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Tune in to The Extra Mile presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Co-hosts Paul Katool and Will Craft take listeners inside the world of transportation infrastructure in Mississippi.
The Extra Mile Podcast
Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann
(Announcer) Coming up on this episode of The Extra Mile…
(Paul Katool) I did kind of want to point out a few of these numbers. So, in those five years, there's been a billion dollars in capital investments in each of those counties. 10,000 jobs in DeSoto County. 5,000 jobs in Marshall County. So, obviously that was a pretty good investment there.
(Announcer) Hey, football fans! Game day is here. To avoid delays on the way to the game, make sure the MDOT traffic app is part of your playbook. To avoid fumbles this season, MDOT encourages safe driving. That means buckle up, obey the speed limit, and avoid distracted driving, especially in work zones. For more information, follow @MississippiDOT on Facebook and Twitter.
[Music and Intro]
(Paul) Welcome into another edition of the Extra Mile Podcast presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm MDOT Deputy Director of Public Affairs, Paul Katool, and as always, I'm joined by my co-host, Will Craft, who is the Director of Public Affairs at the agency.
Today's episode is being recorded on Monday, October 30th. And I mention that because if you've noticed on social media, we've been celebrating a very special event this week: the five-year anniversary of the completion of I-269 in DeSoto and Marshall counties. And since then, there's been an explosion of economic growth and development in the area.
We want to talk to, talk about that today with, uh, the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Mississippi, Delbert Hoseman. We're gonna hit on some other topics, too. But, Governor, we really appreciate you always making time for us.
(Delbert Hosemann) Good to be back with y’all. I'm glad y'all are still doing well here.
(Will Craft) Appreciate that.
(Paul) Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And we'll start off lighthearted. I'm assuming the Lieutenant Governor didn't have a Halloween costume, maybe, but what about the grandkids, anything like that?
(Delbert) No, I'm up for election this year. You don't do that.
(Paul) Nothing like that? The grandkids?
(Delbert) If you got any sense at all, you don't dress up like that.
(Paul) Fair enough. Fair enough.
(Will) Did y’all have a big trick-or-treating and a big Halloween?
(Delbert) Well, trick-or-treating is coming here. I don't know what time everybody else is, but it'll probably be this next night or so, but, um, we had, um, one granddaughter is, um, Taylor Swift and the other one is, um, Travis.
(Will) Oh wow.
(Delbert) Kelce.
(Paul) Travis Kelce.
(Delbert) Travis Kelce. Yeah, and so apparently they got some kind of reward for that.
(Will) That’s awesome.
(Paul) Love it. Love it.
(Will) Fantastic. And then, you know, right ahead, you are correct. I forget, you know, the actual Halloween is tomorrow, the big night.
(Delbert) Right, the actual night will be tomorrow night. So we're looking forward to that.
(Will) We did the, uh, trunk-or-treating, uh, this past weekend with, with the church there. But what about, uh, you know, uh, big month coming up ahead too: November. Thanksgiving, you guys do big Thanksgiving plans?
(Delbert) Well, we have big plans for November the 7th, so that's our first big plans. But, uh, after that, historically our family gets together for Thanksgiving and, uh, duck season starts that weekend. Deer season starts. So, we'll probably be in the woods like everybody else.
(Will) Oh, yeah. Somebody, uh, in this office, Mikey Flood, mentioned October's kind of like the Friday of months. Seems like it kicks off all the good stuff.
(Delbert) It really does, man. We're, we're excited about finishing the election up and getting started and then, well, you know, deer season, duck season, all that comes. So, we're all excited about getting out in the woods. It just turned a little chilly today, so it's good.
(Will) That's right. It finally did. Got a little touch of the cold. That's right. Well, in other news, moving forward here, what about, uh, you guys have been having a lot going on, I know, but last time we had you on the show, back in January. So, about eight or, uh, eight or nine, ten months ago. Plenty of stuff. What's the office been up to?
(Delbert) Well, we, um, continue to raise teacher salaries, as you know. Um, it's, now we've raised them over $5,000 and I, I think that's a key component to what's going on in Mississippi. You look at the test scores that are coming out, which are outstanding for our, our kids are up to 32nd from 50th and 23rd and something else and, uh, they're, they're really raising a lot.
But, uh, that comes from the fact that we did third grade Reading Gate, you know, 10 years ago.
(Will) Right.
