Railroad Revitalization

Miss. Code Ann. tit. 57, ch. 43
in effect

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-1 Establishment of Railroad Revitalization Fund; development of comprehensive state rail plan; plan to include distinct freight and passenger components; periodic update of plan; deposits and expenditures.

There is established in the State Treasury a revolving fund to be designated as the “Railroad Revitalization Fund.” Monies (including interest earnings) in this fund shall be expended either separately or in combination with any available federal funds for railroad research, railroad planning and railroad administration costs incurred by the Mississippi Department of Transportation directly attributable to railroad revitalization projects; assistance to railroads for the rehabilitation or improvement of rail lines; and construction, improvement or rehabilitation of railroad facilities. The Mississippi Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Mississippi Development Authority, the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission as created in Section 57-45-1 and the railroads operating in the State of Mississippi, shall develop the State Rail Plan, which shall be a comprehensive plan that coordinates all aspects of the rail infrastructure within the state and includes distinct freight and passenger components, and is described as follows: The passenger component of the State Rail Plan means that part of the plan developed by the Mississippi Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Mississippi Development Authority and the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission and with the railroads operating in the state and in concert with the freight component of the State Rail Plan, that promotes passenger rail travel within the state in a manner that is compatible with opportunities for the state to obtain federal funding assistance that may be available for intercity passenger rail service and/or high-speed rail corridor service, and that contains provisions that include, but are not limited to, the following: Articulating the ongoing comprehensive vision and objectives associated with promoting passenger rail travel within the state; Identifying all viable routes for passenger rail service; Enhancing the existing passenger rail segments within the state and constructing additional segments; and Providing recommendations to the providers of passenger rail service within the state for complying with federal requirements necessary for the state to qualify for any available federal funding. The freight component of the State Rail Plan means the plan developed by the Mississippi Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Mississippi Development Authority and the railroads operating in the state and in concert with the passenger component of the State Rail Plan, that promotes freight rail service within the state, including, but not limited to, service to and from water ports in the state and the articulation of the ongoing comprehensive vision and objectives associated with promoting freight rail service within the state. During fiscal years 2009 and 2010, a total cumulative sum not to exceed Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00) of the “Railroad Revitalization Fund” shall be used specifically for the purpose of initially developing the State Rail Plan, as described in subsection (2) of this section. After the initial development of the State Rail Plan, the plan shall be updated periodically, not less than every five (5) years. Except as may be otherwise provided in Section 2 of Chapter 497, Laws of 2009, funds appropriated or otherwise provided by the Legislature for rail line assistance as described in subsections (1) through (3) of this section shall be deposited in the Railroad Revitalization Fund. Any monies received by the Mississippi Department of Transportation by agreements, grants, gifts or other means from individuals, companies or other business entities, municipalities, counties, local railroad authorities or regional railroad authorities or other governmental agencies for the purposes set forth in this chapter, except federal grants made under Section 5 of the Department of Transportation Act, as amended (49 USCS 1654), shall be credited to the Railroad Revitalization Fund. Any interest received from investment of monies in the fund shall be credited to the fund and shall not be deposited into the State General Fund. Use of this fund for the required periodic updates to the State Rail Plan and for railroad research, planning and administration costs incurred by the Mississippi Department of Transportation that are directly attributable to railroad revitalization projects shall be paid from any available funds of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, including those derived from collections from the locomotive fuel tax for the previous year.

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-3 Agreements to carry out railroad revitalization.

The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, with the approval of the Mississippi Transportation Commission, may enter into agreements with railroads, the United States government, persons, municipalities, counties, local railroad authorities or regional railroad authorities for carrying out the purposes of this chapter. Agreements entered into between the executive director and railroad corporations pursuant to this chapter may require payment by the railroad corporation of a portion of revenue derived from the improved rail line into the Railroad Revitalization Fund and to users who have paid a portion of the cost of the improved line. Any agreement between the executive director and a railroad corporation shall also include a condition that, as a prerequisite to its receipt of any monies available under this chapter, a railroad corporation agrees not to abandon any section of line on which such monies are to be spent until all of the monies expended on such section out of the Railroad Revitalization Fund have been replaced. The board of supervisors of a county and the governing authority of a municipality may enter into an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Transportation to receive a portion of the payments made by a railroad corporation to the Railroad Revitalization Fund pursuant to this chapter. The amount received by a county or municipality shall not exceed the amount appropriated to the Railroad Revitalization Fund by the county or municipality pursuant to this chapter.

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-5 Acceptance of federal grants; grants from fund.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation may accept federal funds to carry out the provisions of this chapter. All federal grants received under provisions of this chapter shall be expended for the purposes set forth in the federal grants. The transportation department, upon a finding that sufficient federal grants for railroad rehabilitation are not available, and with the approval of the State Fiscal Management Board, may make grants to railroad corporations in a total amount not to exceed Two Million Dollars ($2,000,000.00) from the Railroad Revitalization Fund.

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-7 Terms of agreements between Department and railroad corporations.

