Columbus native Chuck Younger has been named the chair of the state Senate’s Highways and Transportation Committee.
Younger, the senator for District 17 since 2014, was appointed to lead the commission Friday after its previous head Jenifer Branning won a seat on Mississippi’s Supreme Court. That means he is now responsible for deciding what transportation bills move forward to a full Senate vote and which stall out in committee.
Younger told The Dispatch Wednesday he chose to pursue the position because of his time chairing the Senate Committee on Agriculture, which gave him insight to the difficulties in moving goods around the state. Younger stepped down as agriculture chair to take the transportation role, but will continue to serve on the agriculture committee.
“I’ve been chairman of agriculture for a few years, and of course to get anything to market you have to go through the highway,” Younger said. “I spoke with the Farm Bureau president and good friend of mine Mike McCormick and he said, ‘Yeah, that would be a good move for you and a good move for agriculture as well.’”
Younger said his top priorities are making sure Mississippi Department of Transportation has as much funding as possible and getting the state’s roads repaired, giving a nod to river ports and railroad lines as well.
“You can’t put enough money into MDOT,” he said. “We have so many highways that look like they’re in good shape, but when you’re actually driving down them you can see them starting to crack and deteriorate. We’re going to be working on more funding so we can do the maintenance on our highways and bridges.”
Younger is also a longtime friend and associate of MDOT Executive Director Brad White. White told The Dispatch Wednesday that Younger was already very familiar with the workings of MDOT and is a good fit for committee chair.
“He’ll be an asset not just to us but to the state of Mississippi,” he said. “Long before he was named chairman, he worked with us on various projects. He’s very familiar with the department and what we do, and the department is very familiar with him.”
Trip Hairston, president of the Lowndes County board of supervisors, said having Younger at the head of the transportation committee could make local highway improvements faster. Industrial Park Road, for example, is backed up each morning due to industrial traffic and a stop sign slowing things down.
State agencies are already working to revamp the area, but in the meantime, the county has stationed a deputy there each day to direct traffic. How long that situation lasts depends in part on how quickly funding can be allocated to the project, and that funding depends on how quickly it moves through the committee, Hairston said.
“When the commissioner seeks funding from the legislature to do these types of things, they’re going to Senator Younger’s committee,” Hairston said. “We’ve solved this for now at the county level with that deputy, but in these situations it sure is nice to have just one phone call you need to make because your local senator happens to be the chairman of the committee making those funding decisions.”
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