The Extra Mile Podcast) Legislative Session
MDOT Executive Director Brad White

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[Music and Intro]

(Paul Katool) Welcome in to the latest episode of the Extra Mile Podcast legislative session presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm MDOT Deputy Director of Public Affairs, Paul Katool. And as always, I'm joined by my cohost, Will Kraft, who is the Division Director here in Public Affairs and well, it’s kind of crazy. We've been doing these legislative episodes for three years now. time flies for truly, truly, and no better way to kick off the third year of us doing this than having MDOT Executive Director, Brad White in the house. Brad, thank you for joining us. And I trust that, absolutely trust that you got a little bit of a break during the holidays before we get into this four-month period.

(Brad White) I did. I mainly stayed around the house, went to the gym a few times, but it was nice.

(Will) Very nice.

(Paul) Excellent.

(Will) Well, kicking things off, you know, as we get, get the year going here, got a whole bunch of good stuff, got the session going. But first and foremost, we've got the commissioners in place. You know, we've got our oath of office behind us, swear again ceremony was just last week, right?

(Brad) Right. Tuesday.

(Will) So we got, we got them sworn in, everybody newly or duly elected and got commissioner Busby joining up, joining the team. So, he's got him in place and then, chairmanship. Selected chairman, correct?

(Brad) They elected Willie Simmons chairman, correct. So, Commissioner Busby, obviously new to the commission, but not new to MDOT. He's been the House Chairman of Transportation for the last, I think, eight, maybe twelve years. no, eight years. so he's been a great partner of our agencies for some time. Very familiar with the agency, how our funding works and can hit the ground running understanding what MDOT's all about. so glad that he's here. Of course, Commissioner Caldwell and Commissioner Simmons returned from the election for another four years and, one of the first things the commission does after they're sworn in is they meet to organize. And Commissioner Simmons was elected to serve as chairman, which is exciting. Commissioner Simmons, you know, spent, you know, almost three decades, I guess, in the state senate. He's very familiar with the state government. He's been here for four years, has always been a great supporter of the staff here and the mission of the department and easy to work with. And so, looking forward to, to him, presiding over the commission and working with us, to advance transportation.

(Will) It's going to be good stuff. Commissioner Simmons, good man, good fella.
(Paul) He got a lot of positive feedback on social media, a lot of well wishes. So nice to see that, every January 1st, it seems there's a little bit of a turnover and things like that, you know, retirements and that sort of thing. Lots of good people here at the DOT are in new positions, lots of staff changes. You want to talk about that?

(Brad) Yeah. real excited about, the team that's in place, Earl Glenn, who I'm sure y'all have on at some point, as new chief engineer. Earl's no stranger to MDOT, he's been in the district's offices, he's been in our construction division, he's ran District 3 for some time now, and will be moving into the Chief's role, and already has hit the ground running, my confidence level just continues to grow in Earl every, the more we meet, the more we talk, he's got some big plans, and, I look forward to the accountability and the sense of urgency that he brings to the table to get our mission accomplished. We’ve also got Trudy Laughlin and Lee Frederick that are both coming in and taking over aspects of the pre-construction leadership position here at the department. Both of them, again, no stranger to MDOT. Hard workers, well respected in the industry, and I know will do a good job. Janie Bass, who's going to be our assistant chief engineer, overseeing construction maintenance, materials, you know, all of those types of field operation aspects of what we do, which is extremely important. She brings a great deal of experience and skill. I'm real excited about her being in that role. And of course, Jim Willis is going to be moving over and he'll maintain his position that he's had was as assistant chief engineer overseeing a lot of the operations of the department, but we'll be adding to that all of the multimodal divisions, ports and rail and aeronautics, public transit, will all become under the intermodal planning, and operations for the department. And Jim's a great guy, a great visionary, works well with people. And I think with, as the legislature has started investing more into the multimode aspect of what we do as a department of transportation, remember, we're not the old highway department anymore. I think Jim will allow us to, to move fast into the future and to kind of remake that aspect of what MDOT does in those, those rounds. And so, I'm really excited about that. Of course, anytime you have a few moves at the top, it trickles down a domino effect. So, we've got new division heads and I think four different divisions, one new division, three other divisions. We've got two new district engineers and district three and six by virtue of retirements and Earl’s moving. So, I feel real good about where we are. I think we've got a good group of people together and of course I think the people that make up the teams that all of these individuals lead are good folks and I'm excited about what the future has for us.

(Will) Absolutely. Things definitely look good. All those folks, great folks. Great friends of public affairs in the podcast. We got to get them all on in one episode or two there. as you mentioned though coming into session, talking about intermodal stuff and that certainly might be on the table. What else, you know, I guess. First off, it's a little different. It's a four-month session this time, right?

