Whaley updates board on issues

Sen. Neil Whaley answered a call to the Marshall County Board of Supervisors to provide up-to-date information on Senate bills, especially those that affect funding of roads and bridges and education.

He said a $1 billion infrastructure bill in the House would dramatically improve the outlook of highways and roads. He said it would dovetail with an infrastructure plan in the Trump Whitehouse to spend $1.5 trillion in infrastructure he announced in the 2018 State of the Union speech.

The state plans to put $60 million into the Local System Bridge Program – $20 million for the past 2017 year, and $20 million a year for the next two years. The funding will be spread over the 82 counties.

Whaley said there is also a plan to put $125 million into county and municipal projects with high priority on those projects shared among local governments.

There is a controversial harvest infrastructure bill that keeps weight limits to 84,000 pounds. The bill deals with axle distribution of farm-to-market vehicles depending on the number of spans on the bridge and axle distribution.

“We did not raise it to the 90,000-pound limit because it is a distribution,” Whaley said. “You won’t go from 84,000 to 90,000 pounds.”

SB2418 will require counties go through another bridge inspection, which is mandated by the feds.  It is costly and will take from two to four years, supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett said.

Bennett said it would take $4 million to $5 million to reinspect bridges and asked why the state would have to reinspect the bridges.

County engineer Larry Britt weighed in.

He said MDOT (Mississippi Department of Transportation) and the federal highway people had said they would void certain inspections, especially some on timber bridges they thought were rated too high (load limits too high).

“So, the feds went in and hired nine or 10 consultants to review bridges with timber,” Britt said. “We had five pilings we thought were bad and they added five more. They were solid as a rock. What they are telling you is this bill, for the first round of inspections, costs $30 million. The second round of money is not there to pay for them.”

Britt said inspections would be paid for out of the State Aid Fund which would mean less money will be available for road and bridge improvements locally.

Supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett argued that those extra five inspections ordered by the feds sound like job security for the inspectors.

Britt said out of all the bridges over the state inspected, at a cost about $30 million, county engineers would have charged 100 times less than that.

Supervisor Charles Terry asked whether it would be best to get with the local delegation to help with it.

Whaley said these inspections could be due to extra regulations put on by another branch of MDOT.

The Mississippi Adequate Education Program provides funding deemed necessary to operate at least an adequate or “C” level district. Whaley said he was not around when the MAEP (Missis­sippi Adequate Edu­cation Program) was written in 1987. The bill mandated fully funding education but has only met its requirements twice, both times when there was an excess in the general fund, the senator said.

The current proposal allows each district to operate at a “C” level, which does not take away from the fact that MAEP is not fully funded. Whaley said the new proposal offers some districts more funding while others it does not.

Terry asked why the current proposed funding bill puts more money into education than MAEP.

Whaley said it is obvious the new proposal offers more money.

“How can we do it if we can’t do MAEP?” Terry said.

It was an attempt to pass it now and fix it later, he said.

“I wanted to get something done now,” Whaley said. “It is still sitting on the table being held over our heads. Something needs to be done.”

Bennett said under the proposed bill, by 2021 schools would be funded by another $130 million, as weighed against the current $200 million to $300 million. He added that legislators want to wait for school districts to reach their cap of 55 mills with state monies before the state would pay up.

The county school district is now at 38 mills, and school districts can ask for an additional 4 percent per year increase in funding. Bennett said that puts burdens on the county boards of supervisors to foot the bill because counties have to give districts what they request, but it comes out of the county’s general fund, meaning millage is added to the budget.

Whaley said the state now pays 73 percent of the school district budget while the county pays 27 percent.

He said the national state average to education is 48 percent with the national average to counties at 52 percent.

“All counties are not the same moneywise or populationwise,” Bennett said.

He said it is hard to give the school district that 4 percent increase when requested when there is not enough growth in the tax base to pay for it.

“But by law, we have to give it to them,” Bennett said. “Do you think that’s right?”

“No,” Whaley said. “Obviously, you raise the money and the school board has oversight (of how much to request). The school board can increase and the county has to give it. It makes the county look like the bad guy.”

Whaley said he did not vote on the total school bill but on the technical amendments.

“My vote was to keep it on the table and we could vote decisively - pass or fail - rather than have a special session which costs taxpayers money.”

Taylor said the county would be devastated if the school board asked for a 4 percent increase every year. He said he disagrees with some of his friends who say counties would be better off with charter schools.

“I disagree that it would help the poorer counties,” he said. “A lot of counties have programs we would love to have. I don’t like the direction it’s going on schools in Jackson. They talk about consolidating city and county schools. The state has to realize we’re taxed to death here.”

Whaley said he agrees that charter schools will not solve the problems of education and would take money away from public schools that are already challenged.

“Marshall County does not have funding for special needs children like DeSoto County has,” the senator said. “This school board has stuck with us.”

Terry said he has an issue with school vouchers that would move money from the public school with a child to a private school and leave public schools without the funds.

Whaley said there are only 3,000 vouchers proposed for the first year and only to special needs children. The projected goal would increase over time and academically achieving children would not receive vouchers but only those with disabilities.

Whaley said the number is capped so that students with special needs would get vouchers, then those students living in poverty would be considered next.

Bennett said there are 436 students on the voucher system in the state.

“What people think is that a child can move just anywhere who does not have special needs,” he said.

County consultant Gary Anderson said more than special needs students are getting vouchers, and it is projected that the number would be at 25,000 vouchers a year in five years.

Bennett asked about fire truck funding. Whaley said that bill was worked on to give some money to improve safety of fire trucks. It would add blue lights when fire trucks are parked on the scene so motorists know to move over as they are required to do for law enforcement.

Zinn asked whether there is money in the bond bill for Archives and History. The courthouse needs money for repair, he said.

Whaley said the request should get to Jackson before he does.

“It was needed yesterday to get it included,” he said. “It is fast paced.”