Legislative Session: State Representative Charles Busby

State Representative Charles Busby joined the show to talk about bills passing through his Transportation Committee, the future of transportation in Mississippi, projects he’s keeping an eye on and more.

MDOT presents The Extra Mile podcast legislative session.

Paul - Welcome in to another edition of The Extra Mile Podcast: Legislative Session. I’m your host Paul Katool. I’m here with my cohost Will Craft. And today we have the Chairman of the Transportation Committee in the Mississippi House of Representatives Charles Busby. And we’re so happy to have you here today. Chairman Busby assumed office in two 2012 and represents District 1 in Jackson County and we’re so happy to have you here today.

Chairman Busby - Well thanks, Paul. Thanks for having me. Will, I appreciate the invitation.

Will - Absolutely. Looking forward to it. Mr. Chairman, Tell us a little about yourself. How you kind of got involved in politics and what drove you to run?

Chairman Busby - Well I had the good fortune of having now Secretary of State Michael Watson working with me back in 2008, 2009. He was pretty adamant that he thought that I would make a reasonable legislator. He talked about the need for business-minded people in the legislature. I looked into it and decided that I thought that was something maybe I could help with. So I decided to make that run. I really enjoyed it. It’s such an honor to represent the people of Jackson County. I hope I’m doing them a halfway decent job. I try. It’s a real honor to represent them.

Will - Absolutely. As far as we’re concerned you are. Very much so. And I believe if I’m not mistaking you have an engineering background?

Chairman Busby - Yes sir. I have a degree in mechanical engineering about 20 years ago. As a matter of fact in 2021 we celebrated 20 years in business. I have an engineering firm known as Orion Engineering. We work almost exclusively in the private sector. We work in oil refineries and chemical plants, facilities and special chem facilities and things like that across the southeast from Georgia to Texas and as far north as West Virginia.

Will - Oh wow. I didn’t realize it was that big. Well and as Paul mentioned we are in the thick of the legislative session here about two and a half weeks in. Obviously there’s a laundry list of measures that have already been dropped and are going through. Any major important transportation things that are jumping out at you right now?

Chairman Busby - Well I think as we look at federal monies that have come in we’ve got to take care of those responsibly. ARPA money plus the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act that came through as you guys know, not telling you anything but perhaps telling our audience a little bit. It’s simply a reauthorization of existing federal programs for the next five years with an extra billion dollars in it.

So I think it’s on me and my counterpart in the senate Senator Branning to see how we can creatively find the 20 percent match that’s required for this additional billion dollars of federal money. So all those projects are 20-80 match. We need to be able to find an additional 200 million dollars to capture that billion dollars in federal money over the next five years.

Then working with the executive director here at MDOT and the Commission on establishing what the priorities ought to be for those dollars over the next three to five years looking at those areas that are really in need of capacity increase which is something we somewhat had a moratorium on over that past several years because of lack of funding.

Paul - Chairman Busby, you touched on a little bit but can you talk about any kind of hurdles that we have right now to jump through to kind of advance transportation infrastructure in the state of Mississippi?

Chairman Busby - Well, Paul, It’s kind of tough. I don’t think I’d like to be a commissioner right now because of how things are changing. As we move towards autonomous vehicles what do those roadways need to look like? How to limit access roadways that are needed across the state in order to support autonomous vehicles. Now most people don’t have an autonomous vehicle but in the groups that I run in and the people that are looking forward to the future of what the infrastructure looks like we know they’re coming. They’re right on our doorstep. And if we don’t have limited access roadways to support those then we’re not going to be able to attract those people that are driving those vehicles.

Little things like the unmanned delivery systems of Amazon, UPS and FedEx. It’s those things that we need to be looking at. And then as car manufacturers start to move away from internal combustion engines and the utilization of fossil fuels goes down while you know, I’m not telling you guys anything MDOT is a special fund agency.

When you guys come over and get your appropriations bill every year it’s not that we’re taking money out of the general fund. We’re simply giving you permission to spend the dollars that come in through those specific revenue streams. And so those revenue streams I think are going to well they’ve already started as a matter of fact. They’ve already started to go down. So we have to look at a different taxing mechanism in order to fund our roads and bridges.

I think Ford has said that they’re not going to build an internal combustion engine after twenty thirty. GE’s right behind them. We already are seeing an uptick in electric vehicles. I think we’ll probably see another uptick in fuel sell vehicles. So we’re gonna have to change where we get our money from. Now fortunately with some forward thinking folks in the legislature I guess about four years ago 2018 we put a tax on electric vehicles, electrics and hybrids. Thank goodness that we did that. That’s going to fill in the blank a little bit of hope.