(Brad) Yeah, the first session of every term gives a little bit of extra time, because the first part of the session is all pomp and circumstance, with everyone being sworn in, the inauguration of a governor, the reorganization of the Senate and the House, appointment of committees, committee chairman. So, they're given a little bit of a extra time to do their work. Oftentimes, when you've got the same governor, same lieutenant governor, in times past, same speaker of the session, they have the ability to shorten it if they need to, and they're getting ahead of schedule. And with the, these types of leadership that we have over there, it wouldn't surprise me if that's what they did. But yeah, it's scheduled to be a 120-day session.

(Will) Mm hmm.

(Paul) Wow. Wow. That's quite a, that's quite a gruel. So, good luck to everybody involved, for sure.

(Will) 120 days, we'll be here, you know, comes and goes quicker these days, it seems like. But yeah. Wow.

(Paul) Absolutely. So, one of the first things I've heard you talk about, kind of your main talking point when you've been on some of these shows, lately, is the recurring revenue for the agency. We need some sustainable funding for roads and bridges in Mississippi. Can you talk more about that and any kind of specific ideas on that?

(Brad) Yeah, I mean, when I first came back to MDOT two and a half years ago, you know, our goal was more money for our, our staff, more money for our projects, and better the relationship with the legislature. And I think that we've accomplished those things. We still have a long way to go in some of them, I mean, we still hope to continue moving salaries around in the agency, into next year. We hope to continue getting money for our projects, and we'll, you know, keeping a good relationship with your state and federal leaders is an ongoing process. But I do think that we've done enough in those areas where it's time to focus on something that's a really big ticket item, and that is reoccurring revenue, which is going to take a lot of, leadership on the part of those under the Capitol Dome to be willing to step up and say, how are we going to provide for the Department of Transportation's mission and providing this core function of government? As you know, for decades, we've primarily been funded by the Fuel Tax. I think that's an antiquated system. I think that the legislature would be unable to raise the fuel tax enough to properly take care of the needs that we have. So, I think in today's economy, we've got to have a new, more fresh approach to developing a model of how our funding is going to come about.
And I think it has to be diversified, in that it's going to come from different sources instead of just one. So that we can deal with the ebbs and flows of the market and what happens from that standpoint. We have talked with leadership about things like, gaming revenue that comes into the state that currently is unobligated, use tax revenue that comes into the state that is currently unobligated and would traditionally go into the general fund for the legislature to dole out. Last year that generated about $300 million. And I would make the argument that that's money that could be well used here. It could come to the Department of Transportation, help plug the hole in our deficit of our paving and maintenance programs that could also help us cash flow capacity program that would allow us to continue building all of the projects that we want to build to benefit the state system, increase efficiency and safety, to our system without having to go back to the legislature every year for one time money. I think it's just a more common-sense approach to how we would do that. And I'm very glad that You know, most everybody that I've talked with, they see the importance of transportation. They see the importance of providing for a good infrastructure system. And so, I think that we're going to have a meaningful conversation about that. In the past, I think that the transportation industry has made a mistake by jumping up and immediately just suggesting that we should raise taxes in order to pay for something. You know, fortunately, most people under the dome doesn't, you know, like the idea of just raising everybody's taxes, without first studying and making sure that we can live within our own means. And I believe that we've given them some options, I guess you would say, that would prove that there is revenue that could come to us that would accomplish what we're wanting to do and what we're required to do in a way that would fit within the current tax structure and not require raising anyone's taxes, to do it. So hopefully that'll work out.

(Will) Well, I certainly have no answers to that. I'm all in favor of no further raising taxes. Daycare is expensive. What else we got on tap for the session? I know there's plenty that maybe has been tried or looked at before. Anything major otherwise coming up?

(Brad) Well, you know, we've got a new division. Alternative Delivery Division that Jessica Dilley was heading up. And so, I know that there are some things that we'll be asking the legislature to give us in a way of authorizing language that would give our staff just some additional tools in the toolbox with which to do, um, our job, that would give us more options of how we go about delivering a product to the taxpayer and hopefully would increase our efficiency, allow us to do it cheaper and quicker and, better. So, there's things like that that we'll look at. I still want to get through the session without any earmarks in our federal program bill. I still want to get through the session with the authority in place for us to continue moving salaries, so we'll be kind of guard dogging those types of items.

So there, there are things there, but nothing quite to the match of trying to get us a stream of revenue that we could rely on that would go into the future that our industry, and our department could plan on. And one thing that I failed to mention earlier when I was talking about it, something that's different now than when we did this before, or when we would go to the legislature for additional money, is that we now have accounts set up at the Department of Finance and Administration that are strictly for federal match, strictly for paving and maintenance, and a third one that's strictly for capacity. The importance of that is Now the legislature has a vehicle through which they can put money, they can divert money into these accounts in an agency that reports to the governor that only MDOT can tap that money, but the only way we can tap that money is to then draw down for it to go directly to a project. So now there's a system in place that allows a legislature to appropriate money or divert funds and know that 100% of the money goes directly to the road. And in the past, that's not been the case. In the past, some would argue that in years past that money would come to MDOT. And some had the opinion that it fell in a hole that didn't always go strictly to the to the projects. And some of the old legislators still remember when the building that we're in was built. And fortunately, none of us are responsible for that. But they felt like, you know, we want to be, we don't mind giving money to MDOT. We want to be sure it gets to the project. And I think these accounts allow for that and give them confidence for that. And hopefully, remove that as an obstacle in our way, to getting these, these funds. So, I'm excited about that.

