The city of Jackson’s population has declined by some 40,000 residents over the past four decades. And one of the prime reasons is the district education in the capital city. School choice could change that.  

Routinely rated as poor or failing, most recently receiving an F-rating from the state, there are few options for a quality education from the Jackson Public School district.

JPS, which is losing students at a faster rate than the city, currently spends more than $11,000 per student, about $1,000 above the statewide average.

JPS has seen a decrease from 30,000 students in 2012 to under 24,000 last year, a drop of 20 percent. Yet the city’s population only dropped about 5 percent during that same time. That is partially because families now have free alternatives. 

In the past four years, a small charter market has emerged with about 1,500 students enrolled in charter schools in Jackson. Compared to the larger JPS system, the charter market is still tiny. There is not a high school and kindergarten and first grade have just recently become options. But in the grades that have had charters for a few years – mainly fifth and sixth grade – we see 15-20 percent of public school students migrating to charters. 

These are parents who never previously had an option now having an option. 

Jackson also has a large private school sector, with a number of high-quality schools competing for students from Jackson and the surrounding counties. But these schools price out many who would love the opportunity to attend. 

Along with a charter authorizing board that welcomes more schools to the city, allowing tax dollars to flow to parents for their child’s education would help eliminate one of the reasons families leave Jackson. That same family would no longer, in their mind, have to leave because of a failing school system. The “either-or” dilemma is no longer an issue.

A great example on how this could work is in Washington, D.C. By the late 1990s, the city’s population hit a 60-year low as families headed to Virginian and Maryland in large numbers. And new potential residents never considered the city. But over the past two decades, the city’s population has grown by more than 100,000.

Yes the city is now safer and more appealing, but today parents in D.C. have more options than ever, including a charter sector that serves over half of the city’s students, magnet schools, a federally funded voucher program, and districtwide open enrollment. Less than on-in-four students attend their assigned district school. 

The potential is there. Because even if you revitalize the city and make it a place where young professionals want to live, you’ll still see an exodus when their children turn five. 

This week, Mississippi Center for Public Policy will be looking into the underlying reasons as to why Jackson is struggling, exploring the legislative and regulatory climate which encourages migration and business stagnation both within our capital city, and across the state.

Last year, in a massive, high-profile, bidding war, the corporate behemoth that is Amazon announced that it would be opening a second headquarters, and would be accepting applications for this opportunity. 

Altogether, 238 cities/states applied for the opportunity. For months, Amazon made it seem that it would be seriously considering all proposals, before ultimately settling on two massive urban centers in New York City and outside Washington D.C. in Northern Virginia. While 24 different applications came from Massachusetts, only one came from Mississippi, and records don’t seem to provide the name of the city that applied. This process reveals the lacking capacity of Mississippi to draw in major business programs.

Now this process was inherently flawed, as it encouraged states to dole out state-sponsored bribes in the form of tax incentive programs and to favor one company over others. However, it also reveals the structural challenges Mississippi faces in attempts to be competitive against other states when it comes to the modern market incentives to draw in and sustain businesses. 

We have previously written about the need to reduce crime to positively influence population growth in the Jackson area. But that’s not all. There are also legislative and regulatory policies hindering business growth in the state, and changes that could be made to prepare for the future.

As city and state leaders further consider the future, they ought to reflect on how best to build an environment which positively promotes business development and entrepreneurship on the local level. 

To meet this end, Jackson, Ridgeland, Madison, Flowood, and Pearl need to consider branding themselves not just as individual cities competing for business and citizens, but as the Greater Jackson Area along with the capital city. 

This type of community partnership has proven quite effective elsewhere across the country, especially in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and the Research Triangle that is Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill in North Carolina. In these cases, cities have been able to combine their individual strengths such as education centers, available land, working-age populations, and more in order to make a more coherent pitch for both new businesses and new residents.