(Delbert) And, um. And also the hard work of a lot of students and parents and teachers. So, setting that bar up that high and then having them achieve it is very real special. So, I, I think the education work that we did last year was particularly exemplary. It's a continuation really of what others have done.
And, uh, we put another $40 million in, in fixing up school buildings last year. We put $100 million in the classroom, in addition to the teacher's pay raises, but… And we'll do that this year. We'll announce here shortly that we're going to do the Last Dollar Tuition-Free for community colleges.
(Will) Wow.
(Delbert) So, you'll see we, we’ve started pre-K this last year, and we have about 5,600 children that are in pre-K. And we run about 25 or 30,000 children at that age. And so, we're, we're moving along towards more and more access to pre, public pre-K if you want to do that, or you can Head Start, or whatever you want to do, or parochial, or the other things. But, we want to make sure you have access to public pre-K. And now, this is a continuation. This next year will be the continuation of that, where we take, uh, young, young men and women from, uh, three and four, from four years old and five years old and then take them through community college. So, having the Last Dollar Tuition Grant, um, is just another part of the progress that we're making when we recognize, um, and I was listening to a show just last night actually, where you recognize that our, our biggest enemy right now is China.
And, um, it, they had the, the security experts from Australia and England and Canada and United States all on a show the other night on 60 Minutes, and they were quite clear that China is, is our biggest adversary, um, for a whole, a whole lot of reasons. But clearly, uh, economic and intellectual are a part of those. And so, I want our kids to be, uh, trained and able to compete with China and do better than they do. And the way you do that is you give them an alternate, you know, put them in education as quickly as you can, and can give them, really, a path forward to at least a community college degree and a certificate, and if they want to do individual work.
So, we'll be announcing that this next, um, in the next few days, actually. Um, so I'm, I'm really excited about the education component. The infrastructure y'all know about. We put more in infrastructure than ever been put in the state.
(Will) Love to see it.
(Delbert) Yeah, it's like $2.3 billion. So, um, I'm hoping that y'all are making good use of those funds and it's getting out on the road.
(Will) Absolutely.
(Paul) Yes, sir.
(Delbert) I do ask Brad all the time about uh, how many contracts he's actually let. Just appropriating money doesn't do me much good, but until you let the contracts.
(Will) Sure.
(Delbert) So, we're hoping you're letting a lot of contracts. Um, I've been particularly pleased with our Emergency Road and Bridge Program that we have here. Um, uh, that's, um, we put $100 million in it last year. Our counties are making good use of that, I think.
(Will) Very much so.
(Delbert) And so, we're, we're hopeful that we'll have another ERBR appropriation of a similar amount, I would hope, uh, in my own mind. So, we've, we've got a lot of transportation issues that we're addressing, I think, well around the state, which comes back to your, uh, Interstate 69. Bypass and whatnot.
(Will) Oh, yeah.
(Delbert) A lot of that going on, um, and we're doing other things. Like, we're fixing our parks, uh, which have never, have been neglected forever. And uh, we fixed up about 5 of the 18 now. Uh, the total bill for that is $162 million. And I think we had about $30 or $40 million this last year and about a similar amount of go this year. And then they get some matching federal funds. So, uh, we want to have it where you can take your kids to one of our state parks and people that are coming through here can stop there and do a tourist activity and show Mississippi off. We have 18 of them from Tishomingo to Buccaneer.
(Will) My family loves Roosevelt.
(Delbert) Roosevelt is one of the first ones we did because of its high traffic and um, they've got new cabins that are going there that are really, that are really neat and um, you'll see us doing those in every single one. Natchez has already been done and several others will be done, and I meet with them pretty regularly on their progress. They have a chart, you know, on how much is being done. I think that's really important.
So, you're, you see a lot of, uh, you know, I see people talk about education. We cut taxes again, as you know, and we're the fifth lowest tax state. What people don't see is that we have paid off the state's debt. We paid off, uh, $500 million of the state's debt last year, and that's about 12 percent of the state's debt. And we haven't borrowed any money in two years, and I anticipate we will not borrow money this year. And what that does, in the long-range plan of education, we're not, you know, mortgaging your future and your child's future by having to send tens of millions of dollars to New York for interest when we could keep it right here in Mississippi.
