Dear Editor,
In a recent column arguing that Dick Hall is right about raising the gas tax Wyatt Emmerich states “In the last five years, 26 states have raised the gas tax, but Mississippi hasn’t raised the tax in 25 years.” One could therefore deduce that if roughly half the states raised the gas tax, the other half did not, which diminishes your argument. Someone else could say that for the past 35 years, Mississippi legislators have been fiscally responsible while others just piled on the pork.
Emmerich’s argument regarding the Bible story about the Pharoah ordering people to make bricks but withholding the straw is similarly flawed. The state is not eliminating the gas tax, they’re just telling the pigs in government to do with what they have. The “straw” is there.
Why are there over 1,000 deficient bridges that need repair or replacement, and more importantly, why does the MDOT lack the reserves to fix them? Why don’t you inform readers what revenue was generated from their collections of gas tax, and provide a line by line itemization of how that money was spent instead of spewing propaganda? If you did, I am confident that people would demand a reduction in the gas tax.
Thirty-five year ago, most of this revenue being collected went to building roads, which was a huge capital expenditure. These roads have since been paid for 20 times over, and are now in a “maintenance phase.” What has been done to maintain these roads for the past 25 years? I suspect they waited until the roads and bridges were decrepit and their coffers empty to sound the alarm.
Emmerich states that roads built with our tax dollars have enable industry to come to this state such as automakers. Great! Take the tens of millions of tax dollars they’re supposedly pumping into the coffers to pay for those expenditures and replace the roads and bridges. Oh, wait a minute – let me guess – Mississippi gave those companies such “incentives” to come here that they’re paying little taxes. Too bad! Running a state requires statesmanship and leadership, and Dick Hall has shown that he lacks both.
Philip Delgrosso
