Jackson Free Press

Winter was at its nastiest since 1989 this past week in Jackson, according to Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. The freezing cold attacked water pipes, causing more than 100 water line ruptures. Johnson pointed out that the city had commitments of assistance from the city of Greenville and Hattiesburg, both of whom sent water-repair crews, as well as the cities of Richland and Madison. The city of Pearl allowed the city to fill up its fire trucks with water, much of which went to Baptist Hospital for its heating and cooling system, and another 5,000 gallons of water went to the Central Mississippi Medical Center.

It was a wonderful outpouring of care. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if municipalities retained this kind of consideration throughout the legislative session?

The city of Jackson contains arguably the most expansive and oldest water system in the state. Some of the sewers creeping through the city's downtown area are brick-lined leftovers from the 1930s. Many of the water mains are made of outdated cast iron—as malleable as a tube of glass, and as practical as a wax hammer.

The city has been desperately in need of infrastructure upgrades for decades, but the state Legislature mostly refuses to address new money coming into the city. In fact, a majority of legislators hate the idea of the city raising its taxes on its own citizens to fund infrastructure upgrades. It took years for the Legislature to allow the city to hold a referendum vote to approve a local tax hike for a convention center.

Heck, the state wouldn't even allow a referendum vote to support a sales-tax increase to pay for more cops and infrastructure, until it took the spending power away from the city and put it into the hands of a commission with ties to state government.

Last year, legislators even took away the city's ability to set up "traffic light cameras" to photograph drivers speeding through red lights. The cameras put hundreds of thousands of dollars into city coffers from violators who couldn't argue with a photo. But legislators apparently envisioned their own license plates speeding under a red flash and made it illegal to use the cameras.

And yet, the city clearly has need of infrastructure upgrades—upgrades that made the city's role in state government painfully obvious as government buildings shut down one after the other Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and maybe longer.

It's time to invest a little more in the city. Too many municipalities think they have severed their ties with Jackson. But as long as the city is home to state services and the heart of its health-care industry, nobody inside the state border will ever be completely independent of it, and certainly not as long as local legislators flush a Capitol toilet.

Do the right thing, Mississippi, and help take care of your capital city.

Previous Comments

ID

155101

Comment

Certainly don't think about raising taxes on city residents. I heard more than one this week complaining about paying the highest taxes in the metro yet having by far the worst infrastructure.

Author

bill_jackson

Date

2010-01-14T15:54:04-06:00

ID

155248

Comment

Who else would pay for it? I would prefer my tax dollars go to improving and maintaing the infrastructure in my community. The high taxes and lack of services is why I am now outside of the city limits. Makes you wonder just where all of that money goes.

Author

js1976

Date

2010-01-19T10:19:06-06:00

ID

155256

Comment

I agree, baquan2000. "You can't keep putting off long term problems, with short term patch jobs." The Mayor left this am for DC. He is meeting with some great people who just might lend a helping hand toward getting some of the $3000million needed to rebuild our system. It angers me to think of how Barbour was willing to give Ranking and Madison Co. the lion's share of the stimilus money. When I hear him talk of closing and merging, I began to wonder: Where are all of the promises you made when campaigning fro governor? Just asking.

Author

justjess

Date

2010-01-19T11:45:32-06:00

ID

155260

Comment

Justjess, if you look at Recovery.gov you can see where the money is being allocated for the State of Mississippi. No where in there does it list Madison and Rankin County recieving the "lion's share". What leads you to believe Barbour has given more to these counties and overlooked Jackson?

Author

js1976

Date

2010-01-19T12:51:06-06:00