For years the Mississippi Department of Transportation and business groups around the state have been complaining that the revenue stream for fixing roads and bridges has not been keeping up with the rising costs.
John Caldwell, the transportation commissioner for the northern third of the state, was beating that drum last week during a talk to the Greenwood Rotary Club.
He said MDOT’s budget has been roughly the same for the past decade, even while the costs of materials and labor have risen. That has put Mississippi years behind in bringing its transportation infrastructure up to snuff, in part because MDOT can’t hire enough workers for what it can afford to pay. Caldwell said that 25% of the authorized positions in MDOT at the district level are currently unfulfilled, which explains why it seems to take forever to get even supposedly simple tasks done.
Just like the problems have been obvious for years, so has the solution: raising the fuel tax.
The problem is that the Legislature, because of its stubborn refusal to consider a tax increase on gasoline and diesel, squandered a perfect opportunity to raise the tax a couple of years ago. Back then, gasoline prices had fallen below $2 a gallon, a historic low when adjusted for inflation. Mississippi could have easily raised the tax, which has been stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1987, by 10 or 15 cents. There may have been some initial grousing, but within a week, everyone would have adjusted and moved on with their lives.
Now the political conditions are not as favorable. Inflation, thanks to supply shortages and pent-up demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, is running at its highest pace in decades. Gasoline alone has jumped in price by about $1 per gallon since January.
Voters will be sensitive now to anything politicians do that further raise prices, and potential challengers to incumbent lawmakers will be ready to pounce on any tax increases.
Raising the gas tax still needs to be done. It’s the only logical and equitable way to ask those who use the roads and bridges to pay their fair share toward maintaining them. It just would have been so much easier if it had been done when the timing was perfect.
- The Greenwood Commonwealth