Will - It’s crazy to think about it. It really doesn’t seem that long ago in my head that folks were talking about EV’s coming. We’re seeing more and more and more. You’ve got the Rivian coming out and Ford and their Lightning which is becoming much more mainstream. I think you’re right on point that not far behind it is going to be the autonomous way.

Chairman Busby - I think autonomous might actually be ahead of them. It could actually be ahead of it. The folks I talk with within my transportation circles we’ve been talking about autonomous vehicles for about six years since I became I’ve been chairman of this committee this is my seventh year. Since I’ve been in it we’ve been talking about autonomous vehicles.

It would still be very beneficial to us to have another I say another as if we currently have one a good limited access roadway from the coast all the way to the Tennessee line. We need it for hurricane evacuation from the Coast as well. We’ve got a number of companies especially in the north part of the state who need it and like Highway 15 going through Ripley Tippah County. It certainly needs to be four lane. It could be a limited access roadway. We could take 15 from the Coast all the way to the Tennessee line. I believe that would make it a good limited access route from end of the state to the other.

Will - Yeah. That would be nice. That would be very nice. Well again to talk about thankfully having the foresight to plan ahead and think about some needs moving forward much in that same line of thought in 2018 the special session legislature crafted The Emergency Road and Bridge program. We’ve got sports betting in Mississippi. We’ve got the lottery and we’ve also got the use tax. We not MDOT get the use tax but that going to locals. But I think exactly what you’re saying right there trying to address these issues on the roadway right now as much as possible. And I know you can speak to the success of The Emergency Road and Bridge project.

Chairman Busby - I can. I’m so proud of that program. I’m so thankful of Speaker Gunn supporting me on this. Trey Lamar supporting me on this. Representative White supporting me on this. Because in 2018 I refused to sign the appropriations bill for MDOT in the regular session. I didn’t feel like we had done anything to address our roads and bridges so we had the twenty eighteen special session. We found some things to do.

When Speaker Gunn appointed me to this position I went around the state. I looked at road and bridge conditions across the state. I came back and reported that we have a lot of issues on the state system. We do and we did. They’re being addressed. However our state system the issues on our state system pale in comparison to that that I see on the county systems. And it wasn’t six months later that we got the call from Washington about shutting our bridges down. So it was imperative absolutely imperative that we do something. And it was a good idea to take the gaming syncing fund what’s left of that annual revenue stream that had not been committed and do a 250 million dollar bond and create The Emergency Road and Bridge Program. It’s been very successful.

We found another way to put another round through there. Another 100 million dollars through there last year. And I’m looking for an additional 350 this year to do it again and I think the harvest permit bill that we passed last year that increased the weight of harvest permit I think everyone knew there was going to be a cost associated with that change in legislation and sure enough that turned out to be the case. I think the number I get from MDOT from the state system shows me 56 bridges that are impacted by that at cost of two hundred thirty one million dollars that we’ve gotta find.

I don’t remember the number from state aid but it’s a significant number too. You still have the county systems you gotta deal with on those bridges. I have to question whether or not we’re really helping our farmers and our loggers out if we allow the extra weight but we don’t repair the bridges so the bridges get posted and would cause them to have to go twenty or 30 miles out of the way to avoid those bridges. I don’t know if we’ve done them a lot of good or not.

Will - I understand. That’s a good thought. Yeah.

Paul - Alright, Chairman Busby. I want to give you an opportunity to take things back home to Jackson County. Are there any projects down south that you would like to shout out and talk about?

Chairman Busby - Sure. One of the most important ones I think we have is the replacement of the Roy Combs Bridge across the Pascagoula River on Wave VanCleave Road It’s gonna create a tremendous detour while it’s down but we need to get that done. It is the only passage across the Pascagoula River from I-10 to Highway 98 or Highway 26 I should say. Twenty six does it too. So it’s a significant detour for citizens there but the bridge has got to be replaced and there’s no other way to do it but I’m happy that was part of the ERBR program to get that funded. So I’m proud to do that. I’m hoping that as we look into capacity projects going forward that we’ll take a good look at that section of Highway 90 from Highway 57 west into Ocean Springs. It’s a tremendous log jam right there really tough on businesses there and tough on residents so I’m hoping we can take a look at that. We’ve had some refurbishment of Highway 90 along Pascagoula there to meet federal highway safety recommendations there. That’s coming along well.

Paul - Lots of cars on the road down there in Jackson County and the Coast. Do you want to go through any bills or highlight any bills while we have you?

Chairman Busby - I think it would be interesting for our audience to hear the kinds of things that come into the transportation committee. It’s kind of weird. It’s not all just highways but if we could talk about a few of those. Right off the bat we got one from Representative Randy Rushing from Newton County to increase the state aid to increase the mileage on the state aid. You got several here to require that headlights be on whenever windshield wipers on. For the most part cars these days have headlights that are automatic but there are some. Some of our members have had close encounters because headlights weren’t on during rain events.

