Note: The following opinion-editorial article is written and provided by Jon Stevenson, a DeSoto County businessman and head of the DeSoto Integrity and Government Political Action Committee. Opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily that of this publication.
If you live in DeSoto County, you know the daily struggles that we face with our transportation infrastructure. Daily interstate seizures, clogged state highways, and road congestion on main commercial thoroughfares are a normal part of life. Accidents, car crashes, injuries and the occasional traffic death are a part of our life as well. We put up with it because of the great schools we have, safe neighborhoods, and our easy, traditional Mississippi way of life. We put up with it, and we hope and work for a better future for our community.
Now in the Mississippi State Legislature we have an opportunity to push a bill forward that will dramatically improve the lives of the people of DeSoto County. House Bill 1 is a comprehensive tax reform bill sponsored by House Speaker Jason White and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar. This bill, among other items, contains two significant items for DeSoto County; income tax elimination and a five percent fuel tax.
The phased elimination of the state income tax over a 10 year period should be self explanatory as a positive, but let me frame it specifically to DeSoto County. With Memphis, Tennessee as our northern neighbor, we have grown enormously over the last 30 years due to the mismanagement of that great city. With increased crime, poor services, and poor governance the citizens of Memphis have fled that city in greater and greater numbers. One of the limitations on DeSoto County’s growth from those refugees has been our state income tax.
Memphians have been willing to commute double the amount of time from their homes to work in and to continue to live in Tennessee in order to avoid our income tax. As any realtor will tell you, that is often the difference between someone purchasing in Olive Branch, Southaven or Hernando versus Germantown, Collierville or Fayette County. When people are willing to commute 45 minutes to an hour to those locations versus 20 minutes from DeSoto County, you understand just how big of a factor it can be. The elimination of our income tax will supercharge growth in DeSoto County bringing more business and citizens wanting to experience our schools, safe neighborhoods and our Mississippi way of life.
The bigger factor in the comprehensive tax reform package for DeSoto County though, is the addition of a 5 percent fuel tax. Now you may say that an increase in the fuel tax is just a tax increase, but in reality it isn’t. The overall grocery tax is being lowered in the bill, also the income tax is being completely eliminated; the fuel tax is just recovering some of that lost revenue and dedicating it to funding MDOT. That is important for DeSoto because we have huge needs in our transportation infrastructure. This will provide a dedicated income stream in the future for MDOT to spend money on increasing our road capacity.
DeSoto County has enormous transportation infrastructure needs. I-55 expansion, Highway 305 expansion, and Highway 51 expansion, along with our sewer problem all need major improvements. Eliminating our income tax eases the burden on our citizens, supercharges DeSoto County’s growth at the same time it also gives MDOT an extra $4 billion over the next decade to devote to our roads and bridges in the state.
I want to encourage everyone to contact our Representatives and especially Senators and ask them to support House Bill 1 or its equivalent out of the State Legislature. The State of Mississippi and especially DeSoto County need this legislation to continue to grow and prosper!
