Extra Mile Podcast: Legislative Session - MDOT Executive Director Brad White’s Legislative Wrap

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*SHOW INTRO*

(Drew Hall) MDOT presents The Extra Mile Podcast

(Paul Katool) Welcome into another edition of the extra mile podcast. legislative session presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm Paul Katool. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host Will Craft and last episode with MDOT chief of staff, Jeff Ely. Go check that out.

We teased a legislative wrap up episode and that's today. We've got an interesting backdrop. We also have the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Brad White here. Thank you so much for making time for us.

(Brad White) Thank you, sir. I thought I sweated enough during the legislative session, but I’m sweating today.

(Paul) Back-to-back. We'll just jump into it. The question, the question, burning question. So, you're talking a lot about funding recurring revenue. How did that go?

(Brad) Well, we didn't get any recurring revenue, but we did have a good session. We’ve maintained what we've done the last three sessions, which is having an earmark free bill.

All of our special funds came to us intact. They gave us a supplemental appropriation, which would allow for another 250 million in capacity. construction projects. The 40 million matches that we needed another 10 million investments in the strategic multimodal fund. So overall, we'll end up with almost a 1.

5 billion budgets. About 800 million of that will be the federal funds that we've received. So, all in all, we had a good, clean bill that would get us through another year. But we still fell short of the recurring revenue. And in my opinion, that is the overarching need that we have. And but we did go up the mountain, stake a flag and we'll come back next year and start all over again.

(Will Craft) There you go. So, do you think we, it's not the end of that conversation, right? We set the table for that moving forward. That recurring revenue conversation is going to keep going,

(Brad) Right, I think we've started the conversation. I mean, that was the first session that's ever been talked about. Anybody that's ever followed the legislative process very rarely does anything happen overnight in one session.

So, I think it'll take some time. There were a lot of competing interests in the session. This time you had all of the Medicaid expansion debate. You had all of the school formula for funding formula debate among other things, but hopefully in the next session we'll be able to have find us a Champion within the legislature that have talked about this core function of government and the need to have Recurring revenue in order to plan out properly all of our construction and maintenance Projects, you know, it's hard to do that when you don't know what you're going to have the next year in the way of funding So it's going to be key But I do think we have everybody's attention.

I do think it was part of a discussion. It's just going to have to be an ongoing discussion.

(Will) What about some of that money you just mentioned going to big projects? I know it is one time, but they will move the needle. Hopefully some of the bigger projects I think I 55 being one of those and there may be another.

(Brad) highway 7 in a Lafayette County will be funded now fully We got close and fully funding the I 55 the first phase of I 55 in DeSoto County but I believe that we'll be able to make ends meet Hopefully with that and then that'll move all the other projects on the list up.

So next on the list will be I 55 in Madison to Gluckstadt Highway 25 in Flowood all the way down to I 59 in Forest County and others. So hopefully we'll continue moving. I, unfortunately, with a lack of funding and the rising cost, there will be some projects that we had on the capacity list that I expect to be dropping off of that in order to devote, what revenue we have to building out those projects that we've gotten far enough along to get to that stage as well as divert funds back into maintenance.

But hopefully that'll get people's attention and show that we're being serious about what our needs are. And I feel like that we'll find a solution to that.

(Paul) There you go. Perhaps an underrated success in the 2024 legislative session, the design bill that was unanimously passed. Correct.

(Brad) It went through clearly.

This is something that Governor Reeves was kind enough to tout in his state of the state address. If you remember at the beginning of the session an aspect of this was used in economic development. package that was passed for the Marshall County project early in the session. And so that kind of, as you said, set the table that when our bill finally came up before the legislature, it sailed through with, with very little opposition.

So, this would be another tool in the toolbox that the professionals here at MDOT have to try and deliver the product to the taxpayer in a way that we think will save time and money by trying to avert a lot of the risk and mitigate that risk out on the front end of the projects.

(Will) Talking about, keeping on, keeping on talking about.

Some of those funding things that we have working force intermodal was once again, funded ERBR once again, as well, I believe.

(Brad) Yeah. 30 million for ERBR, 10 million for the strategic multimodal fund. So, it's not as much funds as they gave us last year, but it's still enough to get some money out to help some of the needs that we have both on the local bridge system through ERBR, as well as through our ports and airports and rail needs around the state.

(Will) Great programs. I think we, you know, got a lot done. Maybe not everything we wanted, but a successful session.

(Brad) It's a step in the right direction.

(Will) Before we get to that next question, they're talking about some of our capacity projects. That is certainly a theme for this year.

We've got a little train activity in the background, but. The capacity project started last year. We're still moving along right on all those.

