Members of the Starkville Rotary Club were brought up to speed on a new program to give more work in Mississippi to contractors from the state, when Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley spoke Monday.
Presley spoke in depth about the Mississippi Public Service Commission’s Hire Mississippi program, which he designed in conjunction with state legislators and others.
The program began March 1, and seeks to put contractors from across the state to work on Mississippi utilities projects, reducing the need for out-of-state workers. Hire Mississippi lists all contractors in the state who wish to be notified of work opportunities with Mississippi utility projects. Contractors on the list will receive notification of all upcoming bids in their respective field of more than $200,000. No prime contractor will beawarded a utility contract until they have consulted the Hire Mississippi List for awarding subcontracts.
Presley said Hire Mississippi was the sole program of its kind instituted by a public service commission.
“It’s really aimed at one thing, helping Mississippians find work and Mississippi jobs,” Presley said. “I get sick and tired of driving by public projects that you and I are paying for through our taxes or through our utility bills and seeing car tags, truck tags and workers from outside the state of Mississippi.”
Presley said of the $817 million operational cost of the five largest utilities companies operating in Mississippi, only 17 percent was spent on employing Mississippi companies. He emphasized the $817 million figure did not include construction projects, such as the Mississippi Power Kemper County Plant.
“Seventy percent of that money went to out-of-state firms,” Presley said. “That’s a shame and a disgrace, so Hire Mississippi is aimed at helping Mississippi businesses be able to get more work opportunities with our major utilities.
Businesses can register for the list at www.hiremississippi.com.
Presley also said Hire Mississippi had an education component, as it would show what areas Mississippi lacked in terms of workforce, and show universities and community colleges where shortfalls in programs were located.
“We get to see the confidential data, so that we can understand clearly where are the gaps in Mississippi’s workforce, in Mississippi’s business community that we’re losing money on,” Presley said. “It’s not true, but let’s just say for example’s sake that not one electric substation in Mississippi was built by a Mississippi contractor. That tells us we’ve got a problem. If nobody’s bid, we know we’ve got to be training in that area in Mississippi.
Presley also spoke at length about rural high-speed internet, which has long been an important issue to him. He said broadband should be regulated as a utility, and follow a path similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority electrifying small communities during the early 20th century.
“We’ve got an infrastructure crisis,” Presley said. “High-speed internet is the electricity of the 21st century. We’re working on solutions that are outside of the box to try to bring high-speed internet just like President (Franklin D. ) Roosevelt brought electricity close to 100 years ago."
He said representatives from several utility co-ops and other utility firms from around the state would travel with him to Hamilton, Alabama to learn about an initiative in Alabama for bringing high-speed internet to rural communities.
“They’re providing service that we’re not doing in the state of Mississippi,” Presley said. “If they can do it in Alabama, we ought to do it.”