Biloxi doesn’t need toll bridge on Popp’s Ferry Road. Where’s the money?

We do not need a toll bridge for Popp’s Ferry or anywhere.

This should have been addressed after Hurricane Katrina, but it fell off the chart and I don’t know why. We built two beautiful bridges on the Coast — one in Bay St. Louis and the Biloxi/Ocean Springs bridge. So why can’t we do it again?

If it is about money, then let’s talk money.

Since the casinos got here, it is my understanding that almost $900 million has been sent to the road tax alone.

Then the state just got a bunch of infrastructure money, BP oil spill money and Paycheck Protection Plan money. And what about the gasoline tax and the lottery money?

The city of Biloxi sends millions to Jackson and it is now time we finally get our fair shake for what we pay in.

We know how to run a draw bridge and sure as heck don’t need someone to show us how to open and close it. We just need a new bridge with better technology .

If they can build the bridge in four years, then bid on building it and move on, no toll. What happens when there is a wreck? Is it then the taxpayers’ money that pays to service it, not the toll money?

If we need to raise money, put in a hotel room tax. You ever see what you pay in room taxes when you go somewhere?

A 2% room tax will keep no one away, $2 dollars on a hundred. So Mayor FoFo Gilich, you are a leader as is the city council. I keep hearing about “One Coast.” Well, let’s lobby the other cities, counties and legislature and get the money back from the state to make this happen without taxing the locals.

This benefits the whole Coast and let’s see if we are “One Coast.”

Float a bond if necessary and get the money from the room tax. Tolls are bad for the community, especially when a family of four would pay about $300 a month, or close to $4,000 a year and some more .

With all the money available, let’s all endorse no tolls and get what we have coming, so that over a 25-year period, a family of four does not lose $100,000 to a private enterprise that we don’t need.

Don’t make the locals pay for this and take millions out of the economy. This will make someone millions off the taxpayers for using a bridge to go to and from work.

I ask the mayor and city council to vote no toll. Where’s the money?

Robert Barq is a lifetime Coast resident and fourth generation descendant of Barq’s Rootbeer.

This story was originally published February 27, 2022 at 12:00 AM.