MDOT presents The Extra Mile Podcast Legislative Session.

(Paul) Welcome in to another edition of The Extra Mile Podcast: Legislative Session. I’m Paul Katool MDOT Digital Manager and I’m joined as always by my cohost Will Craft who handles Government and Constituent Affairs here at the agency. And I’ve said it the last few weeks but we really are getting close to the end of the legislative session.

We’ve got another great guest for you today. We have Representative Richard Bennett from the Mississippi House of Representatives and he represents District 21 which is Harrison County. And Representative Bennett took office in 2008 and we’re really happy to have you here today. Thank you so much for joining us.

(Representative Bennett) I appreciate you having me here today.

(Will) So, Representative, took office back in 2008. It’s been a couple of years ago. Does it seem like it’s been that long?

(Representative Bennett) It seems like it’s been long.

(Will) Well tell us a little bit about yourself. What got you involved in politics and brought you into this race?

(Representative Bennett) Well my family has been in politics. I had served on the school board and I had served on the local city council for many years. And when I retired from DuPont, I had worked for DuPont for 31 years. When I retired there I had plans of going back and doing some consulting there. I was in research and development with DuPont and I got a phone call. Got a phone call from Jim Simpson who held this seat previously before me. And he said, “I’m moving out of the district.” He said, “Haley Barbour is wanting us to find someone to run in this seat. No one knows I’m not running yet.” And I said, “Let me think about it. And so a couple days went by. I talked to my family who had been in politics. My dad was elected superintendent of education. My uncle was superintendent of education. And so we knew a little bit about politics but never on the state level that was run. I was still thinking about it because I’m kind of a home person and I don’t like to be away from home and there was a little hesitation there.

Then I get a call from Haley Barbour like three days later and he says, “I hear you’re our guy.” Well to get a call and you’re not in politics and the governor calls you that’s a pretty big deal. People may not realize that but when Haley Barbour was on the phone it was like “Yes, sir.” He said, “I need to see you Wednesday.” And I was in my car and up here Wednesday and from there I got into the race and got elected and that’s how it happened. And if Haley Barbour had not made that call I don’t know if I’d run or not.

(Will) So you weren’t the guy before the call. You were after the call.

(Representative Bennett) Yeah.

(Paul) That is a really cool story. We want to talk to you about a variety of topics today but one of the big ones you were the chair of the Education Committee and there’s a lot going on right there. There’s a teacher pay raise so going through with discussion do you want to talk about that?

(Representative Bennett) Yeah. It’s a big deal. This is a historic pay raise for teachers. There’s never been a pay raise of this significant or this large to the teachers in the state of Mississippi. Average teachers are going to get over $4,000. This will be the first pay raise that has gotten us to the southeastern average and to the national average. That’s huge for Mississippi for our recruiting and retainment. Right now we’re losing so many teachers to Alabama and Louisiana and to Tennessee and I don’t know if people realize that upper scale we were a lot lower in. So young teachers who live on those state lines they can go over to Alabama for instance and make six to seven thousand dollars more a year than what our teachers were making. Well they would get over there and they’d be vested in 10 years. They’d jump back into Mississippi and get vested back into ours. So it was really hurting us on our recruitment for those young teachers coming in. And hopefully that this will rectify that and our teachers will stay here and teach and it’s huge. Just to bring you up to speed on that the senate has signed their conference report. And I actually signed ours a while ago before I walked over here. And all the two were in the process of signing it. So that will hit the floor either this week or next week and it will be on the governor’s desk for him to sign.

(Will) As you mentioned there to conference weekend I’m gonna ask you a little bit about that. I know it seems like the session drags on sometimes and it’s just gonna last forever but here we are again as Paul mentioned kinda what’s going on over there right now? Run through these last two weeks.