So, um, that's not talked about a lot, but I will tell you if we, I think we had $400 million coming up this year. If we don't repurpose any of that and don't do that again, that'll put us close to 23 to 24 percent of the total state's debt has been wiped out in the last two years. And that will pay dividends for the rest of your life and then your children's lives. So, I think some of this our, our view is longer-term than November. We're looking where, where our roads are gonna be, where our kids are gonna be, where our debt’s gonna be. Not out, next year or four years out, the next decade.
(Will) I love that. Absolutely. I can't, you know, I'd be hard pressed I think to find somebody who doesn't love the sound of “debt-free,” you know.
(Paul) No doubt.
(Delbert) I don't know we'll ever get to debt-free, but we're, we're, I think we'll end up, uh, after this year probably in the $4 billion range, and we, our line of credit or bond, our bonding authority is up to $13, is at $13. So, we'll be at about 25 percent of what they, what we could borrow. And hopefully over the next four years, we'll continue that scenario of continue to go.
And I, it was a good fiscal idea, but it's become a really good idea now that interest rates have jumped back up to 8, I don't know, 8 percent or whatever they're charging now. So, it's um, uh, we were smart, but it turned out we were smarter than we thought we were.
(Will) Sometimes it works that way.
(Delbert) I know. And it has worked that way on paying off debt, uh, cause that, well you can figure $50 million at 8 percent would be $40 million a year that we can now put in education, infrastructure, children or something.
(Will) That’s awesome.
(Paul) That is good stuff. And, and that, uh, that 2024 session will be here, uh, you know, before we, before we know it, holidays. And then there we are. So, I want to kind of circle back to something, I think we might have talked about this last time, but anti-litter. Keeping litter off our highways, off of, out of Mississippi. So, we're kind of wrapping up a little campaign we've done. So, can you kind of talk about the importance of keeping everything beautiful?
(Delbert) Yeah, and it’s funny. I was noticing that the other day. In some counties, um, um, you saw, you see very little litter. I mean, this is geographically, uh, intense. Other counties I go to, because I'm around the state, all over the state, I don't know, this last year. Other counties you see, like, they, they treat it like a trash can or something. They throw the little white boxes you get at, uh, at these convenience stores out, just out the window. And I've never understood that. I, I read where we spend millions of dollars on picking up people's trash. Now, come on, y'all.
I mean, you could take that home and put it in a garbage can. I mean, we pick up your garbage. Uh, I mean, is it that big a deal that you can't wait till you stop the car to pitch stuff out the window? So, um, I would hope people would take a greater sense of pride in their state. We have a beautiful state. We got water, forests, trees, got great people. Uh, why do you want to denigrate our population? Other people ride along and see that.
You know, one of the first things you see when you come into a town or something like that is there's a lot of litter around. Well, these people don't care about their town or their county, so why, why should we care about stopping here? So, I, I've never understood that. I encourage everybody, uh, to think a little bit about your neighbor and your friend and your church friend or whatever. I think Miss Fordice had it about best I’ve ever heard, when she did ours and grabbed the guy by the ear in the commercial.
I, I just can't understand that, and I would just encourage everybody, when you see that or you see somebody do that, flash your lights at them, blow your horn at them, you know, wave your fist at them or whatever other part of your hand you want to wave at him. So, um, that I think that's appropriate.
(Paul) As we say, please don't trash Mississippi. Right, Will?
(Will) That's right. Pick it up.
(Paul) Don’t do it!
(Will) There's a lot of money that goes into it. And as you just talked to, you know, we spend a lot of time and work and money, taxpayer dollars, beautifying the states, making the parks look better, and you know, here we are combating a litter problem as well. It just seems like that –
(Delbert) Yeah, and it's a visual. I will tell you, it's not just the fact you gotta go pick up one of these little white styrofoam boxes or a cup or something like that. It's the visual that people get. I mean, we've got interstates running all over here and people ride along and they get off at an exit or something and they see trash everywhere. They don't want to stop there. They want to keep going. So, you're hurting your own self, man. So, don't do it.
(Will) That's exactly right. Well, and we appreciate those comments on that. If you haven’t seen it yet, yeah, folks out there go check out the litter ad. It is a great piece. Shout out to Drew Hall there.
Uh, we touched on a lot of successes. One other thing, Paul, uh, the Museum to Market Trail, is that right?
(Paul) Yeah, yeah. So, I saw recently you were at, uh, the opening of Phase Two, which was the Waterworks Connector. So, that's a trail, like an urban connector trail in Jackson.
(Delbert) Right.