These strong regional coalitions have undoubtedly contributed to these cities becoming some of the fastest growing in the nation. One needs only to look into the history of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle to understand how a regional area can turn itself around. In the early 1950’s, the per capita income of the area was one of the lowest in the entire Southeast. Yet today, the Research Triangle cities are consistently listed as one of the best places to live in the country, and each day they attract about 80 new residents to the area.

A few key lessons emerge from the development of the Research Triangle. It was not a top down initiative driven by government. The Research Triangle was endorsed and publicly supported by leadership but was driven forward through private solutions which allowed the organization to operate with the efficiency of a non-governmental entity. The privately funded Research Triangle Institute targeted the emerging technological developments and sought to make itself a flexible institution, capable of changing with a shifting economy.

These lessons ought to be internalized by local leaders and applied to our future growth. First, government can’t dictate and direct the economy and see consistent success. We need to encourage private growth and investment, and take the government hands off the wheel. Second, only in the promotion of market freedom can we ease the regulatory burden and encourage creative entrepreneurs to steer the economy in Jackson and the greater metro area.

Recent studies reveal the unfavorable environment for starting a business in Mississippi. Business Insider ranked us the 35th best place to start a business. In a more recent report, another website ranked us the 38th best place. You can search for others that have similar results. What is clear is that we’re at least stagnating, but are potentially getting worse by comparison to other states. In these studies, while we were consistently ranked well for our cost of living, we ranked rather low in regards to our access to an educated employee base, and the actual cost of starting a business.

Another important factor in both of these studies is an evaluation of the overall entrepreneurial environment. This status depends on how many people are starting businesses and the survivability of a business. This is another factor which Mississippi and individual cities can directly impact. 

Policies that protect entrenched interests stifle economic competition and limit the ability for new business owners to break into the market. This stifling effect can be accomplished through a variety of regulatory and legislative approaches. Burdensome occupational licensing, business fees, and restrictionist policies all play a part.

Regulators often claim the need to protect citizens in establishing these rules, but really they are protecting entrenched business interests across the state. While we ought to create policy that is favorable to business, it shouldn’t favor established businesses over those attempting to break into the market. Competition is good, it incentivizes further development and elite performance. 

When a competitive business market is present, the best companies thrive, and the consumer is presented with the best options and quality of experience.

In order to help ease this burden, we need a mechanism to repeal outdated or unnecessary regulations. A few years ago we established an occupational licensing board to review new regulations, but there is still no metric in place to effectively and efficiently dismiss overly burdensome, previously established, regulations. To this end, we ought to create a non-governmental review board with the authority to roll back excessive regulations.

Currently 55 percent of our economy is controlled by the public sector. This is not sustainable for growth. The role of government in the economy is to protect property and enforce contracts, not to fuel the economy both directly and indirectly through its largesse and its allocation of contracts and resources.

In Mississippi, our leaders love to claim success in regards to our low tax rates. However, the more burdensome taxes are still present, but just better hidden, and they hit businesses especially hard. 

We tax land, buildings, inventory, and equipment at higher rates than all surrounding states. All these factors play a direct role in business decisions. As noted in Promoting Prosperity in Mississippi, the state is one of only ten that taxes business inventory. Even with an existing partial rebate, this tax punishes inventory levels and encourages states to set up shop in nearby Alabama and Tennessee, neither of whom have an inventory tax.

Furthermore, we are one of only nine states in the entire nation that tax intangible property such as stocks and bonds. This tax directly discourages any large company from basing itself in the state, because it heavily burdens companies that own their own stock (as most large publicly traded companies do).

On top of this, Mississippi maintains property taxes far above the national average. According to the authors of Promoting Prosperity in Mississippi, if the state were to set its commercial and industry taxes to the national average, then business activity could increase by up to 20%, new plant establishments could grow by up to 8%, and employment growth could increase to 2.44% per year.

Much of Jackson has been designated as an opportunity zone for the next ten years by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and federal incentives have been put in place to fuel business growth and investment. By encouraging businesses to take advantage of these incentives and lightening the present tax burden on industry, we can promote new companies to invest and existing companies to expand.

