Mississippi needs to spend $375 million more a year on roads, bridges, the MEC said

Mississippi needs to spend $375 million more a year for 10 years to repair and replace roads and bridges, the transportation infrastructure task force of the Mississippi Economic Council said Friday.

“As I drive across our state today, I see firsthand that we are on the verge of losing our competitive edge,” Joe F. Sanderson, chairman and CEO of Sanderson Farms, and chair of the MEC Blueprint Mississippi Transportation Infrastructure Task Force, said in a press release. “The massive investment that was made in our state’s transportation system as a result of the 1987 AHEAD program will be lost.

“This is why it is so important that we work together to preserve this asset that so many leaders fought so hard to build. Roads across our state are beginning to crumble. Bridges aren’t safe. This is happening on our state-owned system — as well as with our local roads and bridges.”

More than 3,500 bridges need repair across the state, according to the Task Force report. Twenty of those are on roads maintained by Harrison County, 18 on Jackson County roads and 15 on Hancock County roads. Parts of virtually every federal and state highway in the six South Mississippi counties need work, the report said. An interactive graphic shows road conditions in each county.

Sanderson, at a Jackson press conference to announce the plan to increase spending on roads and bridges, showed a photo of a bridge that had collapsed in Carroll County.

“Fortunately, no one was hurt,” he said. “But what if this had been a school bus full of children? That’s why we’re here today.”

The Blueprint study determined 80 percent of the new revenue needed, $300 million, should be dedicated to state-owned bridge and road needs. Counties and municipalities should receive the remaining 20 percent to be split among them.

The MEC said a $375 million annual investment would:

- Finance the replacement of 138 state bridges that are no longer able to carry the weight and traffic they were designed to carry.

- Provide for all timber bridges to be replaced.

- Replace 424 deficient state bridges over a 10-year span.

- Ramp up the state Department of Transportation’s pavement maintenance.

- Enable local leaders to improve the roads and bridges that are in the worst shape.

Among the financing options in the report:

- Every 1-cent-per-gallon increase in excise tax on gasoline and diesel would raise $21.7 million.

- Each $10 increase in vehicle registration fees would raise $27.5 million.

- Every .05 percent increase in general sales tax with exemption on groceries and medicine would raise about $177.8 million.

- Every .05 percent increase in sales tax on gasoline and diesel would raise $23.7 million.

- Special fees on alternative-fuel vehicles would raise up to $17,200 because there are few such vehicles on Mississippi roads.

- Every 2 percent excise tax increase on rental car fees would raise $2.5 million.

“Dedicating this new revenue to state and local bridge replacement and road maintenance will stabilize our state’s transportation system and put us on the path to protecting our investment,” said Scott Waller, executive vice president and COO of MEC, who served as chief staff support for the study’s research team and the Blueprint Task Force.

Blake Wilson, MEC president and CEO, said the plan would cost “just 37 cents a day, per registered vehicle.

“And as the improvements are made over time, this investment would produce a return of $1.45 a day in reduced drive time, maintenance, and wear and tear, according to economic models.”

However, the state faces a projected 1.6 percent decline in revenue and leaders are talking about cuts in education, prisons, Medicaid and mental-health and human services.

The MEC said a poll of 1,000 registered voters in Mississippi found overwhelming support for “quality roads and bridges” and a 10-year plan to make that a reality. When talk of increasing the gas tax came up late last year, the most conservative members of the state Senate came out publicly against it.

MEC said the Blueprint Task Force is made up of business leaders and community resource members from across Mississippi, who began studying the issue in June 2014.

MEC said a grant from the Robert M. Hearin Foundation provided funding for research conducted by the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation; Mississippi State University’s Stennis Institute of Government; and MSU’s Industrial & Systems Engineering Department; and the Center for Advanced Vehicular System. Other research was funded through private-sector donations to Blueprint Mississippi. Cambridge Systematics, a private-sector consulting firm, analyzed all data provided from the research teams, MEC said.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Mississippi needs to spend $375 million more a year on roads, bridges, the MEC said ."