Another one here that always comes up. It’s perennial. It comes every year and many of our citizens may not know this but our sheriffs are not allowed to have radar. So without doubt every year I’m gonna get a bill that says allow our sheriffs to have radar. And every year it’s probably going to get voted down. I was ignorant of this issue when I first became chairman. I waded it off into the water a little deeper than I should have and almost drowned in it. I didn’t really even recognize that our sheriffs didn’t have radar. People pointed out to me our sheriffs are elected officials and we don’t want radar to be used as a political tool. I went okay. Alright. That makes a little bit of sense to me.

Off road vehicles. We had a bill last year that drew a line between motorcycles and electric bicycles to make sure electric bicycles were considered bicycles and not motorcycles. We have bills for autonomous vehicles on trucks to allow trucks to follow at a distance where the truck behind the lead truck is taking electronic signals from the lead truck for braking and acceleration. Railroad crossings anything to do with licenses come to us. Then all of the memorial highways. If someone that has had a significant impact on the state, has passed away to name a portion of a highway after them that always comes to transportation. As well as funding for those things as well. So that’s just a taste of some of the things that we get in the committee.

Will - Across the board for different topics and every situation.

Chairman Busby - And another one that surprises me all the time and I’ve gotten it for the last few years is outdoor advertising billboards. Billboards also fall under our purview and that committee and I know absolutely nothing about them so I’m learning.

Will - I’ve spent a considerable amount of time reading those regulations and I don’t think I could regurgitate a single one right now. I think it’s about 48 pages of combing through there. The outdoor ads gets a little continuous as you mentioned there.

Chairman Busby - But as we go back to what we’ll be chasing this year again one of the things we haven’t touched on in this interview is ARPA. We’ll be working on that as well certain one point billion dollars coming into the state. I’m hoping we can use a lot of that for roads and bridges. And we’re going to have to address pay for our MDOT employees. Chairman Bennett who chairs the house of education committee and his team did an excellent job in putting together a teacher’s pay raise package. Proud to see that. I think it’s a long-term solution to a problem to keep us from having to revisit that every year. I think they did a great job and I think we need something similar for our MDOT employees.

Will - We appreciate that.

Chairman Busby - You know that we’re losing a lot of our engineers but at the same time we’re losing maintenance guys. We’re losing everybody from district engineers to people who cut the grass. I think it’s important and we need to address that.

Will - We so appreciate that. Kind of last two thoughts here. One a little out of the box but we spend a lot of time talking about transportation. You obviously spend a lot of time traveling the state and seeing different things stopping in. Is there any local watering hole, stop in, go to, every time you’re passing through. I’ve got to stop in here and get a bite. Some place that’s maybe special to you of for whatever reason you want to give a shout out?

Chairman Busby - Right as you finish the construction on 49 soon as you clear the construction south on 49 there’s Country Meats over there on that side. I love those guys. That got some great stuff in there. I love to drop in there and pick up a little something to throw on the grill as I’m going home on the weekend. You know I gotta give a shout out to the folks down home. Bozo’s Seafood in Pascagoula is just the best Po Boy on the face of the planet. They just don’t get any better. My friends at Paradise Grill have the best muffalettas. They beat the muffaltettas even in New Orleans to me. My friends at Brady’s down in Pascagoula. It’s a great place. Happy to see all the things that are happening in downtown Pascagoula. We’ve got a lot of movement down there. All my colleagues in the house have been very helpful with that. We really appreciate all their support and help.

Will - Well to wrap things up here. Mr. Chairman, Thank you. If folks out there listening would like to get in touch with you or kind of learn more about your office and its day to day activities that you got going on how can they get you?

Chairman Busby - Well they can call the Capitol. They can look at the roster. They’ll go to the Mississippi Legislature website. You can look at the roster there and get the agenda, phone number and address at the capitol and sometimes personal phone numbers. My personal phone number is listed right there. I’m not trying to hide from anybody. So my office number at the capitol is there and my personal number is there if anyone would like to call me. Obviously my email is there as well and we all have the same structured email cbusby@house.ms.gov and I welcome hearing from any and all constitutes across the state.

Will - I imagine that phone line stays busy and those emails are coming in continuously so bear with them guys if you’re trying to get in touch with the chairman here.

Paul - Absolutely. Chairman Busby, We want to thank you so much. Very insightful conversation today. Know you’re a busy guy. To our listeners out there thank you so much for listening and if you want to hear more episodes of The Extra Mile Podcast Legislative session be sure to subscribe or download wherever podcasts can be found. And now you can actually watch each episode of The Extra Mile. Just search Mississippi Department of Transportation on YouTube. Remember to follow us on Face Book and Twitter. That handle is @MississippiDOT and as always remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.

© Mississippi Department of Transportation