Agreements between the railroad corporations and the Mississippi Department of Transportation which do not require payment of a portion of the revenue derived from the improved rail line to be paid by the railroad to the Railroad Revitalization Fund shall require that the railroad establish and maintain a separate railroad corporation fund to which a specified portion of the revenue derived from the improved rail line shall be credited and that these funds shall be used by the railroad for the rehabilitation or improvement of rail lines within the state. The terms and conditions governing the use of monies in the special railroad corporation fund shall be stipulated in the agreement. The agreement shall also stipulate a penalty for use of the funds in a manner other than as set forth in the agreement.

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-9 County or municipal appropriations to fund; use of such moneys.

The board of supervisors of a county or the governing authority of a municipality may, with the approval of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, appropriate funds from the county or municipal general fund to the Railroad Revitalization Fund. The money shall be used in accordance with this chapter only for rehabilitation or improvement of rail lines within the county from which the county or municipal funds are provided. The county or municipality may, according to the provisions of Section 57-43-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, receive a partial or total reimbursement for this appropriation.

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-11 Agreements to jointly fund rehabilitation or improvement; loans to make up local share.

The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, with the approval of the Mississippi Transportation Commission, may enter into agreements for the purposes of this chapter whereby the state shall provide, from the state portion of the funds available, not more than seventy-five percent (75%) of the amounts necessary to rehabilitate or improve a rail line or segment thereof which has been documented as being viable and cost-effective, provided at least twenty-five percent (25%) of the cost is provided by federal, local, user or railroad funds. The portion to be provided by local governmental agencies may be in the form of a loan from the Railroad Revitalization Fund, with repayment being made by a portion of the revenue derived from the improved line or by a pledge of certain other funds. Any loan shall be made at no interest, provided payments are made in accordance with the agreement. Any portion of a loan outstanding during any delinquency shall bear interest at the legal rate on the entire balance due. In the event that a loan made to a county or municipality has not been repaid or arrangements satisfactory to the Mississippi Transportation Department have not been made to repay the loan within a period of time after same is due and payable, as determined by the department, the department shall determine that there is a default, shall enter an order to that effect upon its official minutes, and send a certified copy of said order by certified mail, postage prepaid, to the chancery clerk or city clerk, as the case may be. If said default is not satisfied in full within thirty (30) days following notification of default by the department, the county or municipality, as the case may be, shall forfeit its right to receive reimbursement for homestead exemption until such time as its indebtedness has been discharged or arrangements to discharge said indebtedness satisfactory to the department have been made. Homestead exemption funds forfeited hereby shall, upon demand by the department made in writing upon the Mississippi State Tax Commission, be paid to the Mississippi Transportation Department and applied to the discharge of the obligation.

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-13 Repealed.

Repealed by its own terms, eff from and after July 1, 2001. [Laws, 1993, ch. 355, § 2; Laws, 2001, ch. 367, § 1, eff from and after July 1, 2001.]

Miss. Code Ann. § 57-43-15 Mississippi Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing Safety Account.

There is established within the Railroad Revitalization Fund a new account to be entitled the Mississippi Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing Safety Account. The account shall be administered by the Mississippi Department of Transportation and shall consist of: Such monies as are transferred to it on July 1, 2001, from the Mississippi Grade Crossing Closure Account; Thirty-five percent (35%) of collections from the locomotive fuel tax imposed under Section 27-59-307 for the previous year; and Monies transferred to it from the Railroad Revitalization Fund, pursuant to the provisions of Section 2 of Chapter 497, Laws of 2009. Unexpended amounts remaining in the account at the end of a fiscal year shall not lapse into the State General Fund; and any interest earned on amounts in the account shall be deposited to the credit of the account. The Mississippi Transportation Commission, after consulting with the railroads operating in Mississippi, shall promulgate rules to ensure equitable allocation of the funds described in subsection (1) of this section to projects throughout the state, and shall consider the proportionate number of main line track miles of each railroad and the number of public roadway/railroad grade crossings on each railroad’s main line. Expenditure of monies from the Mississippi Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing Safety Account shall be limited to the following purposes: Financial aid for closure of public roadway/railroad grade crossings; Realignment of construction costs of roadways being rerouted to facilitate a closure of a public roadway/railroad grade crossing; Monies to match federal or other funds for a grade separation eliminating an at-grade crossing of a public roadway and railroad; Installation, maintenance or upgrade of highway-railroad grade crossing signals, at the discretion of the Mississippi Transportation Commission, based upon the Federal Railroad Administration ranking of all Mississippi highway-railroad grade crossings. Not less than ten percent (10%) of the monies necessary to defray the costs of such installations must be federal funds; Separation of grades of highway/railroad crossings; Improvement of any grade crossing including the necessary roadway approaches thereto of any railroad across a public road highway; Construction, reconstruction, repair or replacement of the grade crossing surface structure; and Installation of an automatic advance warning signal alerting a motorist that a grade crossing is ahead. The Mississippi Department of Transportation shall consider all requests from the state’s diagnostic review of public roadway/railroad grade crossings and from individual railroads for expenditure of funds for the purposes described in subsection (2) of this section, and shall establish uniform criteria and guidelines relating to such crossings and the expenditure of funds.

Starting a business in Mississippi? Mississippi LLC guide: costs and requirements