(Paul) As a proud Jacksonian, I love it. Can you tell us kind of a little bit about, uh, that project and what it means?
(Delbert) Well, it's really following the, uh, Rails to Trails program. You know, New Albany has a great one. Uh, uh, uh, Prentice over to Hattiesburg has a great one.
You know, people can ride their bikes on a run or whatever and, or do parts of it, that kind of thing. And all of those are part of a, really a, um, a proposal, uh, to have Mississippians, uh, um, stand up and go walk somewhere, walk around the neighborhood or ride a bike or do something. Um, it, it's, uh, part of our hopeful, hopefully, successful way to have people go exercise in some fashion.
You can walk the trail. The one here in Jackson is very nice. Um, Jackson Heart had, uh, paid for the last part - their foundation did. And the, and the city, I mean, state had contributed some of that. And it goes into LeFleur's, uh, Bluff Park, which is beautiful. And then it goes over, uh, rounds up through where the R & D Center is, but they're, it's, it's very nice people. You see people running on it or walking on it all the time. And it's just a good way to get out, um, say hello to somebody maybe that you hadn't seen out walking on the trail or whatever.
But it's a good social, mental, physical thing to have. And a lot of our communities like in, um, New Albany and their Rails to Trails and, and Prentice, all these others that have done that have really, I found them to be neat things. People come to ride their bike. They ride all the way up there and ride their bike all day and stay around town and spend money.
(Paul) No doubt. No doubt. I was actually up in Indianapolis not too long ago with a friend who does this kind of like development stuff. He said it actually kind of helps build up the communities too when you have these kinds of things.
(Delbert) Yeah, it's a source, a center of people meeting and stuff like that. It's just, uh, it's a very healthy thing to have people get out and walk, man.
(Paul) No doubt. No doubt.
(Will) I need to get out there and participate myself. Uh, well, talking about lots of successes and good things we've got going on, what about a little bit of a look ahead to next session? You guys got anything on tap yet so far?
(Delbert) We usually get about a thousand bills a year.
(Will) I know.
(Delbert) So, I expect we'll have a thousand this year. Um, and they'll range. You know, health care is going to be a major topic this year. Uh, obviously, we've had, um, significant problems with our hospitals, but, um, and we've appropriated $103 million last year for hospitals, and they'll be receiving that money in the next month or two, and then, the ones that didn't qualify will get their money in January and February - that didn't qualify for the American Rescue Plan. But all of that money will go out to them. Um, some of the press make a big deal of it. But, um, they're, they're gonna get their $103 million.
But that's not an answer. That, that really was, no offense, a band-aid, uh, to a larger issue, and that issue, um, keeps getting, um, just, um, categorized and boxed in, in like one word. And it's not really about that one word. Uh, I refer to it as the X word. We've got mental health problems in Mississippi, and that goes from grade school, where I was in a school, uh, with the teachers when they were talking about young kids, uh, physically coming after them, you know, in the second grade and how they weren't qualified to teach those or have been qualified to teach those kids, and they were disruptive and how to handle those types of situations. We've got mental health issues all the way through this state.
We're under a federal court order. Our pharmaceutical costs are through the roof. Um, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on pharmaceuticals in our, in our independent pharmacists, uh, sometimes suffer, um, by having to basically sell, um, drugs for less than they pay for them. Uh, we've got the Child Protective Services that's under a court order.
Uh, so when, when you go through - We don't have enough nurses. We just appropriated a bunch of money, like $55 million to build a new nursing school at the University of Mississippi. And some of the other community colleges are doing nursing, Pearl River and some others that we appropriated money for. But you look at the nursing shortage, the doctor shortage, they've increased the size of the uh, of the physician practice over at the UMMC. But it's, it's still, uh, difficult. We do have some DOs coming out of William Carey. They're very helpful going into rural practice. Um, I've been in, uh, Corinth’s residency program. Um, I was in Tupelo's this past week, and where they bring young men and women in to do their residencies and hopefully they will stay in Mississippi. But I'll go through that litany to tell you that the cure for health care is not a magic button that somebody has.
(Will) Right.
(Delbert) You know, it has to be, uh, as holistic as it is, uh, kind of a catch-all phrase I don't really like it that much, but you've got too many other things. I've got pharmacy problems. I've got mental health problems. I've got child problems. I've got nurse problems. I've got doctor problems. I've got hospital problems.
