Our Opinion: Mec Presents Maintenance Plan, Possible Funding Options

Mississippi Economic Council’s annual roadshow and promotion of its legislative and policy agendas stopped in Tupelo on Friday, attracting an almost full house to the Summit Center to hear reports on and discuss better-maintained highways, public education and workforce development. The mid-day meeting, open with a free lunch for everyone who attended, placed greatest emphasis on “Excelerate Mississippi,” a heavily researched plan to fully maintain the state’s highway system and incrementally replace aging, dangerous bridges on state, county and city roadways. The program would operate on a 10-year cycle, costing $375 million more per year than is currently spent on maintenance and bridges for the state, counties and cities. Like the predecessor AHEAD highway construction program enacted in 1987 and implemented at a cost of $3.38 billion over 26 years, Excelerate would be statewide. However, it would not be a construction program but a maintenance program to save the 1987 highways from deterioration.