Wednesday, April 12, 2017

No Show!

The agenda for today meeting of the Mississippi Development Bank's Board of Directors contains nothing about the city of Jackson's attempt to borrow $90 million for infrastructure projects. The deadline to submit i‎tems to be placed on the agenda was Friday.

 The city council met in a special meeting Friday to discuss yet again borrowing $90 million.  An audio recording is the only record available of the meeting.



The city council discussed borrowing $90 million for an hour before it decided to send Ward 2 Councilman Melvin Priester, Jr. to meet with a representative of the commission.  However, it is not clear when the meeting will take place.  Mayor Tony Yarber cancelled the regular meeting of the commission that was supposed to take place last week.  The next regular meeting is scheduled for May 3 - the day after the election. 


 The discussion about the loan focused on the TIGER grant projects. The TIGER grant projects will cost $38.5 million and thus eat up nearly half of a proposed $80 million loan.  The grant will fund a desperately needed improvement for North State Street from Sheppard to Hartfield.  However, the grant will also fund the extension of West County Line Road from its current east end to North State Street.  The extension will cross a railroad so the grant will also pay for the construction of an overpass for the railroad line.  Jackson officials cite the cost of these two projects as the main reason for borrowing $90 million against the 1% sales tax revenue.

The grant will fund a desperately needed improvement for North State Street from Seneca to Hartfield.  However, the grant will also fund the extension of West County Line Road from its current east end to North State Street.  The extension will cross a railroad so the grant will also pay for the construction of an overpass for the railroad line itself.  The railroad will pass over the new road.  See the map posted below:


The deadline for the completion of the final design for the TIGER grant projects is June 7.  The completion date for the projects is September 1, 2019.   Here is a list of the various funding sources for the TIGER grant projects:

TIGER grant: $19.5 million
City's match (using 1% funds): $4 million
Additional federal funds: $5 million
Additional funds from Jackson: $10 million.
Total cost of TIGER grant projects: $38.5 million

Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote asked (22:00) why the city didn't just borrow $10 million to cover its remaining share of the TIGER grant projects.  However, Ms. Jones told him that the city wanted to borrow more money to fund additional projects although none were actually specified.  Earlier post on TIGER grant projects.  The $90 million will include $10 million that will be used as a reserve.

Kingfish note: Sources say that the Mississippi Development Bank wants the commission and council to agree on a plan before it approaches the bank about borrowing $90 million.  What is funny is seeing the city council now attempt to meet with the commission.  None of the city council members attend the meetings.  They don't ask for updates.   Any commissioners that attempt to provide information to the city council are told to do it during public comments.  The proper forum for such a discussion would be the work session but the city council deems itself above such discussions. 

Don't be surprised if the commission turns down the offer to meet and instead tells Mr. Priester to get on the agenda for it's next meeting.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The city did not have to apply for the loan, it was printed in the Clarion Ledger.

Anonymous said...

What does this mean? No 90mil? no roads fixed? What.....?

Anonymous said...

The city did not "have to" apply for the loan, or the city did not "actually apply for" the loan, yet at least ? I read the CL article to say that the Miss. Dev. Bank's Board of Directors said they wanted the 1% Commission to be on board with or approve of the loan before they would consider granting one and that the City Council has appointed one of its own to go meet with the 1% Commission members to try to get them in support of the loan first. But maybe I read the article wrong.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like grandstanding by the City of Jackson. We say one thing and (wink, wink), and do another. It would be foolish and political suicide to seek a $90 minute loan so close to an election.

Anonymous said...

The lead-in to this thread says ZERO about the purpose or logistics of any loan. I guess, as usual, I'm expected to 'Do your own research, dumbass, or either read the Jambalaya archives'.

Anonymous said...

Seeking and receiving are two different things. My guess is that this is just a first step.

Anonymous said...

2:21 --

I haven't lived in the Jxn area for 3 years. I keep up with stuff by reading this blog.

Yes, the rocket scientist Democrats who run Jackson think the solution to awful streets is to borrow $90 million.

I read about it on JJ.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the current attorney, whoever it is, was pushing to do the loan now so that they would receive a fat commission. They may not be here next Administration. I bet we are talking hundreds of thousand of dollars.

Anonymous said...

The lead-in to this thread says ZERO about the purpose or logistics of any loan. I guess, as usual, I'm expected to 'Do your own research, dumbass, or either read the Jambalaya archives'.

Yes, yes you are and next time please stop bitching about your need to bring yourself up to speed.

Alternately, your other option is to read JJ everyday to stay current on the subject matter discussed here.

Anonymous said...

KF - never knew you were so bad at math or so embarrassed to
Post comments that showed how bad your math is.


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.

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