So I, there's a whole list of things, and I think when we go at it this year that we need to address all of those. And so, if you just go and we do a “Save the Hospitals” bill, kind of like we did last year, uh, I think we're all going to be back here a year from now with other problems, and I would rather address them all at one time.
So, I'm, I'm hopeful we'll start hearings on that quite quickly, and um, have input from, from everybody that's involved with that, with all of those different branches.
(Will) That is certainly an undertaking, and as I've mentioned before, I'm glad they're smarter minds.
(Delbert) Very complicated because the, uh, the reimbursement rates are set by the federal government. So, you've got, you know, you kind of know what your top dollar is, uh, or by insurance companies - in our case, Blue Cross Blue Shield has most of the insurance here. But between those two, I mean, they pretty much set what the reimbursement rate is. And so, then you go to, um, then you go to how, how your costs are and the deli- cost of delivery of, of healthcare around Mississippi, particularly in rural areas.
Um, and there's, you know, I've been in a lot of 'em. I'm, some of 'em in the Delta. I've been 'em in Brookhaven, you know, everywhere. I've, I've been in hospitals all over from Singing River to, uh, Corinth. And I'm thinking I'm getting a handle on how we're doing. There's a new one like in Ripley I was in the other day that I thought was particularly well done. But I think you're going to see these hospitals evolve as the market evolves into, um, you know, primary care and OBGYN and emergency room kind of, uh, and swing beds, that kind of thing. And then, um, a more of a hub and spokes type referral pattern, um, where larger hospitals, like you saw, um, Baptist just, uh, merged with Meridian Hospital.
(Will) Okay.
(Delbert) Uh, Anderson over there. You'll see those, those groupings getting together, I think, of the larger hospitals that can afford to, pay for their accounting system, which is called EPIC, which is very expensive. Um, and also the delivery of services to make sure that every, every place has, um, you know, if you need a sophisticated cardiologist or something, that those are available to that community.
So, I, I think you'll see the natural market go there. Um, CONs will come up, um, you know, this year about, you know, how, where, how are they structured, how, how should they be structured and what's the path forward for those. So there, there is. When you talk about health care, there's a whole lot.
(Will) It’s a booger. That’s right.
(Paul) A lot of moving pieces.
(Will) Once again, I'm glad there's smarter minds over there like yourself and others to, to wade through this.
(Delbert) I don’t know if I got the answers to all of that, but I just, we like hearings in the Senate side, and so we'll have a bunch of hearings. It'll, it'll give us a path forward.
(Will) Appreciate that.
(Paul) Alright. Absolutely. So, uh, let's talk a little I-269. So, I know, uh, I guess it was five years ago on, in 28, a very chilly day in October of 2018, we opened up that final section of I-269, 26 miles in, in, uh, Marshall and DeSoto counties, and since then, it really has had a huge impact in the region. Uh, Lieutenant Governor, uh, can you kind of tell us about strategic infrastructure investments? Which, uh, this project was one of those, it wasn't just a build it and they'll come kind of thing, there was a lot of foresight in this project, correct?
(Delbert) Yeah, it was the circle around Memphis, so we didn't have to go through Memphis to get to Nashville, uh, which is a real growth area itself. And then, Jackson has gotten a new battery plant up there, and a bunch of different things, but, yeah. What's happened is we've had a bunch, a number of industries locate on or about uh, 69, 269, and I'm, um, very, um, I'm very interested in seeing that, but it's an, it's what happens.
Um, we, I think the legislature, and I'm real proud of my Senate and my House, about not dictating, uh, where their money goes. Uh, we're relying on MDOT, you know, the commissioners and Brad White to, to give us a priority based on usage, growth, uh, accidents, deaths on highways, whatever, whatever scenario that y'all do to bring up uh, places and rank those. And then our job needs to be to fund, uh, to, to that ranking to the capabilities that we have in matching with the federal government.
So, we're, we're doing that and, um, you know, up there, uh, we need to do I-55. You know, we put money aside last year for I-55, and I'm committed to putting some more money aside for it this year. And, um, there's a Highway 15 in Ripley, uh, there's an exit over here at Ceres and Flowers, and just a miracle, nobody's gotten hurt on yet.
Um, there are a number of priorities on the coast, 67 and some of these others that y'all are finishing actually under construction now. Um, so you're, you're seeing, I think, the, um, people who are most qualified to make decisions on where things go, uh, working well with the legislature who comes up with the money for these things.
