Legislators meet to discuss state infrastructure funding

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - A half of dozen of area legislators met earlier Monday at Southern Miss to discuss different ways of funding and improving infrastructure state-wide.

Mississippi House District 87 Representative, Chris Johnson, says republicans, Democrats and the Senate House believes increasing gas tax is a fair way to invest into infrastructure spending.

"Unfortunately, politics play into that, it’s unlikely that a fuel tax on its own will pass in both the house and the senate. It may come in as part of a tax cut or as a larger tax bill where there maybe an income tax reduction and a sales tax increase or growth along with the fuel tax increase," said Chris Johnson.

Johnson said funding could be apart of a combination of tax decreases or an elimination on income tax brackets with a use tax expansion.

"In the state we’ve done a real poor job of maintaining buildings and the roads and bridges that we have not across the board. Like Lamar County has done a good job of getting ahead of the curve but, not every county in the state certainly has not.”