Carroll County and the towns of North Carrollton, Carrollton and Vaiden will see a nice chunk of change for various project from the state after the Mississippi Legislature passed a three-part bill that encompasses the new state lottery, a bill that splits the 2010 Deepwater Horizion BP oil settlement money, and the Mississippi Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2018, which allocates funding for roads and bridges by using the state’s use tax and the internet tax.
After the five-day session, the House and Senate passed Senate Bills 2001 and 2002. District 14 Senator Lydia Chassaniol was a co-author on both bills that were signed into law. SB 2001 creates the Alyce G. Clarke Mississippi Lottery Law, which sets up the Mississippi Lottery Commission along with a board of directors chosen by the governor and approved by the legislature.
The bill designates the first $80 million in revenue from the lottery will go toward infrastructure with the remainder going toward education.
The distribution of the $50 million in internet sales tax will be split between all 82 counties based on a formula that takes into account population, the square miles of each county, and equal shares to each county. Representative Karl Oliver [R-Winona] said estimates projected for internet sales tax collections is $338 per year.
Montgomery County will receive $397,310 in the distribution, while Carroll County will receive $466,123.
The distribution to cities and towns are based on population, sales tax revenue, and equal shares. Locally, Winona receiving $147,813; Kilmichael $24,772; Duck Hill $24,206; Carrollton, $17,494; North Carrollton, $19,545; and Vaiden, $27,410.
Senate Bill 2002 allocates funds from the $1.5 billion settlement from BP PLC with the state of Mississippi to cover economic damages from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The bill mandates that 70 percent of funds from the settlement will go to the six southernmost counties in Mississippi – the ones most affected by the spill. The bill allocated the remaining funds to be shared with the other 76 counties, with more than $100 million earmarked for special infrastructure projects across the state.
In Carroll and Montgomery counties, money earmarked for special projects include $300,000 for street improvements in the City of Winona, $ 500,000 for Carroll County to repair a bridge on County Road 157, $200,000 for street improvements in the Town of Carrollton, $100,000 for resurfacing and street improvements in the Town of Vaiden, $100,000 for repairs and upgrades to the Marshall Elementary School Road, and $200,000 for Binford Street upgrades for the Town of Kilmichael.
Supervisors Jim Neill, Terry Brown and Dill Tucker went to the capital during a special session to learn more about the state’s plans to assist counties. During their Monday meeting, Supervisor Claude Fluker and Neill and Brown to give a report on how the meeting went.
“I spoke with Gov. Bryant, and he told me that they were going to get us some help,” Neill said.
The Senate’s solution is to allocate the internet tax funds to the counties for bridge repair, and while the state is also allocating $50 million for road and bridge repair, Neill said it would only bring in $466,000 in funding for Carroll County.
“They’re giving each county $203,000 and then they’re going to give the rest based on population and road mileage,” Neill said. “That’s only $466,000 for us. If they split it up equally between the 82 counties, then we would have each received $608,000 and I figured we weren’t getting that because some counties only have 1,800 residents and some have a million and it wouldn’t be fair to give the same amount to the smaller counties.”
He said the money is being allocated based on a formula the legislatures agreed upon.
Another component that was mentioned was the leftover BP money from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill back in 2010.
“They were also talking about giving us the BP money and that’s a good bit of money,” Brown said. “I think it’s like $798 million and if they divided up between the 82 counties that’s a good bit.”
However, the legislature chose to give 75 percent of the oil spill money to the Gulf Coast region and split the other 25 percent, totaling over $111,000,000 between several counties, municipalities and the Mississippi Railroad Authority. However, 20 counties did not receive anything from the bill.
When asked if the gas tax was mentioned, Neill said Bryant was adamant about not raising the gas tax.
“He said it would be a burden on all the working people,” Neil said.