And so, I'm looking forward. I'm very hopeful, uh, the next year will be very similar to last year.
(Paul) Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Uh, appreciate that confidence, no doubt. And I did kind of want to point out a few of these numbers. So, in those five years, there's been a billion dollars in capital investments in each of those counties. 10,000 jobs in DeSoto County. 5,000 jobs in Marshall County. So, obviously that was a pretty good investment there, huh?
(Delbert) It was, uh, and what I'm hopeful is, uh, several different things. One, the time between appropriation and, and barrels is accelerated. You know, I intend to ask the commissioners about that, and ask Brad about that, and I have before. If we appropriate something, it doesn't do me any good for you to start three years later. You know, we, we want you to move forward on that. And y'all have actually doubled the amount that you have put to contract from what it was about four years ago. So that's very helpful. We want that time period accelerated. You've got competent engineers here. We need to be moving. So, I think that's, how, very important.
Second, um, I would like not to be behind. When we sit down and look at the map and where we're growing, we need to start building to that area as opposed to we get a big traffic count like we are on I-55 up in up in Southaven and south of Southaven towards Hernando. So now we got, we got them where they're just packed up for, you know, an hour trying to get, trying to get to another part of Mississippi to go to work. So, I would prefer for us to look forward, thinking like, where, where is our growth patterns? What's our, what's our infrastructure look to that? And I think you all are starting to do that. MDOT's starting to do that. And I'm anxious not to just be building, uh, based on, uh, the fact that we're behind, and we got people stacked up in the street out there, but where, where is our next development?
And that goes to what you're saying. When you build to that development, it just accelerates the development. When we recognize, of course, as you do Marshall county’s where a huge amount of investment is going for manufacturing and distribution because of FedEx and other things and airports and whatever. So, we need to have them where they have access, and it is a “build it, they will come” kind of thing.
So, I'm looking forward to working with all of your commissioners and, and with Brad on going over not only what, where we stuck right now, which is, we just talked about, but also where do we need to be? Where's the next one? There, everybody would like to have, you know, a four lane, but not everybody needs one. But the growth areas really do.
(Paul) Sure.
(Will) Absolutely. Yeah. You know, and that's all great things. We love to see the explosion. I think, you know, the design builds and the limitations on some of those is something that we want to work on with you guys this session and, and continuing to cut down that timeline between the appropriation and the –
(Delbert) Yeah, it was the first year in forever. We put $465 million into maintenance, I mean into capacity. New roads.
(Will) That’s right. Yeah.
(Delbert) Uh, capacity is what y'all call them, but new construction would be a better way to put it. Yeah, I mean, nope, we haven't had that in forever.
(Will) That's right.
(Delbert) And, uh, I can't remember the last one, so there's plenty of doing for maintenance too, but, uh, um. I'm very interested in continuing that structure, particularly when we can get a federal match.
(Will) Absolutely. That's exactly right. So, for recruitment purposes, folks out there, listen, if you're getting into the engineering world, we're about to do big, awesome stuff here at MDOT. So come, come join in, be a part of the team, we're gonna build some stuff.
Well, Governor, we'll get into this a little lighthearted, uh, fun questions here, kind of wrap things up. Before we do that: anything we missed that you wanted to talk about or cover?
(Delbert) No, I'm, I'm, uh, we rotate. So, this year I'm the Chairman of the Legislative Budget. And so, we'll be finishing that on December the 12th, I think.
And y'all should pay attention to that. That's probably our roadmap, no pun intended, for uh, where we're going next year. Uh, you know, we continue to, we want to hold our expenses down and look at further tax reform and look at, uh, roads and bridges and teachers and stuff like, uh, Last Dollar Tuition for community colleges. I think that's a big step forward for our state to give those young men and women that hit a barrier, uh, coming out of high school to have a chance to go forward for another two years.
You'll see us increase the career coaches around Mississippi. We went from 80 to 140. We’re going to 200. Every school should have a career coach. Uh, the, the results are fantastic. A lot of those, uh, young men and women really wouldn't, didn't have, um, a direction. And by this career coach meeting with all of them, they have that. We pay for that independently. It's not part of the school system's expense or anything like that. The state's paying for that, and it is going to reap a lot of dividends. So, I'm real pleased with that.
