JACKSON, Miss. — You may be asked to decide if you should pay an even higher gas tax to help pay for repair work on Mississippi’s highways and bridges.
State Senator Willie Simmons chaired a State Transportation Task Force and is suggesting the hike to help come up with $700 million to cover highway maintenance. News Mississippi asked Southern District Tom King his views. “The people I talked to would like to have a vote in it,” he said. So he favors a statewide referendum. “We can currently show the needs and the projects in each of the three districts.” And he said the voters would be show how their extra tax dollars would be divided so that all roads, highways and bridges would benefit. “In Arkansas, and I would like to see the same thing happen here in Mississippi, 15% of the money would go to the counties, 15% would go to the cities, and 70% we would receive here at M-DOT.”
Some state lawmakers don’t think the referendum would pass, because obviously people don’t want higher taxes.
