writing) and Universities and Colleges……hmmmmmm, anything wrong with this picture folks?
The name “Lamar” is synonymous with L.Q.C Lamar, but no one seems to want to seriously look at the perpetuation of his legacy for fear of the Plantation’s outrage at an attack on their “hero”. Poor Trey probably doesn’t even know what he’s a part of, and is being used for. And finally…..education continues to suffer….but there seems to have been an instant $108 million for roads and bridges – maybe because the Lamars desperately need to appear like they don’t have a conflict of interest? Hmmmmm.