So, there's a lot of positive things in Mississippi. We're in the best financial situation we've ever been in. We are really on the cusp and continuing cusp of growth here because a lot of reasons. We're doing the roads and bridges, but we also have water. Some places don't have water. Like west of, uh, Dallas and Fort Worth. Uh, we have low-cost electricity, particularly with TVA. We have great agriculture. We have great... We, in the last month or so, I have been in companies that are making uh, the, uh, supersonic, uh, weapons for the, for our country that, uh, make the catapults that shoot the planes off the aircraft carriers. Make the conning towers for our submarines. Um, gonna make hydrogen engines that will be diesel or hydrogen engines. Those are all in Mississippi where I was, where they have a 3D manufactured rocket that's going to Mars. Uh, you just go around the state and, and look at what we're doing and the things that we're doing here.
Um, we are very competitive. We have the world's largest aluminum factory being built up in the Golden Triangle. Um, I think it's the world's largest. I went up there. It's really, really big. If it's not, it's in the top three or four. So, it's a huge area up there. And then right next to it Taylor Machinery has gone in with, uh, with the, uh, Belgium company, uh, years and years old Belgian company to build, um, um, the machines that haul around things on the docks and what not, similar to what Taylor Machine does in Louisville.
But I, I just can go all over the state, I'm looking at that map, and I can pick out places that I have been that we're, we're training the pilots for the future in, in Columbus. Um, you know, at Kiesler, we just, we just had our meeting on cyber security. We're building a whole cyber security center right out the front gate of Kiesler. And that building will train the United States Air Force cyber security and our private cyber security. Which means that, years from now, there will be, that will end up being a cyber security hub in Biloxi, Mississippi. Because we've got broadband, so you can be in Biloxi, you can be in Boston, or Bangladesh, it doesn't really matter. And our cyber security people that train, historically, will populate around that. So, I'm just looking at the map up there, y'all. I can go just about anywhere in this state.
Uh, we have two new forestry mills. One in southwest Mississippi, in Gloucester. There really hadn't been much built in Gloucester lately, and another in Sugar Lock, which there hadn't been anything built in lately.
(Will) That's right.
(Delbert) So, um, so, we just, we just look at what's happening to the state. Everybody ought to be really proud. And it, and it starts with having an educated workforce and opportunities. Our tax benefits are great here. Our people are great. We have water. We have electricity. But we have a culture that welcomes people in here. And the, you know, we talk to them. You go to California, you couldn’t talk to the governor, the lieutenant governor anyway. You know, I'll go out, and we'll cut these ribbons like we do with y'all and talk to those people, welcome them, and it's just, um, it's a special place, and I anticipate it's going to continue to be very special.
(Paul) Love Mississippi.
(Will) I agree, that's right. I feel like there's always, there's lots of bad news out there. There's bad things that are happening. That's what gets all the attention. But, yeah, I do think we're on the cusp of, you know, a lot of really great thing, and the future is absolutely brighter here. I mean, truly.
(Delbert) We had a favorable article in the New York Times!
(Will) Ah, do we now?
(Delbert) Somebody needs to frame that, because I've never seen that. At least in my lifetime, I've never seen that.
(Will) We will have to check that out.
(Delbert) Yeah, it was good about, uh, about our education jumping up so much, and how, how, how, what they refer to as the Mississippi Miracle. But, um, it's... It's we're really doing good right now.
(Will) We love to hear it.
(Paul) Excellent.
(Will) Absolutely. Well, and, and most of the crux of the interview there. We got the tough stuff, got the hard-hitting questions. A couple of light ones for you to send you on your way here this afternoon. You've been on here before we talked about getting out places to eat. Not a favorite - don't have to give us a favorite -maybe a new one? Had a, something totally new lately by chance?
(Delbert) I tell you, I shouldn't tell you this because my, my annual physical will be coming up. I usually eat out of convenience stores.
(Will) I remember this.
(Paul) You did say that.
(Delbert) There are some great convenience stores. There's one at the 142 mile marker. The chicken is really good. And um, there's just, I don't know. I don't, um. I don't get out very much in the restaurant stuff, and I'm on the road so much that, uh, we don't get a chance, Lynn and I don't get a chance to get out much, but...
(Will) Let me ask it to you this way, then. So, we're getting to Buc-ee's, you know, down south of Mississippi.
(Delbert) Yeah.
(Will) Have you been to a Buc-ee's somewhere?
