Improving Mississippi’s roads and bridges remains a top priority for the Mississippi Economic Council, officials with the agency that serves as the state’s chamber of commerce said as they recently made a stop in Pike County.
Speaking to area business leaders and officials at the Regional Workforce Center at Southwest Mississippi Community College, topics of discussion included roads and infrastructure, economic development, the state’s workforce and healthy living.
Scott Waller, the economic council’s executive vice president, said the MEC is continuing the push it began last year to call on lawmakers to increase highway funding in the state.
MEC leaders, touting a program called Blueprint Mississippi, want the state to spend an additional $375 million to improve roads and bridges, calling the current condition of state highways a detriment to business recruitment.
Blueprint Mississippi seeks to make the state more attractive to new businesses that want to relocate to Mississippi and have safe and reliable transportation, Waller said.
In 1987, the state launched an ambitious highway construction program that created four lane highways throughout the state. These roads now make it possible for businesses like Nissan, Toyota, Continental and Yokohoma Tires to bring their businesses to the state, Waller said.
The economic council believes in order to bring in more businesses into the state, the roads and bridges have to be improved.
Waller said the state has 4,000 bridges that are in need of repair and another 2,400 that are posted, meaning they can no longer carry the weight capacity listed. He said there are 24,500 lane miles in the state that are in need of repair and 13,192 lane miles on the local level that are in very poor condition.
“It’s a major, major problem. It’s an accident waiting to happen,” Willie Simmons, chairman of Highways and Transportation Committee said in a video message. “We have to address the problem now. The longer we wait the more it will cost.”
The council also is promoting another program called Excelerate Mississippi, which aims to create jobs in tandem with road and bridge improvements.
Waller noted that Pike County was the 12th stop on a tour across Mississippi. The presentation also included video messages from Mississippi Economic Council chair Robin Robinson, CEO Blake Wilson Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Phillip Gunn and other prominent leaders. Rep. Sam Mims V, R-McComb, and McComb Mayor Whitney Rawlings also were in attendance, along with Pike County supervisors.
Waller said the Economic Council is reaching out to officials in different areas of the state to try to get feedback on how to improve the health of residents, the state’s workforce and other economic development issues.
Waller noted that the council has educational programs such as Mississippi Scholars, Mississippi Tech Masters and STAR student and STAR teacher, which are managed by the Public Forum for Education.
Robinson, the MEC’s president, said in a video message that those programs have given away $1.3 million in scholarships and help guide students to the workforce or to college after high school.
Waller asked the group a series of questions that they answered by using a keypad. One of the questions asked what improvements could be made in the state. Of the responses, 38 percent said the state’s image, 33 percent said infrastructure, 14 percent said taxes and 14 percent said regulations.
Waller said the results are different from the ones he’s seen around the state.
“It shows that we don’t give ourselves enough credit as a state. We are viewed differently in-state than we are viewed out-of-state. It’s a great state and we’re focused on growing our economy. We’re here to talk about the issues,” Waler said.
Gov. Phil Bryant, in a video message, the state has made significant steps in creating an environment that brings jobs to Mississippi.
“We are competing with Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina and we’re winning,” he said.
