High on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a curious edifice, the Old State Capitol (formally, after the 1994 restoration, the Louisiana Museum of Political History) is a Gothic architectural wonder built to resemble a castle.
The interior features a magnificent circular staircase leading to a
second-floor gallery of political portraits of the icons of Louisiana
state politics, with (of course!) the largest and most ostentatious
portrait being Winn Parish’s native son, Huey Pierce
Long.
Long’s political animus for Standard Oil and his delight in using his
political skill to force the company to pay for things like free school
textbooks and charity hospitals was the stuff of legend. Some believed
Long to be a socialist, but a more practical
definition was that “the Kingfish” was a left-wing populist adept at
pitting the have-nots against the haves in politics.
While in Baton Rouge for a conference, it was hard not to think about
Huey Long and the truths and fictions of Louisiana politics. That was
particularly true in comparing Mississippi’s roads, bridges and other
infrastructure to those in Louisiana.
On July 1 in Mississippi, new laws went on the books, cutting the sales
tax on groceries and raising the state tax on gasoline. The higher gas
tax, to be phased in over three years, will raise the gas tax to 27
cents per gallon.
In 1932, Mississippi Gov. Mike Conner proposed the nation’s first sales
tax at three cents on the dollar. The Legislature gave him a two-cent
tax that has since grown to a 7% sales tax.
The 2025 Mississippi tax compromise bill offers a 2% reduction in the
state’s sales tax on groceries. All sales taxes are regressive —
penalizing the poor more than the wealthy — but after more than a
quarter-century of political infighting, the proposed compromise
offers some tangible relief.
After the inflation endured on groceries during the Biden Administration
and that generated by rising tariffs in the Trump Administration, any
relief on grocery bills will be welcomed by Mississippi shoppers.
Another intriguing facet of the tax compromise is an increase in the
state’s gasoline tax. The tax compromise calls for adding a total of
nine cents per gallon (CPG) to the state’s gas tax over the next three
years. The only state with lower gas taxes than
Mississippi is Alaska.
Mississippi’s prior 18.4 cents per gallon state gas tax (CPG) is a flat
tax. When we paid $3.965 a gallon for gas in 2008, the tax was 18.4 CPG.
When we pay $2.42 per gallon at the pump this week, the state tax is
still 18.4 CPG.
The only way the state takes in more revenue from gas taxes is for the
volume of gas consumed to increase, and automobiles are now manufactured
to require less fuel consumption than a decade ago. The state fuel tax
rates haven’t increased since 1987, the last
time the state was particularly serious about improving our highway
system.
The federal fuel tax is also 18.4 cents per gallon and hasn’t changed
since 1993. Neither the federal nor state fuel taxes have kept pace with
inflation. Indexed for inflation, both federal and state fuel tax rates
are insufficient to adequately build and maintain
those infrastructures, but this increase will be a dramatic
improvement.
Highway construction costs on average run between $2 million to $3
million a mile in rural areas and up to $15 million a mile in urban
areas, according to a 2025 analysis of industry data.
Even with the higher state gas taxes, revenue from the state lottery and
existing revenue sources, Mississippi has a long way to go in
rebuilding the state’s road and bridge infrastructure.
But for all the problems in getting the 2025 session to the finish line
with policy progress, the fact that 30 years of advocacy for additional
road and bridge funding was heard and acted upon by the Mississippi
Legislature is long overdue good news.
Would that the late Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall lived to see
the gas tax hike enacted. Some 15 years ago, Hall called out lawmakers
over the issue: “When I tell them there’s over 1,000 deficient bridges
in this state that need to be seriously repaired
or replaced at a cost of some $2.5 billion, and it’s almost 5,000 main
miles of highway that need serious repair and reconstruction, costing a
billion dollars, do they think that we are lying? How can you possibly
pretend that nothing needs to be done?”
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
16 comments:
They knew Hall wasn't lying, they just wanted to use this as a proxy to get a lottery before raising the gas tax. typical legislative smoke & mirrors. Obviously, the lottery falls short of fixing roads & bridges hence the gas tax increase.
Maybe I’m just slow, but what does Huey P. Long bullying Standard Oil have to do with raising our gas tax.
Republicans in Mississippi love taxes.
Pretty much ever tax has increased since 1987, including our overall sales tax from 6% to 7%, but anytime we get something new to pay for infrastructure, education, it seems that source isn't enough. I have no issues paying more for gas tax IF it is used for the roads and doesn't just funnel its way to the general fund to be distributed to every pet project of the 174 egos.
Yo Sid, your math skills are lacking. It's not "a 2% reduction in the state’s sales tax on groceries." It's 2 percentage points. They aren't the same thing. It's closer to a 29% reduction in the grocery sales tax, i.e. from 7% to 5%.
@8:04 The lottery is funding those high administrative salaries at MS Dept. of Education. MDOT gets whatever is leftover.
All of Mississippi's governmental "leadership" are nothing but dirt dumb, frightened idiots who had enough money to campaign/run for office....and the sheeple of Mississippi vote no matter what the outcome....so the real "lottery" is becoming part of the good ole' boys/girls club - if you can get in it, and stay for life.
Every issue facing Mississippians - road/bridges, PERS, no mental health system, a farce of an educational system, the mass exodus of it's youth, etc. are all being avoided until the next election cycle. Rinse and repeat. Sure hope Mississippians are ready to be self-sufficient since the ocean of federal dollars will be drying up soon, and it should.
... the mass exodus of it's youth ...
A significant exaggeration.
Exaggeration? Yeah, maybe we should say mass exodus of our college educated young people.
@9:21, I wish he were wrong. Recent MSU grad here, and I watched as 80% of the people I graduated with left for other cities. Some want to eventually come back, some can't even imagine it. We absolutely have to make Jackson a good city or this will continue. Unless Tupelo/Hattiesburg/Gulfport/Biloxi experiences a Huntsville-like boom. Unfortunately, everyone over the age of 30 thinks it's hilarious to crap on Jackson and wishes it the worst. I hope metro area boomers wake up and realize young people do not want to live in car-oriented suburbs with no sidewalks and nowhere for entertainment. Your cookie cutter neighborhoods are "safe" but they sure are depressing!
@8:46 - Sounds like you have all the answers - Where can I send my campaign contribution for your forthcoming campaign?
Stupid Comment
We need more people to shake up the system. I would love to see the good ol boy system destroyed. Things would change if more people would stand up instead of just batching about the way things are
Not a chance 10:05am....the Good ole' Boy/Girl system will squash any bug that attempts to make waves....and the MS Judicial system will cover for them to keep errrrthing the same....you in Mississippi boy, you don't like it leave - we ain't never changing.
@9:21 - 50% of the college graduates in our state are gone within 3 years. Why do you think that’s not a mass exodus?
Gas cars should pay at least as much as the electric vehicles. That’s $150 a year to the state and $250 to the feds. There’s absolutely no reason Ev owners should be subsidizing gas vehicles.
Post a Comment