For many of the regional partnerships around the country, education is a great asset (perhaps especially true in the case of the North Carolina Research Triangle). The strength of Mississippi’s community college programssets this region apart for its ability to create a workforce that is well-balanced for the next generation of jobs. Continuous education will surely be necessary as technological advancements mandate a flexible workforce. 

The region should make this factor a staple as it pitches itself for the next generation of businesses which are guaranteed to be more digital, and more technologically inclined, along with the high caliber private universities in the area. 

As we look to the future, we need to seek to free ourselves of economic reliance on the payroll of government. The pathway to success is consistently proven to be paved by private industry. 

As we attempt to make the Jackson area, and Mississippi as a whole, more attractive to businesses, we must recognize our current barriers to market growth, especially those burdens which were imposed by government with the aim of protecting existing industry rather than seeking to foster the type of economic competition which would ultimately expand it. And we must emphasize our assets, such as our community college programs and low cost of living, and then allow the market to do the rest.

This week, Mississippi Center for Public Policy will be looking into the underlying reasons as to why Jackson is struggling, exploring the legislative and regulatory climate which encourages migration and business stagnation both within our capital city, and across the state.

Passenger trains tie us to our nation’s history and they remind us of far-away destinations and adventures. But we should not allow our nostalgia to cloud our rational thoughts about good public policy. Especially when it involves taxpayer dollars. 

The plan to restart passenger service from Mobile to New Orleans, with stops along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, is a great example of letting pleasant sounding promises overpower railroad cars full of empirical evidence and common sense. Mississippi leaders have committed $15 million of taxpayer money to the initial infrastructure costs to restart the Gulf Coast line. The project has also received $33 million in federal grants.

Even though this line of passenger travel, which runs on railroad lines owned by CSX, was discontinued in 2005 due to declining interest, we’re being told this attempt will be different. Has the mindset of travelers along the Coast changed that much?

Most of the political leaders are on board, claiming it will create jobs, grow the economy, and increase our quality of life.But are new people actually coming to the Coast because of a train, or is it just visitors who previously traveled by car? And can we objectively evaluate how this impacts our quality of life? 

To be fair, there was an economic impact study produced by the Trent Lott National Center for Excellence in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern Mississippithat claimed a potential creation of somewhere between 1,600 and 16,000 jobs annually. That study also estimated the potential economic impact of over $1 billion. Having been deeply involved in feasibility studies and economic impact modeling in support of municipal funding in my earlier life, I wouldn’t bet the mortgage payment on the likelihood of actual results ever crossing paths with these estimates. Call me cynical.

There are some less promising estimates than those from the Trent Lott Center. Amtrak’s own study admits that this new line would attract just 26 riders per train and require a $6 million annual subsidy to stay afloat. 

The Amtrak passenger rail boondoggle isn’t just on the Coast. To date, Amtrak has yet to produce a profit while operating a monopoly with almost zero competition from private market participants. For 48 consecutive years, going back to passage of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation in 1970, Amtrak has lost money. It produces those losses even though it receives nearly $1 billion in federal and state subsidies every year. 

Amtrak has tried to change course. They have begun to reduce their operating losses thanks to a focus on shorter routes in the highly congested areas of the Northeast that largely take people from their homes to work. Can you think of an area less like the Northeast than the Gulf Coast communities in Mississippi?

Another factor that complicates the establishment of the service is the need for CSX, which owns the 136 miles of track that Amtrak wants to use, to agree to the terms of a use agreement. CSX moves freight on the line for 250 customers, operating approximately 20 trains each day. There are potential conflicts of service delivery to work through and both sides have agreed to a third party analysis and report. 

