'Chamber of Commerce' wants to eliminate business tax and raise taxes on consumers/drivers t
By Dennis Seid
Daily Journal
TUPELO, MS
Improving and maintaining Mississippi’s highways and bridges is a critical element of economic development, and it’s one of the key priorities of the Mississippi Economic Council.
Billing itself as the state’s chamber of commerce, MEC is on a statewide “Pacesetter” tour to talk about not only the state’s infrastructure, but also how to better train the workforce and how to improve the state’s economic competitiveness.
The tour stopped in Tupelo on Friday.
MEC President Blake Wilson touted the agency’s Excelerate Mississippi plan, which seeks to repair 936 state bridges and nearly 25,000 miles of roadway that are in critical need of attention.
Twenty-eight years after the state’s AHEAD plan four-laned more than 1,000 miles across the state at a cost of $3.38 billion, maintaining those roads and bridges is estimated to cost $6.6 billion.
“The cost for Excelerate Mississippi, which will improve roads and infrastructure is $375 million a year, which works out to about 37 cents per registered vehicle per day,” Wilson said.
“We’re not recommending which way to fund it; we just want the Legislature to figure out, and we’re telling them, ‘we trust you and we want to be part of the dialogue.’”
MEC has a menu of options for the Legislature to consider as revenue sources for Excelerate, including:
• Increase the excise tax on gasoline and diesel. It’s now at 18 cents a gallon and hasn’t been changed since 1987. For every 1 cent increase, $21.7 million can be raised.
• Increase vehicle registration fees. For each $10 increase, $27.5 million can be raised.
• Increase the general sales tax, with an exemption for groceries and medicine. For every .05 percent increase, $177.8 million can be made
“It’s a buffet of options and you can decide what you want,” he said. “It’s a good process we went through . … and for the first time, we’ve defined what the problem is, and we’re only solving a portion of it. We can replace the wood pilings under the bridges, we can get to the worst portions of roads. … we can begin catching up.”
Wilson also said MEC was focused on eliminating the state’s corporate franchise tax. Mississippi is one of only 12 states with the tax.
Phasing out the tax – which brought in more than $242 million in 2014 – will benefit the state in the long run, Wilson said.
A recent study estimates more than 3,200 jobs could be generated by 2020 with the elimination of the tax. The state’s GDP would also increase by $257 million in the same span. By 2025, personal income is forecasted to increase by $288 million if the franchise tax is eliminated.
“We’d be more competitive if we did that,” Wilson said. “It really is a tax that’s an impediment to economic growth.”
dennis.seid@journalinc.com
Twitter: @dennisseid
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