A letter that was submitted to Governor Tate Reeves, Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann, Speaker of the House Phillip Gunn, the transportation commissioners and members of the Mississippi State Legislature, has pointed out some of the apparent disparities in the way that state-allocated transportation funds are distributed.
Central District Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons composed the letter that is dated May 10 of this year. The correspondence evaluated some of the state's infrastructure policies and the impact that they have had on regions west of Interstate 55.
After mentioning the various allocations and their sources, Simmons infered that the state was in a good place.
"The above facts put Mississippi in a great position to take care of this crumbling transportation infrastructure system. To do so, we must provide new resources and change our current and past transportation infrastructure public policies that distribute our resources inequitably," Simmons wrote.
Simmons' letter also mentions the current infrastructure policies and the impact that they have on the citizens. The list included the 1987 highway program, which although it created a good four-lane system across the state, Simmons maintains that it did not include any funds to maintain the state's infrastructure, which has resulted in the infrastructure system needing more than $300 million annually in new funds.
He also said, "The state legislature has continually kicked the can down the road by refusing to increase State funding for infrastructure since 1987, except for the $80 million annual lottery fund passed in 2018.
He also gave examples of why he believes the Mississippi Legislature has decreased its financial support for the state's public infrastructure system all the while increasing resources for the local transportation infrastructure system.
He said there's a practice in place of earmarking infrastructure projects by regions and that has created infrastructure disparities in the state that impact economic growth and sustainability.
He calls it a regionalism infrastructure disparity and says that it is very visible in West Mississippi and East Central Mississippi, specifically in Lauderdale, Neshoba, Kemper, Noxubee, Leake, Newton and Scott counties. "The public policies of the past and present are detrimental to the communities and citizens of the West and East Central regions of Mississippi. They have created barriers to economic development, thereby forcing a population decline as well as other social and economic ills and challenges," he said.
Simmons went on to say that the equity in the distribution of funds has caused rural and poor communities to deteriorate economically, lose population and their tax base. He indicated that the 2021 legislative session was the most shocking and appalling of the past 30 years because of some of their actions.
Simmons said the legislature refused to provide new funding for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, attempted to take the $80 million lottery fund from MDOT, took the $119 million that Congress had allocated to MDOT, refused to fund MDOT's budget request of $26.8 million and failed to pass compliance legislation, which he said will force MDOT to lose approximately $11 million. He called those actions the "kiss of death" for rural Mississippi.
He called upon the state officials to fix the problem by supporting all regions of the state and he submitted calculations that he said should serve as a "fix" for the past discrepancies and inequities that were the result of inadequate resources being given to poor and rural communities.
Plus, it would eliminate the state's transportation infrastructure's public policies that promote taxation without representation. He said, "Mississippi's current fiscal status combined with the federal infrastructure initiative can allow Mississippi to erase 30 years of practices that have allowed disparities and inequities in the distribution of state and federal funds that have handicapped rural and poor communities in Mississippi."
In Simmons' breakdown, he referenced the infrastructure expenditures under all three phases of the '87 four-lane highway project and noted that $1.5 billion was spent on the northern district $1.2 billion was spent in the southern district, but only $603.8 million was spent in the central district.
He further submitted that of the portions of the state west of I-55 only $528.1 million was spent on all projects, whereas in the areas east of I-55 $2.8 billion was spent.
Then, referencing House Bill 1413—MDOT appropriations for 2021 earmarks—Simmons indicated that $2,750,000 was spent on the west side of I-55 compared to $27,750,000 east of I-55. Under House Bill 1364—Revenue For Transportation 2021 projects—only three projects were attempted west of I-55 compared to 20 projects on the east side of the interstate.
And, the disparities do not stop there. Looking at the lottery funds allocated by all of MDOT's commissioners, in the southern district only two projects were funded on the west side compared to 14 projects on the east side.
In the northern district, there were 10 projects on the east side of I-55 and none on the west. And in the central district, which encompasses Sunflower, Bolívar and Washington counties, there were 10 projects to the west of the interstate and nine projects to the east of the interstate.
Simmons said the key to fix Mississippi's infrastructure problem is to distribute the funds equitably to all regions.