The state of Louisiana has already agreed to $10 million in initial funding. Through the Mississippi Department of Transportation, Mississippians will be funding $15 million to the project. Alabama has thus far declined to commit to funding its portion of $3 million. The Gulf Coast line is projected to cost a total of $65.9 million. Though we know long-term operational and maintenance costs are likely to be much greater.

Taxpayers in Mississippi should not have to fund pet projects that residents are not willing to pay for. If the passenger train demand is so strong in the region, we should invite private operators to put forward their plans. If profits can be generated from such a service, you can rest assured the private providers will do it much better than the public ones. 

For example, Fortress Investment Group owns and operates a passenger train service in Florida under the Virgin Trains USA brand. It takes passengers from Palm Beach to Miami. They just announced adding Orlando service. Surely they can get folks from Mobile to New Orleans, too. 

When Fortress completes the expansion to Orlando in 2022, they will be the only high speed rail service operated privately in the U.S. We should show Virgin Trains USA our hospitality and invite them to Mississippi. 

This column appeared in the Meridian Star on September 5, 2019.

In this episode of Unlicensed, we talk about the $15 million the state is appropriating for passenger rail on the Coast and why this is a bad deal for the taxpayers of Mississippi.

D’Iberville’s city attorney was involved in several land transfers related to a shopping center development heavily funded by a now-defunct state program.

Fred “Dub” Hornsby III is D’Iberville’s city attorney and prosecutor. He and his law firm were involved in several swaps between the city of D’Iberville and Coast developer Bob Mandal’s company that owns several car dealerships in the city, including two that are on the site of the new development. 

His firm also helped with several transfers that didn’t involve city government, including a swap with some city-owned land for the site of one of Mandal’s former dealerships in 2016. The city bought and later sold back to Mandal land bordering the interstate that was supposed to be the site of a now-defunct aquarium, Ocean Expo.

Attorneys are often tasked with property transfers in Mississippi as deeds exchange from a buyer to a seller. Hornsby’s firm wasn’t the only law firm taking part, as several others participated in the land transfers involved with the Galleria development.

The Gulf Coast Galleria is being developed by Mandal and Rise Partners of Chattanooga — which took over for original partner CBL Properties — at an 80-acre site located at the junction of Interstates 10 and 110, which connects the primary highway with downtown Biloxi and the beaches at its terminus at U.S. 90. 

According to WXXV TV, the development’s first phase is supposed to be completed by summer 2020. 

Two of Mandal’s limited liability companies — Ramco Developments and TAC of D’Iberville —joined Popps Ferry Road LLC to buy up lots that bordered the interstate along Popps Ferry Road and D’Iberville Boulevard. 

Popps Ferry Road was a Chattanooga-based LLC that was set up by Rise Partners. Both Ramco and TAC are listed on the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website as being Mandal-owned firms.

Some of the land transfers on the Galleria property that Hornsby’s firm participated included: 

• July 25, 2011– A transfer of two parcels from Ramco Developments to the city of D’Iberville that later became part of the Galleria property.
• February 20, 2012 – Transfer of a parcel from George Wilkins to Ramco Developments.
• February 19, 2013– A transfer of a parcel from Victor Igich to TAC of D’Iberville.
• April 30, 2013 – A transfer of a parcel between Popps Ferry Road LLC. and TAC of D’Iberville.
• November 1, 2013– A transfer from five owners of a parcel to TAC of D’Iberville.

The Mississippi cultural retail attraction program died in the Mississippi legislature in 2016, when the authorizing law expired without passage of an extension, but the Galleria is still approved to receive $96 million from the program.

The Galleria project was authorized on December 19, 2013 by the MDA, with a minimum required investment of $50 million and an estimate of a $320 million capital investment by the developers.

The Galleria received its third extension from the Mississippi Development Authority in July 2018 that moves the deadline for the start of construction to 2022. That’s nine years after the project was authorized in 2013 and six years after the program ended. 

D’Iberville provided $2 million in a tax-increment financing bond to build two car dealerships on the site, also owned by Mandal. The city also provided $16 million to build five- and six-lane roads that feed into the Galleria site.