(Paul) That's fantastic. I think the public, you know, wants to know, needs to know the money coming in. I know we've gotten record funds in the last few years, definitely going to our roads and bridges for sure.

(Brad) The best way to get good things is to deserve good things. And I think that what we've done puts us in a position, thanks to the men and women that make up the department, the decisions we've made here, the manner in which our people do their work, we've deserved, the things that we're asking for. And I think that we've proven that we can be trusted with these resources when we've asked them not to earmark the federal program. You know, we told them, if you just want to earmark that, you'll give us the flexibility that we can manage the program in a way that'll give us the ability to go after additional federal obligation authority. And just in this past year, thanks to Mac and his team and the way our staff has managed that, we were able to ask for an additional hundred million or so. And federal obligation authority, which results in more federal funds. And had they earmarked that program, they being the legislature, had that program been earmarked, we wouldn't have had the flexibility to move the money around in order to accomplish that. And so, they took us at our word two sessions ago and we proved that we could be trusted with our word, and we proved that we were right with what we told them, that it does result in an increase of funds for the taxpayers of this state. So, our staff doing a good job and, and fulfilling what we promised the legislature we would do, we now have the credibility that we can be trusted. And so, I think that that's something else that I'm forever in debt to the people that do the work here in a way that allows us to be in a position to have credibility when we go across the street.

(Will) A full slate of things to work on over there and we'll certainly be keeping tabs and hopefully we'll go back to a weekly episode. So, we'll be trying to keep abreast of all the happenings and moving parts and pieces over there. To move into a little lighter side of things, two quick questions for you here as we wrap things up. I'll take the second one, Paul, if you want to ask him about his New Year's.

(Paul) Oh yeah, sure. Certainly, everybody in public affairs has a New Year's resolution. We want to know the director’s, New Year's resolution.

(Brad) Well, I hope that I can maintain the discipline to continue going to the gym. You know, I've lost about 30 pounds in the last six months. And I feel good and tried to get, you know, alcohol consumption and other things over a very moderate control. And so, my New Year's resolution is to try to stay on track with that and just continue taking better care of myself. I'm not quite as young as I used to be, and so I thought it was time for me to grow up and eat better and act better and live better, so I hope to stick to that.

(Paul) That's a great one.

(Will) These are some of the same conversations me and Paul were having earlier today, you know, but then the next side of things, we normally ask about music and things. So, we've had that question and talked about that with you before, but a musician may be closer to home than what we realized for you, Brad, right? You got a family member?

(Brad) Megan May has a new album coming out. She is a, her father and my mother are first cousins. And while that may seem a long ways off, as you know how Mississippi is, particularly in Simpson County, I mean, we all grew up together and right down the road and we're all very close. But yeah, she's got a new album out. I don't know where she got her talent from. It certainly wasn't from my side of the family. But very I mean, good with a guitar, great voice, and I'm real excited for her.

(Will) Yes, absolutely. Coming out, I believe it was January 8th or 9th at the Blue Front Cafe. She'll have a little debut going on, so lots of fun stuff going on out there, but I'll turn it back over to Paul, man. I appreciate it.

(Paul) Yeah, and Will played a little bit of it for me before he got in here.

(Will)

(Paul) Good stuff. We love the blues, Mississippi the blues, nothing like that.

(Will) That's right.

(Brad) Her grandmother and my grandmother were sisters, and both were very good on the piano. And my grandmother liked to play classical music, and she played the organ and piano at our church for, you know, 60 years. Her older sister, Megan's grandmother, played the organ at their church for many years, but Annie enjoyed playing the boogie woogie and rock and roll and all of that. She liked to make the piano rock, and Megan has a lot of Annie's talent. Her mood of things.

(Will) I was gonna give you a Bentonia Voodoo Queen January 28th So check it out.

(Paul) That is a cool name. Everybody go get that album for sure. Anyway, Brad, Thank you for visiting us to with us today.

(Brad) Yeah.

(Paul) Greatly appreciate it. Like Will said, you know, we're gonna be keeping everybody up to date on the legislative happenings in 2024. I want to thank all of our listeners, our viewers for tuning into the Extra Mile Podcast Legislative Session. You can watch and listen to episodes by visiting goMDOT.com/TheExtraMile.

Be sure to follow us on social media @MississippiDOT is the handle. Wanted to thank Roy Atkins for filling in for Drew Hall today and making this show go and remember to drive Smart out there on Mississippi Highways.