City Beat: Jackson Powerless Against Suburbs as Revenue and Election in Question

Whichever Mayoral Candidate Wins Jackson's Runoff Election, They Face a Tough Foe  

What’s waiting around the corner for the mayor of Jackson? Bills. Bills and bushwhacking.    Image credit: Erica Branch-Butler 

Even as Jackson streets crumble, the city is held captive by a powerful Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) determined to funnel highway and road funding to suburbs. The Central Mississippi Planning and Development District (CMPDD) distributed more than $52 million to Federal Highway Administration projects in its territory in 2023. That territory includes communities in Gluckstadt, Florence, Rankin County and the incredibly wealthy, mostly white town of Madison. Though boxed in by wealthy bedroom communities, Jackson draws down much of the Federal Highway Administration money with its population of 140,000 majority Black residents.  

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Records suggest CMPDD doesn’t dispense the money to help the highest population, however, and critics say this is typical of most MPOs. A 2006 study by the Brookings Institution determined MPOs let suburban interests dominate transportation decisions by favoring highway expansion over central transit investment. Former Memphis District 8 Councilman Martavius Jones said he recognizes what’s happening in Jackson because it’s also a problem in Memphis. Memphis’ own MPO stretches down into north Mississippi and funnels investment to white flight communities as far away as Desoto and Marshall counties. 

Former Memphis District 8 Councilman Martavius Jones said MPO's also neglect the city of Memphis

“These districts’ boards contain people representing many communities, but the central city with the biggest population has the same number of representatives as tiny suburb towns,” Jones said. “Let’s say Memphis’ Shelby County has a population of about 950,000, and 600,000 of that 950,000 reside in Memphis. But you have each of the other municipalities in the organization with one rep as well, and they all vote to send money to outlying areas over the city of Memphis. Over the years, Memphis has subsidized its own demise, and I bet you anything Jackson is subsidizing its own demise as well.” 

Neither city has much choice in the matter. If MPO board votes were weighted according to populations represented, urban votes would compose nearly two-thirds of all votes while suburban areas would represent nearly one-third. But a 2017 Department of Transportation survey shows only 13% of MPO’s use weighted voting proportional to the population they represent. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, for example, was only one representative on a CMPDD board of more than 30 suburban representatives in early 2025. Whether it’s Lumumba or Horhn, Jackson’s next mayor will be on the outside looking in on most CMPDD votes.  

A quick tally of CMPDD’s 2024 Annual Listing of Federally Obligated Projects shows it sending more than $40 million to highway and road extensions and connections in wealthy Madison suburbs. The City of Jackson benefitted from roughly $20 million in federal grants for the renovation of a mile or so of Medgar Evers Boulevard. But that was only because the Biden administration and former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg personally directed $20 million to that project. Without that special attention, Jackson might have only nabbed about $180k for a “Museum to Market Trail” on CMPDD’s 2024 list.  

The CMPDD board did dedicate money to construction and improvements on highways zipping through Jackson that year, but critics say that construction primarily serves to help commuters fly through the city even faster. It does not encourage patrons to visit Jackson businesses, nor does it provide safe new roads to encourage the purchase of property for homes or employment. 

“Even though that’s construction inside the city, the CMPDD is acting as an agent of urban sprawl,” former mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. told BGX last year. “It’s what they do.”  

What’s worse, many of the grants a city does manage to nab rest on the amount of matching funds administrators are able to put down at the time of their application. The City of Jackson routinely must invest a little extra to sweeten the application before the CMPDD board. 

CMPDD sources say this is just common business practice.

“If the city is applying to the MPO to receive grant funding, the way our application process works is if a jurisdiction commits more than the 20% required match they receive additional points in the application process. So most (applicants) will do more than the requirement of 20% to make their applications more competitive,” Calendar told BGX. 

Cities with a smaller suburban parasite load, who get to benefit from reliable sales and property taxes, may not have such a problem with this. But a cash-strapped city with notorious budget issues and a whole water department slowly emerging from the ashes, commits a higher down payment to win over suburban competitors on the board, even when they can’t easily afford it. These are some of the many reasons Madison County is enjoying a $250 million Boseman Road extension with the help of $4.4 million from CMPDD while Jackson’s meager two-lane Atkins Boulevard continues to serve as a major thoroughfare, complete with short-tempered litterbug commuters. 

It is likely both remaining mayoral candidates already know their MPO’s preference for outlying communities, but the problem will be waiting for them when they walk into office.