MDA and the Federal Highway Administration spent $50 million to rebuild the interchange at interstate 10 and Galleria Boulevard.

Under the cultural retail attraction program, Mississippi returns 80 percent of the sales tax revenue to the developer until the total reaches 30 percent of construction costs. Each retail project in the program must offer either $1 million worth of state-related art, historic markers or audio-visual equipment, or host space for the MDA for 10 years for tourism promotion purposes.

In 2018, Jackson reported one of the highest murder rates in its history, part of a disturbing recent trend in violent crime. 

WLBT reported a homicide rate standing at 50.3 per 100,000 people. The Clarion Ledger reported just a few weeks ago that Jackson is on a record pace for murders, with estimates as high as 100 murders possible for this year. Shockingly, Jackson ranked third in the nation for its murder rate, standing only behind St. Louis and Birmingham in 2018. This sets Jackson violence ahead of New Orleans, Memphis, and Detroit, and is double the rate in Chicago.

While Jackson leaders had previously promised a crime center that would dramatically help the situation, nothing has come to fruition yet. 

The facts are clear, and the continued violence has hollowed out the town, driven down the population, and thus further discouraged younger generations from remaining in Mississippi, due to the lacking state of what should be a prosperous urban center.

Mississippi Today reported last year that the state is losing millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) at the fastest rate in the country, and it is millennials who are driving much of the population decline for the state. Many of these individuals attend public schools within the state through college, and then leave. This mass departure represents the loss of a serious investment from the public. Every individual who leaves, takes with them their years of college and high school education, largely funded by state taxpayers. 

While the suburbs around Jackson are thriving, a fact emphasized by the wealth transfer away from Hinds County, the city itself is rotting at its core. Jackson’s population has been on a consistent decline since 1980. 

City of Jackson population, 1970-2017

Residents are being driven away, thus causing an erosion of the tax base. This decline in revenue has impacted government operations, thus driving more people toward the better managed suburbs or out of the state entirely, and creating a vicious internal cycle. 

If Mississippi aims to seriously contend with the existing brain drain, then it must explore the root of what is driving so many young people to leave the state. 

According to a recent Nielsen study, millennials are drawn to cities at greater rates than previous generations. Older Americans once sought suburban withdrawal, but Nielsen reveals that millennials are tending to seek life with more subways than driveways. Compared to surrounding states, Mississippi has less to offer in regards to urban life, a point that is heightened by Jackson’s continued decline.

To begin drawing in residents again (especially millennials), the state must prioritize urban renewal for the city that was once considered a “gem of the south,” and it ought to start by making its residents feel secure again. A fully funded crime center equipped with expanded technological capacities to monitor and respond to crime around the city (as was promised) would be a potential major step forward. 

Christopher H. Wheeler, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve, has extensively studied and reported on the role that neighborhood characteristics play when businesses make a location decision. He found that security and low crime rates are vital to incentivizing business. The boarded up windows of former stores in the downtown area are a resting testament to our inability to attract new business, and without new business and new opportunities there are no new customers or new employees. 

Rather than attempting to financially incentivize out-of-state organizations to set up shop with tax payer funded bribes, we ought to consider bettering our natural incentives first. This can only be done by creating an environment in which it is safe to live and work. Reducing the violent crime rate has the potential to change Jackson’s trajectory. 

With a rejuvenated and safer urban center, we can attract new businesses to the state (without costly financial guarantees) and hopefully encourage people to choose Jackson again. For Mississippi to once again grow its population and revitalize its urban center in Jackson, people need to feel safe to operate a business and live their lives without the overhanging storm cloud that is an immense violent crime rate.

This week, Mississippi Center for Public Policy will be looking into the underlying reasons as to why Jackson is struggling, exploring the legislative and regulatory climate which encourages migration and business stagnation both within our capital city, and across the state.

