Jackson Free Press

"We should be cutting government, not killing jobs by raising people's gas prices."

—Sen. Will Longwitz, R-Madison, responding a plan Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, proposed to raise gasoline taxes by 8-to-10 cents per gallon to pay for road maintenance.

Why it stinks: Same old, same old conservative response—reduce the size of government regardless of what the issue is.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Mississippi's roads are in bad shape. Without funding to repair and maintain the roads we have, those highways and by-ways will simply continue to deteriorate, making them damaging to vehicles and dangerous to those who drive on them.

So far, the state Legislature has been terrifically one-sided in its funding for Mississippi's road network. It funded expansion but not maintenance. That's an oversight that lawmakers must address, and it's unlikely that they can simply "rob Peter to pay Paul," shifting money from one agency to another.

If Mississippians want roads they can safely drive on, they will need to pay for their upkeep.