At first glance, a bill passed Feb. 2 in the House regarding a sales tax for Jackson seems like a measure the Legislature’s conservative majority should avoid.
Since 2014, Jackson has had state permission to add an extra 1% sales tax to the state’s 7% rate. The city has received about $120 million from the 1% tax over the years and can use the money for improvements to water and sewer systems or road and bridge repairs.
However, according to the Magnolia Tribune website, the bill approved by the House this month, and sent to the Senate, mandates that all money from the 1% sales tax be used for repairs or improvements to the city’s water system or related infrastructure.
This sounds like the sort of “government from on high” that Republicans should oppose. Taxing and spending decisions work better when they’re made locally, so why take options away from Jackson officials and insist that they spend the sales tax money in such a specific way?
Part of it may be the disconnect between the Legislature’s white Republicans and Jackson’s Black elected officials, which has become more vocal in recent days.
Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, noted that the city is not being deprived of any money from the 1% sales tax. He then added this dig: “We’re just simply prioritizing where it’s going to be spent, and I hear Jackson’s got a water problem.”
As the whole country knows, Jackson does indeed have a water problem, and the city is about to receive $600 million from Washington, under the direction of a “water czar,” to do something about it. The proceeds from the 1% sales tax, totalling about $15 million a year, are minimal by comparison, and it is reasonable for city officials to believe they ought to be allowed, as originally stated, to divide it among various infrastructures as they see fit.
Unfortunately, all this advocacy for local spending control goes out the window as Jackson’s inability to manage essential infrastructure is made clear.
Another House bill, this one from Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, would fine the city $1 million each time it allows improperly treated wastewater to get into the Pearl River.
According to the Mississippi Today website, Currie said a consent decree against Jackson from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality isn’t doing enough to keep polluted water out of the Pearl River.
The 2012 agreement gave Jackson 18 years to make a number of improvements to its wastewater treatment system, but most of them had to be completed by November of this year. The city, citing a lack of money and staffing, has not done most of this work and is trying to renegotiate the agreement.
A year ago, Jackson reported allowing 2.1 billion gallons of untreated or partially treated wastewater into the Pearl River between March 2021 and February 2022, usually because of too much water entering the treatment plant at one time. That’s a lot of bad water — but it’s 30% less than the city let out the year before.
Jackson is not alone in wastewater troubles: Mississippi Today said Hattiesburg, Greenville and Meridian also are under federal consent decrees for wastewater violations. And there is no doubt these fixes will cost a lot of money, as cities everywhere are forced to deal with expensive fixes for aging infrastructure.
It’s a tough call, but the House is right to insist that all of Jackson’s 1% sales tax go to the city’s water system. The city has got to get its water and sewer problems under control. Jackson drivers may disagree as they dodge potholes, but any city that struggles to provide clean water and to treat sewage properly must make these repairs its priority.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