Have you ever offered to take a friend out to eat and when he realized you were paying he ordered the steak instead of the pasta? Your friend realized someone else was footing the bill and so ordered the most expensive thing on the menu.

Some friends are like that (friends like U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao).

The government is a lot like that too, except worse. That’s because the government “spends other people’s money on things it won’t consume,” as former Congressman Bob McEwen puts it. “It doesn’t care about the price or the quality.”

The Gulf Coast Rail Project is a perfect example of this dilemma: something we don’t really need at a price tag that is too high. Of course, “the government” won’t be paying for it, or even riding on it. You will: the taxpayers and residents of Mississippi.

The Gulf Coast Rail Project would bring a coastal Amtrak train back to Mississippi after the service was halted by Hurricane Katrina 14 years ago. The route will feature two trains a day running between Mobile and New Orleans, with four daily stops each in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula.

The project is supposed to cost $65.9 million, with $33 million being covered by federal taxpayers. Louisiana, which looks to benefit most, has committed another $10 million. The Mississippi Department of Transportation recently decided to kick in almost $16 million, money not apparently appropriated by the Legislature that just happens to be lying around. Alabama is on the fence, having committed no state funds.

The goal is to provide “new, regular, reliable passenger service along the Gulf Coast.”

Sounds great, doesn’t it? But is this really a good use of $33 million in federal funds and $16 million in Mississippi taxpayer funds? I can imagine about 100 other priorities that would put this money to better use.

It’s “free money,” though, right?

Nothing is free. First, let’s begin with one of the primary reasons Alabama is gun shy about this project. Right now, the Gulf Coast rail line is being used to carry freight by a company called CSX. In order to commence passenger service, Amtrak will have to work with CSX to craft a schedule to minimize delays and scheduling conflicts. (Under federal law, passenger trains have preference over freight, usually resulting in delays for both.)

CSX’s rail line carries a wide array of goods and supplies, ranging from agricultural products to automobiles. The new Amtrak service may well increase the cost of carrying every single one of these items. Sure, some businesses will benefit from the new passenger service, but many others will be harmed by higher freight costs.

Second, if the Gulf Coast Rail Project were a good idea, a private company would be investing in it. Instead, it’s being subsidized by millions in federal and state funds.

Amtrak’s business model is to lose money. Amtrak has never made a profit since its inception in 1970. It expects to run mostly empty, inefficient and expensive trains. “We have to get away from this idea that Amtrak has to make a profit. It does not have to make a profit,” explains Jim Mathews, one of the Gulf Coast Rail Project’s biggest supporters.

Since 2012, Amtrak’s customer base in Mississippi and Alabama has declined every year. In Louisiana, the customer base decreased all but one year. A 2015 study by Amtrak itself projected 26 riders per train at an annual loss of millions of dollars a year. Amtrak cheerleaders consider this a win. Maybe it is for a boondoggle that has soaked up $46 billion in federal subsidies over the years. 

It is well-documented that Amtrak loses money on nearly all of its routes. Ironically, one of the only routes it doesn’t lose money on is the Northeast Corridor, whose ridership is “highly educated, affluent and influential,” with an average household income of $170,000 a year.

In fact, none of Amtrak’s most popular routes are in the South, where most people would rather drive the two hours from Mobile to New Orleans instead of sitting on a train for four hours. This is not even to mention Amtrak’s mounting expenses from remodeling and retiring old trains like the “City of New Orleans” and the “Sunset Limited,” both of which serve New Orleans and, presumably, are part of the business model for the Gulf Coast Rail Project.

If the Gulf Coast Rail Project were a filet mignon, I’d still complain about the high price. It looks to me, though, that we’re paying top dollar for yesterday’s leftovers.

Mississippi should join Alabama in backing away from a deal that’s mostly going to benefit New Orleans and Amtrak at the expense of Mississippi taxpayers. 

This column appeared in the Sun Herald on September 1, 2019.