(Representative Bennett) Well these last two weeks are obviously the toughest. That’s whenever the two ends the Senate and the House come together and try to have a compromise on their bills. A lot of times you know people are passionate about their side, their issue on both sides so you’ve got to come to a compromise or legislation doesn’t happen. Hopefully we’ll come to some compromises and have some good legislation. I’ve always said and I always believed that the more eyes that are on legislation the better off it is in the end. So I have no problem with getting together and debating the issues on it.

(Will) Absolutely. Excuse me, Paul. Just for those out there who may not know some we get here to this point. You got three appointees if you will from each chamber that come together and hash out basically what’s been talked about all session. Get that conference report signed and then both houses take it to the floors

(Representative Bennett) Take it to the floor. They convene with no more members or anything. That’s the final person. You can’t change anything once the conferees bring it back to the chamber. You either vote it up or down. Vote yes or no. And that’s the end of it.

(Will) So they’ll be a lot of those going on over the next couple of weeks. I can only imagine. Any other measures going on in the committee or education that you would like to talk about?

(Representative Bennett) Well we’ve got a few things still in the hopper and we’re excited about. Obviously one of the things that I am really proud of and is probably one of the most rewarding pieces of legislation is foster care. We had that bill out there where we will I don’t know if people realize but these children that are in foster care when they turn of age we just turn them loose. They have nowhere to go. They have no family. They have nothing. And it’s either 70 or 75 percent of these children wind up unwed parents and in the penitentiary.

We’ve gotta change that. It’s not fair to them. They’ve already been dealt an unfair hand in life when a parent gives you up or you’re taken away from a parent and you have no family. It’s a sad situation. So what we’re gonna do here is we’re gonna pay for them to go to once they get out we’re gonna pay for them to go to college whether it is junior college, four-year college, we’re gonna pay for them to go to a trade school if that’s the case. We’ve worked with the universities and stuff and I don’t think people realize that whenever they close down the dorms at semester and all these children have no place to go.

So we’re working with them and actually some of the staff at the junior colleges are actually going to have a program where they are going to invite these kids to their home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But we’re gonna keep those dorms opened for them because they have no place. You can’t just turn them out. So I’m really excited about that. I think it’s something that everybody would be proud of and just give these kids a shot in life.

(Will) You know I don’t know if this was intentional or not but you’ve grown apparently it seemed to have a very vested interest in taking care of the youth in the future kind of in Mississippi with education, the teachers and those who are rearing our kids in schools and foster kids. Did you kind of always see yourself being involved with education? I know you mentioned you had superintendents in the family.

(Representative Bennett) No I guess not to be honest with you. I went to school to be a teacher and I only taught one semester. And that was in 1978. And I got out of it pretty quick. I went to work for DuPont for the summer and had intentions of going back to teach but 32 years later I was still at DuPont.

(Will) And here you are now. Very good.

(Representative Bennett) But I think education is our future. It’s our lifeline for the state. If you don’t move education up the state of Mississippi is not going to move up.

(Will) That’s right.

(Paul) Oh. No doubt. It’s great to get an update on what’s going on with education. We do want to talk a little transportation. So you know why generally you know is transportation important? And then if you want to touch on any projects that are happening in the district.

(Representative Bennett) Okay. Well obviously roads are important. I’ve got to say we have a lot of state roads in Harrison County. We have 26 miles of Highway 90 that runs down the beach and the state is responsible for those. And we have a few state aid roads. And I’ve got to tell you MDOT does a great job on Highway 90. That is an ongoing problem. There’s sand continuously blowing on the highway.

And I’m going to give a shout out here. Sounds like I’m pandering here but I’m not because I’m here with MDOT but I think Brad White brings such a common-sense approach to MDOT that I think is needed. He’s approachable. The people down our way have nothing but praise for MDOT and what they do on Highway 90. And I know people get frustrated because that wind is continuously blowing its sands, continuously on highway ninety. But they do a fabulous job down there and I want to thank them for what they do.

