Coast could get millions for roads and bridges in bill that passed House

Coast counties and cities would receive more than $10 million from a road and bridge bill that passed the Mississippi House by a wide margin Thursday.

Harrison County would get about $1.5 million, Jackson County about $1.3 million and Hancock County $607,639 from the use tax, which comes mostly from internet sales.

Gulfport would get about $2.2 million, Biloxi about $1.4 million, Pascagoula $650,667, D’Iberville, $559,917, Ocean Springs $559,343, Gautier $428,095, Moss Point $327,383, Long Beach $321,656, Waveland $245,828, Diamondhead $174,284 and Bay St. Louis $30,495. That money also would come from use taxes.

The counties also could get a share of $50 million in money that originally was going to be earmarked for specific projects but those were stripped with the first amendment to the bill. Rep. Stacey Wilkes, R-Picayune, first attempted to send that money to the 82 counties but her bill was tabled. Later, Steve Holland succeeded in getting the money divided evenly among all the counties except Lee, his home county, which would receive $1 less. That works out to over $609,000 per county.

“And I’ll make sure Lee County is made whole,” Holland said, waving a wrinkled dollar bill. The money stripped from the bill included a $2 million road project near Ingalls Shipbuilding, $2 million for the Pascagoula Port Authority to help pay for the North Rail Corridor project and $1 million for Long Beach roads. The Cook Road corridor project at the edge of Harrison and Jackson counties also was removed. It could have received $2 million.

That money was supposed to come from “funds made available by the Legislature in any manner and funds from another source,” accordnig to the bill, most likely a lottery that would be created by a bill being debated in the Senate.

This story was originally published August 23, 2018 at 5:02 PM.