(Brad) We just awarded Highway 15 in Tippa County. Highway 49 Harrison County was awarded at the end of this last calendar year. We're looking forward to Highway 19 over in Neshoba County.

We still have the flowers interchange on I 20 in Warren County, Highway 90 down in Jackson County that will be coming up. And it seems like I may be Missing one. But now, of course, we have Highway 7, Lafayette County, I 55, and DeSoto. So, there's a total of about eight projects. Oh, the West Rankin Parkway in Rankin County.

Long awaited project that will be able to be moved. So, we've got about eight projects that, thanks to the legislature's investment in the last couple of years, we'll be able to bring to fruition and see being built.

(Will) And that's not, those aren't just, you know, repaving. Those are huge projects. Huge projects.

(Brad) These are true capacity projects. Bypasses widening of lanes at two lanes into four lanes, a brand-new road. And in some areas, a brand-new interchange. So yeah, there's significant projects.

(Paul) Well, before we get into some fun questions, any, anything you want to close with on the 2024 session, any kind of message you want to get out there?

(Brad) No, the, the only other thing that I would mention that we're real proud about, which is always a priority of, of the MDOT leadership is to continue to take care of our staff, our, our, the MDOT family, the team that carries out all the workday in and day out. I believe we're in a good position to continue adjusting salaries around the agency.

Maybe not to the level that we would like, but we'll still be able to go down that road and continue to try to improve the payment of the people that do the work that we do. that meets the mission of MDOT. So that was one of those things that we fight for every year, and I'm real proud that we're still going to be able to take advantage of the SEC squared that the State Personnel Board does, and I appreciate Lisa and Terrence and all the work that they do, and Earl and Jeff, and trying to put this plan together, and we'll be meeting soon to try to look at implementing that come July.

(Paul) Good deal, good deal. Well Will, let's hit it.

(Will) Yeah, the fun question is what everybody tunes in for. Yeah, just kidding. What do we do? Brad always asks you these same questions. Don't know if you have any new answers, but I'm sure you come up with one off top of your head. If you don’t want food and music, I'll let Paul take the music one.

But places to eat. We like to eat as many people as a podcast. You've been anywhere new lately?

(Brad) No, as you well know, I'm a bad creature of habit. I go to Martin’s; I go to Scrooges. I go to Elvie’s. Is that the name of the place? I was here by Manship for breakfast meetings. One of the best breakfasts and Jackson, I believe, Crechale’s.

But no, I'm a pretty big creature of habits. So, there is not a lot of new there.

(Will) Elvie’s though that I've been there one time for breakfast. It knocked my socks off. Good stuff.

(Paul) It's good. No stalkers. I live about 50 feet away. It's really hard not to go there every day. But I will give a shout out to Chef Hunter Evans over there.

It's a food podcast in addition to political, a political podcast. They are buying the Mayflower and going to renovate that. So, speaking of the legislative session, I'm sure there will be some legislators, some policy people over there next session checking it out. Sure. Yeah. So good deal. Thank you. Great answer there.

All right, Brad. So maybe a repeat answer with familiarity. But any new music, anything you've been listening to?

(Brad) I still, everybody that I have on my phone mostly is dead. George Jones, you know, well, Willie Nelson, still Raw Haggard, all of that. So, I still like kind of classic country and classic rock and some of that stuff.

So y'all make me sound like a boring person, but I like what I like.

(Will) Have you been to the Brandon amphitheater?

(Brad) No

(Will) No. All right. So, shout out Brandon. We got to get our boss over there. Check it out. As Ely mentioned, they do have some really great shows.

(Brad) Ely goes a good bit. He likes crowds more than I do.

(Paul) Fair enough. Fair enough. Got to hide out after the session for sure. That's right. There we go. Well, Brad, thank you for all your hard work. The MDOT staff for a successful legislative session. Thank you for joining us.

(Brad) Thank you for having me.

(Paul) Yes, sir. All right. We'll close things out there. Thank you to our listeners, our viewers for tuning into the Extra Mile podcast.

You can watch and listen to episodes by visiting goMDOT.com/TheExtraMile. Follow us on social media @MississippiDOT is the handle. We'll see you next time. We want to give a big thanks to Drew Hall. He really does most of the work for this show behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. And remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi Highways.

*SHOW OUTRO*

(Will) Thank you for subscribing to The Extra Mile Podcast. Help us out by leaving a review and a five-star rating wherever you download the show. After leaving a review, slide on into our DMS over on social media @MississippiDOT. And let us know as a thank you. We have compiled a Google map list of all of our guests’ favorite spots to eat on Mississippi highways.

It is our gift to you. Seriously, you guys are the best. We could not do the show without you. And we greatly appreciate the support. Remember, drive smart out there on Mississippi Highways.