(Will) Well one of the people that you might know from the coast Miss Myrtis Frank. She is continuously on me about seeing to that sand blowing across 90 so definitely you’re a hundred percent accurate on that. We certainly appreciate your nice comments about our boss.

(Paul) Absolutely. We do want to we’re talking the Coast. Do you want to bring up you know Katrina happened 17 years ago. That was a long time ago but it takes a long time to build back and I’ve been down on the coast. It seems like things are finally really booming down there. Would you say that’s a fair assessment?

(Representative Bennett) Yeah. It is a fair assessment. I mean we’re growing. The casinos are doing a bang-up job. I mean we have hitting record highs there. On visitors tourism is up. We still have a lot of challenges. If you go on Highway 90 there’s still a lot of empty lots and insurance is a big problem there. And it’s going to continue to be a problem and the building codes. So that has slowed us down some. But if you go to the coast the Coast is booming right now. We’re real proud of where we are today. And once we got moving there then we had the BP.

(Will) That’s right.

(Representative Bennett) And BP knocked us down again for a while there and it really hurt us and shut us down. And I think we’re moving in the right direction again. We’ve got a lot of projects happening there. We’ve got a lot of new businesses coming in. And you know the aquarium’s open. IMMS is open. I don’t know if you’ve been to IMMS but you could swim with the dolphins, swim with the sharks.

(Will) Oh no thanks.

(Representative Bennett) It’s a great place. It’s a great place for kids. And of course we have the children’s museum. So we have a lot of family-oriented things happening also not just the casinos.

(Paul) That’s awesome.

(Will) Great to hear. Well. I know you spend a lot of time driving around the state and obviously as many Mississippians like myself we spend a lot of time eating good food. Is there a spot maybe back home maybe here in Jackson metro maybe somewhere out of the sate that anytime you’re in the area you just got to stop by?

(Representative Bennett) Well being from the Coast it should not surprise y ‘all Gulf Coast Daiquiri. It’s Jacqueline restaurant. It’s in Long Beach on Jeff Davis Avenue. It is a fun place. There’s usually music going on there. You just can’t beat it. And it’s really a fun place. It’s a new unique place since Katrina. And they’re actually doing an addition now to double their space there. But it is a fun. It’s great food. Trivia is being played there all the time. It’s just a fun good family-oriented place. Even though it’s a daiquiri shop it’s a good family-oriented place.

(Will) It might be the best sell on location thus far because I’ve never even heard of this place.

(Representative Bennett) It’s great. You got to check it out.

(Will) Okay. Yup. Put that down, Paul.

(Paul) No doubt. I think that’s right up our alleys. Definitely hit up the daiquiri spot at some point for sure.

(Representative Bennett) Maybe we can broadcast from there one day.

(Will) That’s right.

(Paul) There you go. That would be the most interesting podcast we’ve ever done for sure.

(Will) Looking forward to that one.

(Pau) Representative Bennett, we really appreciate you being here. Before we get out of here just want to ask you how’s the best way for people, constituents to contact you?

(Representative Bennett) Well, I have my cell phone on the website and that’s how I want people to call me, text me. Text me is great. It’s better than the phone call. But if they would text me I have my personal cell phone on everything on the official website, on my personal website. Get in touch with me or call the state capitol. They’ll find me. But yeah. My personal cell phone is the best way.

(Paul) We love to see it. We love to see accessible politicians. We really appreciate you being on the show today. Great conversation about education, transportation, the coast. We do want to we’ll go ahead and get out of here.

We want to thank our listeners out there for listening to The Extra Mile podcast legislative session. Remember you can download and subscribe to the show wherever podcasts can be found. And you can also now watch episodes. Just search Mississippi Department of Transportation on YouTube. And remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at Mississippi d-o-t is the handle there. And actually we have a website now. So you go to gomdot.com forward slash the extra mile. You can find all the information on the podcast, all the old podcasts and remember as always remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.