(Delbert) I have been to the Buc-ee's, because I had grandchildren, and we, we were on the way to, to Florida for the summer, and we stopped. We stopped in the Buc-ee's there. Um, it's a pretty wild place. And the people, the people down there, and the statistics I heard about, how many people stop at Buc-ee's? I didn't know there were that many people in the country. But apparently tens of thousands of people. We had to, as you know, we had to rebuild the exit down there and all that other stuff. Uh, at Gulfport has a ring road that the legislature helped them with to get traffic flow for this thing is so, so big, such a big deal. But no, they, um, I haven't eaten there yet, but a lot of people do, and a lot of people buy t-shirts and just about everything else you want is up in there.
(Will) I think so. We're going to have to get the, uh, what to put this –
(Delbert) Having a Buc-ee's is a good thing. It's like getting your first Chick-fil-A.
(Will) That’s right.
(Delbert) Or Wendy's or something, you know.
(Will) It’s a big deal.
(Paul) That was a good tie in, Will, with the Buc-ee's. Uh, we got one more for ya. So, we haven't asked you this. Big music people here in MDOT Public Affairs. What about a favorite concert or musician or something like that?
(Delbert) Uh, well I have a lot of them, but most of them are either deceased or no longer with us. Although I saw Willie Nelson come back the other day. You know, on that thought, you know what is probably the best entertainment in Mississippi? Uh, college football game.
(Will) That’s very true.
(Paul) We agree.
(Delbert) If you go to one in, I've been at State and Ole Miss and Southern and Jackson State's too, but this is entertainment on steroids here. I mean, they've got all of these big screens going. They've got pictures of the kids, of the young football players and stuff like that, people they're honoring. The cheerleaders are cheering. The band's marching. It's all a big entertainment. And hopefully our teams do well. Uh, and when they do, uh, strangely enough, I guess, land prices go up, but, but they're, that, the best entertainment venue I think is, is a collegiate football game here at, whether it be Jackson State or Southern, Ole Miss, I've been to pretty much, State, all of them.
But they're, the way they choreograph everything and that weekend experience that they put together is pretty spectacular. Uh, and I, and they put it on, um, six times a year. Then they go to women's basketball, which is a big thing in our state. And basketball season has become a bigger thing. Then we, we probably play the best baseball in the country right here.
So, this whole, you know, in each one of those stadiums, you know, you look at Mississippi State's baseball stadium, probably the best in the country. Uh, and all the other ones, too, uh, down at Southern and, uh, Ole Miss and all these. They all have these great stadiums, so the entertainment, um, show - I'm assuming it's not a show - but the entertainment events that are put on at collegiate sports in Mississippi are well worth attending.
(Paul) I concur.
(Will) Yeah, absolutely.
(Paul) Ole Miss season ticket holder here, and it's been fun this season for sure. I know at all the other colleges and universities, too.
(Delbert) You got, I forget how many baseball games they play, like 60 or something.
(Paul) It's wild.
(Will) It is a lot, that's right.
(Paul) It is.
(Delbert) Two national championships and, uh, If Ole Miss hadn't beaten Southern that year, I think Southern would have been the national champion.
So, I mean, they, we just play a quality, quality sports. Our football teams are good and our, you know, we play in the best league in the world, really, SEC. So, I don't know. If you talk about entertainment, um, you want to go somewhere on the weekend, go to –
(Will) Catch a game, yeah.
(Delbert) – A basketball, baseball, football game, any, any one of our colleges and you'll get a real good show.
(Paul) Concur.
(Will) We are working on our entertainment product a little bit in Hattiesburg, our Southern Miss, for football-wise. We're good to go for the rest of the season, so we're working on it.
(Delbert) We had a good year last year.
(Will) That’s right.
(Delbert) We'll have a good year next year.
(Will) That's right. I love the optimism.
(Paul) All right, Governor. Well, we appreciate you coming, coming by and giving us an update and talking I-269.
(Delbert) It’s nice to visit with you. I appreciate your work.
(Paul) Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, we mentioned the I-269 kind of celebration this week. If you haven't seen it, go check out kind of the video, uh, of that. So, you can visit GoMDOT.com and there's a cool kind of like historical kind of thing we have up there.
We want to thank our listeners, our viewers for tuning into the Extra Mile podcast. You can watch and listen to episodes by visiting go GoMDOT.com/theextramile. Follow us on social media. @MississippiDOT is the handle. We want to thank our editor, our producer Drew Hall, who does all the work behind the scenes for us. Remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.