UPS chief says raise gas tax for roads. Where do Mississippi governor candidates stand?

The Delta-raised CEO of the world's largest package delivery company, United Parcel Service, has backed a Mississippi and federal gas tax increase to help fund road and bridge repairs.

"We call it user pay, user benefit," David Abney said at the Delta Council's annual meeting Friday. "It just makes sense to us."

But Gov. Phil Bryant and two of three Republican candidates vying to replace him next year don't agree with the corporate leader.

Some said they flat out won't support raising the fuel tax in the state as a remedy to Mississippi's ongoing pothole and bridge closure woes. Or, they indicated they would like to see — in exchange for the gas tax — reductions in the state income tax. 

Mississippi's gas tax stands at 18.4 cents a gallon, same as the federal rate. Neither has been raised for decades.  

Where do the candidates stand? 

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, the Republican front runner to replace Bryant, has long resisted a gas tax hike, or tax increases of any kind. He reiterated that stance Friday in the Delta after hearing Abney's endorsement, telling the Greenwood Commonwealth he would "continue to oppose raising the gas tax." 

In an interview with the Clarion Ledger, candidate Bill Waller Jr. said he would support a gas tax hike, and was "taken aback" by the UPS leader's comments, which he said were met with a "rousing round of applause."

Waller said raising the gas tax would ensure out-of-state drivers paid their fair share when they used Mississippi's roads. 

"When you're dealing with roads, it's the purest user fee that exists, and if we can do it in a planned, deliberate way, we can minimize any burden (on drivers)," Waller said. He added higher gas fees could be combined with a "tax swap," where income taxes were reduced. 

A third Republican candidate, state Rep. Robert Foster, told the Clarion Ledger he would not support a gas tax increase unless it was tied to an income tax break. 

If the state only raises the gas tax and did not reduce income taxes, "it's short-term gain for long-term pain, because we're going to find ourselves in a very stagnant economy," Foster said.

"It's going to short-term pave some roads and fix a few bridges, but we're going to continue to lag behind (other states) economically."

The leading Democratic candidate, Attorney General Jim Hood, has previously criticized the Legislature for failing to consider a fuel tax to help with road and bridge repairs. But he's also remarked he's not sure a gas tax is the only possible answer to fix infrastructure issues. 

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Worse roads, bigger costs for UPS

At the Delta Council meeting, Abney said UPS has 125,000 trucks on the road in the country, and "you make think the last thing we would want is an increase in motor fuel tax, and that is just not the case."

That's because for every five minutes those drivers get held up on the road, it costs UPS $114 million in additional costs over a year, he said. 

Roughly 500 bridges are closed around the state for safety reasons, and many state-maintained roads are in need of repairs. 

Transportation experts estimate Mississippi needs another $300 million to $600 million per year to adequately maintain state roads and bridges.

Proceeds from a newly-created state lottery, and other new infrastructure allocations generated from online sales taxes, are expected to bring in about $200 million combined each year for roads and bridges, which still leaves a significant infrastructure funding gap. 

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Contact Luke Ramseth at 601-961-7050 or lramseth@gannett.com. Follow @lramseth on Twitter.