Jackson Free Press

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson told the Jackson Free Press today that the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District was rethinking a plan to allot $12.2 million in stimulus money for road and bridge repair in Hinds, Madison and Rankin Counties. Thompson complained that the current plan gave economically distressed Hinds County $3.5 million, while giving financially affluent Madison County $4.2 million and Rankin County $4.5 million. The city of Jackson, a metropolitan area carrying the most paved roads in the state—and the most in need of repair—only qualified for $1.2 million under the plan.

"On its face I couldn't figure out how Hinds County, the largest county, received less. We were told on Friday that a new formula had been put together so that Hinds County would receive its proportional share of the money," Thompson said.

CMPDD Planning Director Larry Smith told the Jackson Free Press last week that federal law restricted the formula from awarding allocations based on population, though Thompson said Smith may have changed his mind in some respects.

"Go back to him. I think you'll find he's had a change of heart," said Thompson. "You can't tell me that given Hinds County's size—both in population, land area and road miles—that they qualify for less money than Madison and Rankin County."

CMPDD Chief Executive Officer Clarke Holmes said he could not say Hinds would be getting a bigger portion, however, because CMPPD has not devised a new formula, only that it had discarded the previous formula.

"We're basically back to square one now," Holmes said. "What we've got to do is try to keep the money and not make any serious mistakes along the way regarding federal regulations. We'll probably try to submit our methodology to the state and feds up front and see if they would sign off on it so we won't have all of this supposition about whether or not this will work."

Holmes added that $12 million was not a lot of money to work with regarding road repair, and wished the economic stimulus had focused more on infrastructure repair, similar in scope to the extensive highway projects devised during President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal strategy.

"We and everyone else thought this was going to be geared toward infrastructure and job creation and putting people to work, hopefully targeting areas of high unemployment, but what came down was simply taking existing agencies and programs and pumping more money into them," Holmes said. "Truth be known, this is a far cry from being a true pump primer."

Previous Comments

ID

144756

Comment

This formula situation sounds familiar. It reminds me of the formula used for the disbursement of funds to the Colleges and Universities here in MS. It is so interesting that MS State, Ole MS and USM get so much more then JSU, Alcorn and MVSU, "proportionally."

Author

justjess

Date

2009-03-16T13:22:39-06:00

ID

144759

Comment

Justjess- isn't college funding based on the number of students enrolled?

Author

BubbaT

Date

2009-03-16T14:06:44-06:00

ID

144761

Comment

BubbaT, perhaps a better question is: Isn't college funding SUPPOSE to be based on the number of students enrolled? For that question, the answer is yes. Historically, black colleges and universities have been funded based on race of the population served. This was also true of public schools. Are you familiar with the Ayers case? It will give you an indepth account of what MS has done relative to the funding of educational programs.

Author

justjess

Date

2009-03-16T14:37:33-06:00

ID

144776

Comment

Bennie that's what I am talking about making sure everyone is being treated fairly. I know it's hard to stand your ground but as long as you are doing right the ground you stand on will be solid.

Author

Tony Davis

Date

2009-03-17T07:20:23-06:00