Mississippi's Infrastructure: Driving on the surface of the moon may soon be smoother

For several years now, transportation officials have opined that Mississippi needs a fuel tax increase to cover the rising costs of maintaining our highways and roads. Dick Hall even talked about it on the campaign trail, and he was still reelected, so this should be no surprise to anyone.

A legislative/business task force has started meetings to figure out where to make up approximately $500 million of what is currently budgeted to what the state really needs. Of course, and also unsurprisingly, Republicans have immediately hung their anti-tax banner. Economic development and a strong, maintained infrastructure that includes roads and bridges are clearly linked. It's bad enough that we're trying to recruit business with one of the worst education systems in America, but we want to add crumbling roads and falling bridges? Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees this as a priority for economic development.

But, there is an alternative, proposed by Sen. Hob Bryan, and reported on Geoff Pender's blog:

“For people who say government just needs to live within its means … needs to cut back just like families have had to cut back and say that cutting taxes is an ends to itself … We have too many roads to maintain. We need to admit we’ve overbuilt. It’s government out of control! We need to determine which roads we are going to abandon … See which paved roads we’re going to let go back to gravel. Let’s right-size our highway system and live within our means. I hope people who campaigned on that will now come forward and vote to do that.”

Mississippi is a mostly rural state, and while there are many gravel roads out here, these conservative legislators are going to have to face the fact that more revenue must be generated to maintain our roads, or, they can volunteer the roads and bridges their constituents use for shut down.

Geoff also has a more complete review of the task force meeting with specific proposals here.

Polls are open!

Despite yesterday’s snowstorm, the special elections slated for today in north Mississippi will go forward. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Be careful as you make your way to your precinct and let us know if you run into any closures.

Fundraising Update from Northern District Transportation Commissioner’s Race

The pre-election fundraising report deadline has come and gone in the Northern District Transportation Commissioner’s race and here are the numbers:

• John Caldwell (DeSoto County): $16,745.00 raised with $0 on hand
• Dennis Grisham (Tippah County): $95,000.00 raised with $2,728.00 on hand
• Joey Hood (Itawamba County): $3,000.00 raised with $0 on hand
• Larry Lee (Grenada County): $20.00 raised with $0 on hand
• Rep. Warner McBride (Panola County): $167,813.00 raised with $92,487 on hand
• Ray Minor (Marshall County): $6,300.00 raised with $532.00 on hand
• Mike Tagert (Oktibbeha): No report filed

To save you the math, Rep. Warner McBride has raised more than all of the other candidates combined.  More importantly, he has $92,487 in the bank, whereas his nearest competitor, Dennis Grisham, has $2,728. If this goes to a runoff, McBride will hold quite a monetary advantage.

Warner McBride's latest television spot

In an earlier post, we referenced Warner McBride's large ad buy in the Northern District Transportation Commissioner race.  Here's what's on the air:

McBride takes momentum into the last week of campaign

It’s not easy to distinguish yourself when you're one of seven candidates running for a down ticket office in a January election but television ads help. Of the seven candidates for Northern District Transportation Commissioner, Rep. Warner McBride has far outpaced the field with his ad buys to date. Only two other candidates have run television ads and those buys were noticeably smaller than McBride’s. The McBride campaign has also picked up the endorsement of the Mississippi Association of Realtors, one of the largest trade associations in the state.

That McBride has positioned himself well won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has tracked his career in the Mississippi Legislature. In Jackson, McBride has established himself as one of the most likeable and effective leaders in the state House. As Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, McBride has helped create a transportation budget that is responsible for over fifty thousand private sector jobs. Just last year, McBride was instrumental in passing a $300,000,000.00 jobs bill that not only put Mississippians back to work, but also included money to speed up highway projects and fix unsafe bridges across the state.

In a race that is almost certainly headed for a runoff, McBride looks like a strong contender.