Jackson Jambalaya

For Government, they always, always, want more money. It’s never enough. I’m reminded of a gag IRS Form 1040 I saw long ago that read on Line 1, “How much did you earn last year?” and Line 2 read “Send it in.”

In that Petroleum products are necessary for gasoline, asphalt, deisel for cement trucks, heavy equipment, transporting of road and bridge materials, it follows that as fossil fuel taxes are raised for inflation, costs are provided for the same inflated costs of roads and bridges by fees based on a percentage of those fossil fuel sales.

So let highway and bridge funds fluctuate with inflation, vis a vis inflation of fossil fuels. EV s are too rare to shape policy.

I'm willing to pay the tax. Our roads are too often embarrassingly awful.
The problem is that our money for roads is used as a political tool without any priorities. One has only to drive into Flowood and see the new throughfares to not much of anything while well travelled roads have potholes. Neighborhoods are worse off as I know of a hole dug to fix a leak that still has a barrel to warn about it for four years...FOUR years and it's a high tax bracket neighborhood. But, guess what...it's in Jackson. It's a upscale area but it's Jackson so the State wants to starve it or whittle it away to the State. And Tater et.al. are too damn dumb to know this area vote GOP! God save us from self serving idiots!!!

Increase the taxes on alcohol, medical marijuana and tobacco along with fines imposed on newly convicted felons. Dedicate these proceeds to MDOT.

The state should pass incentives for businesses to allow more employees to work from home. Less commuting = less wear on roads and bridges.

Make Lakeland Drive and Spillway Road toll roads coming into Rankin County with residents exempt.

At 10:31 - Your post is pure nonsense. No other way to assess the post. You think taxes should be raised, based on what you don't like. Your puritanical brain is wired to dislike marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes and convicts. Therefore, raise taxes on those things in order to punish bad people.

Surely there are other things on your 'dislike list', like maybe parents who allow their children to cross your lawn, black people out after dark, fast food joints, billboards that mention gambling, people who put coins rather than checks in the collection plate on Sunday, women whose skirts are too short, men who fish on Sunday...

I'll take Crawford seriously when he admits that most of the state's population is economically unproductive and stops pretending that spending money on them will magically raise their economic output. There is no right to live in the Mississippi Delta and have a productive job and attempting to bribe employers into locating in places without a productive workforce is the same tired drum he has been beating for years under different names.

First commenter: hahahahaha Thanks.

I'll take Crawford seriously when he admits ...

I'll take him more seriously when he admits his unbridled boosterism for Kemper was a significant lapse in judgment and apologizes to Mississippians for same.

This is 100% BS and one of the oldest political tactics in the book. There is no shortage of money for roads, bridges and other infrastructure. But this money gets spent on far less important things, if not downright pork barrel projects. Then when the money is low, here come certain voices to proclaim a crisis (for roads, etc.) and scream out that we need to raise gas taxes. I'm not buying it. At home, we don't spend all our money on casinos and disney trips, and then look to our neighbors to feed our kids. We prioritize, something government has never done very well.

Any hopes for a 'recurring stream of revenue' would necessarily diminish the annual power our legislators have. Therefore, it's dead on arrival.

The current scheme allows them to meet annually for a protracted quarter, pitting one house against the other, engaging in gamesmanship and power plays, flexing political muscle while strutting like a bunch of barnyard roosters.

All the capitol-dome is missing is a bunch of Ag-Ball-Caps adorned with backwards-sitting sun-shades.

Their coming together on agreement for a continuing money-stream for infrastructure maintenance would make entirely too much sense. The two kings and their pawns will not hear of it!

@11:00 AM - Based on the condition of many of our state highways many MDOT employees must be working from home.

MDOT discovered that the Chinese have invented a shovel that stands up by itself.

We should give all of our money to the government and they will give us only want they think we need.

Remember our government knows what’s best for us. Just because you chose to work to support yourself doesn’t mean you know what’s best for you.

How about putting everyone on welfare so people will sit at home and do nothing

Nobody wants more taxes, but if not tied to the gasoline tax as a percentage, then how do we get a recurring source of revenue for MDOT to keep the roads we have maintained?

6:17, you too can have a shovel that stands up by itself. Just soak it in a solution of Viagra and water for a few hours.

Crawford never saw a tax increase he didn’t like

What about the golf courses though? They need work also.

Any new revenue stream must be tied to users of roads. Whether it’s an increase in the existing fuel tax, a tax on EV’s, or simply a fee on vehicles based on their weight since heavy vehicles tear up the roads.
What the legislature shouldn’t do is tax something totally unrelated to roads as a new revenue stream. That’s the old fashioned way the good old boys liked to fund things, where they could say “you got your stream” when it didn’t come close.

If MDOT could three-lane Hwy 16 from Canton to Hwy 25, that would be awesome!

The issue is not more taxes, it is aligning the payment for road maintenance with those who use the roads. At the county level the only revenue the supervisors control is the ad valorem tax. The only way to pay for road and bridge maintenance is from property taxes or state handouts. That is an stupid way to pay for roads and bridges. People who drive more should pay more for the roads (gas tax).

We spent 100MM on bridge maintenance in FY2023. 250MM on routine maintenance projects including pothole repair.

We have a rainy day fund now.

We would not see it in our generation, but Mississippi is small enough. If we worked together and committed across political party lines to establish a Mississippi Highway Trust Fund and seeded it every year with 5-10MM dollars, and we did not touch it, after 30 years, after 50 years we would have a significant fund that could then fund and maintain our roads in perpetuity.

I used to play music with a guy said he run some kind of crew for MDOT. Two things he said over and over. 1) MDOT didn’t need funds from the Legislature because the tax on gas was sufficient to fund what MDOT did; and 2) an average person would be astounded by the amount of funds wasted at MDOT.

Several years ago, I got a ticket from Highway Patrol for riding motorcycle w/o motorcycle endorsement. The ticket was $200.00!!! Absolute robbery. I don’t know where that money goes, but if it went to MDOT, there would be no revenue shortage, I believe. I generally drive a lil below the speed limit, and many, many vehicles pass me speeding. Does ticket money go towards road maintenance?

@10:10…that’s no how MS works….can’t see past our nose

Now that there's a well-spoken, well-educated, likeable, Republican stalwart in charge of MDOT, it can be assumed that the legislature will go along with his recommendation.

It's not like the guy who passed out at the slot machine and who refused to let Dick Hall have an office in the Taj Mahal...is still in charge.

And...to the guy who said he used to 'play music' with somebody at MDOT, if you had said 'golf', you'd have sounded more credible.