Welcome to rebuildingmississippi.org, a website sponsored by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, a private, non-government, independent think tank based in Jackson. The primary purpose of the site is to provide innovative ideas for attracting private investment in the region affected by Hurricane Katrina.

This website is set up as a web log, or “blog.” The good news is that it allow you to comment on any of the ideas you see and have your comments available for others to see. Simply click on the heading of an article, and it will take you to a screen where you can write your comments. The bad news is that the ideas are posted in chronological order, not priority order. So, the best or most innovative ideas might not be at the top of the page.

The categories on the right will help you find ideas on issues in which you are most interested. If you click on “1-Ideas for Rebuilding”, you will see all items in all the categories that begin with “1.” If you click on “2-News”, you will see all items posted in categories that begin with “2.”

We welcome your comments and your ideas!

To read or hear Vital Signs radio commentaries by Forest Thigpen, president of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy (the host of this site), click here. There, you’ll also find the broadcast schedule for these commentaries on radio stations around the state.

The Biloxi Sun-Herald newspaper has a posted set of “before and after” photographs of a number of landmarks, which give a startling view of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. In addition, the site outlines the basic history of the landmarks and explains what has happened to them since the storm.

The 150-year-old Dantzler House on US Highway 90 in Biloxi gives a particularly clear image of the breadth of damage this storm caused.

To see other examples, click here.

The Hattiesburg American and Sun Herald newspapers each offers a series of articles about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, from volunteer efforts to government actions to rebuilding efforts by the private sector.

To view these articles, click on the respective paper: Hattiesburg American and Sun Herald.

After Hurricane Camille, Governor John Bell Williams established a commission to rebuild the Coast. Few of their recommendations were acted upon by local and state governments.

The Sun-Herald newspaper outlines the similarities and differences between Hurricanes Camille and Katrina - and the commissions created in response to them. Read Article

Governor Barbour and our congressional delegation in Washington have been asking the federal government to give south Mississippi priority in the federal budget. It is critically important that we in Mississippi do the same thing by setting priorities our state budget.

All capital projects funded by the state should be evaluated with the presumption that they should be delayed until the end of next fiscal year (about a year-and-a-half from now), and the funds for those projects should be transferred to projects where infrastructure was significantly damaged or destroyed by the hurricane.

This would include, among other things, suspending highway construction projects outside the affected area; construction of state-owned buildings; and the purchase of furniture, vehicles, and equipment not directly related to rebuilding.

If we are going to ask people in other states to make sacrifices to help us, we should be faithful to do the same.

[This is an updated entry.] Even though Congress has enacted a Gulf Opportunity Zone (or GO Zone) to allow special tax relief and other incentives for private investment in the Gulf Coast region, the state legislature should not depend on that alone to spur private investment. There are ways to enhance the enticement provided by these provisions. For instance, where Congress allowed a 50% expensing of certain capital costs on federal tax returns, the state should enact a 100% expensing on state tax returns.

A GO Zone should offer short-term tax breaks to encourage businesses to act quickly to buy equipment, build or rebuild facilities, and hire workers. For instance, capital gains taxes should be eliminated for investments in job-producing businesses in the region over the next two years. As mentioned above, the tax law should allow equipment and most other capital costs to be written off in the year purchased instead of depreciated over time.

Some people will say these are corporate tax breaks that will benefit only the wealthy. But in the real world, smart investors will put their money where it will make the greatest return. If the cost of doing business is reduced by lowering the tax bill, investors will be more likely invest in southern Mississippi businesses instead of in other places. This means more jobs, more quickly, and it means that the local tax base will rebound more quickly because of the property taxes that would be paid to local governments on these investments.

As the federal and state governments consider how much money to appropriate for helping to rebuild the Coast, other options for financing should be explored.

Several states and many foreign countries allow private sector investors and developers to build and own public infrastructure. In Europe, many highways are privately financed and operated, and are supported either by tolls or by long-term leases with the government. Airports, water systems, and many public school facilities are built, owned and maintained by private developers.

Several states have enacted laws to encourage these public-private partnerships. The result has been a flood of private money for investment in new and upgraded roads. This is especially popular in areas where new routes were built to relieve traffic congestion.

This kind of private investment not only frees local and state governments from the burden of up-front financing or heavy debt loads; it also frees them from the daily management and maintenance of these structures, which then allows them to focus on other matters that only they can address.

Congress has passed legislation to create a Gulf Opportunity Zone, or GO Zone, to provide a variety of tax incentives for investing and re-investing in business ventures and housing in south Mississippi.

It also creates a special class of tax-exempt bonds that can be issued by the state or by cities for repair and reconstruction of infrastructure and housing. It also provides methods for governments to refinance their existing debt, and it expands the Hope Opportunity Scholarship Credit for higher education expenses.

The Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has written a summary of the bill’s provision. Click Here to read the summary

The city of Natchez decided not to wait on a FEMA-approved contractor to clear the debris in the city. They did it themselves. As a result, FEMA will only reimburse a small portion of their expenses. Read Article