Over $1.5 billion have left the city of Jackson and Hinds county between 1992 and 2016, mostly for Madison and Rankin counties. 

That is according to IRS tax migration data. As the old saying goes, “money talks”, and this mass movement of money leaving Jackson is a serious testament to the need for changes in the state’s core urban center.

Between September 2015 and 2016 alone, Jackson lost more than $5 million (almost ten percent) of its tax revenue. City leaders have taken to hiking taxes in order to offset the tax revenue lost from the movement of its citizens to the suburbs, yet in so doing it has made life all the more expensive for those who have stayed, further incentivizing the suburban exodus of others and exacerbating the existing problem.

Madison and Rankin counties showed large growth over the same time period, altogether expanding their wealth indices by about a combined $1.5 billion.

Around the state, Desoto county also showed a positive rate of growth, gaining over $1.34 billion almost entirely from Shelby county, Tennessee. However, this growth in some counties was offset by losses throughout the state, resulting in a net negative for Mississippi. Every county within the Delta lost wealth. Altogether well over $1 billion left the area.

While some counties have continued to grow, overall the state has lost over $100 million. This has made Mississippi the only state in the Southeast besides Louisiana to see a net wealth lost.

A similar trend accompanies with population loss, as Mississippi and Louisiana were the only states in the Southeast between 2017 and 2018 to experience declines in population.

In total, for the time period, the state gained wealth from Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, California, and Michigan, while it lost wealth to Texas, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Two major questions arise from this data, first, what is motivating internal migration? It is clear that citizens are voting with their feet, and are showing their preference for the better fiscal management of Madison and Rankin county, among other reasons.

This movement of cash has created serious shortfalls in Jackson’s tax revenue, and rather than continue to place greater financial burdens on those who remain, the city needs to tighten the proverbial fiscal belt.

The second question is why Mississippi is seeing a net loss overall, and especially why neighboring states, including Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama have become more attractive options for those seeking to move into the Southeast. Mississippi ought to answer the first question before the second. There are clear reasons motivating large numbers of people to choose Desoto, Madison, and Rankin counties. These areas should be used as a model for statewide growth and policy change.

This week, Mississippi Center for Public Policy will be looking into the underlying reasons as to why Jackson is struggling, exploring the legislative and regulatory climate which encourages migration and business stagnation both within our capital city, and across the state.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the Federal Railroad Administration has awarded a $4,360,000 grant to the Southern Rail Commission.

The grant would assist the implementation of twice-daily rail service between Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, which would have stops on the route along in the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

“This funding will help Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama resume passenger rail service between New Orleans and Mobile to enhance regional economic growth and rural mobility,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao in a news release.

Amtrak’s 2015 feasibility study said two trains daily between Mobile and New Orleans would have ridership of about 38,400 annually and require an annual subsidy of $6.97 million. For those keeping score at home, that adds up to about $181 per passenger in subsidies.

The funding is being awarded under the FRA 2017 Restoration and Enhancement Grants Program, which provides assistance grants for implementing, restoring or upgrading passenger rail service between cities.

Passenger rail service between Mobile and New Orleans was canceled before Hurricane Katrina in 2005 amid years of declining ridership. According to the Amtrak 2015 feasibility study, total trips declined from 148,387 in fiscal 1993 to 81,348 in 2005, a decrease of 45.2 percent.

In June, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker announced a $33 grant to fund infrastructure and capacity improvements along the rail line connecting Mobile and New Orleans, which is owned and operated by freight operator CSX. Amtrak is supposed to provide $6 million as well.

Federal money won’t be the only financial component.

Mississippi taxpayers will have to fork over $15 million as a match, along with Louisiana ($10 million).  Alabama is balking about providing its share of the matching funds, $2.2 million. 

The SRC cites a May 2018 study by the Trent Lott National Center at the University of Southern Mississippi that says restoration of passenger rail on the Mississippi Gulf Coast between Mobile and New Orleans would add $6 million annually to the economy.