Mississippi Lt. Gov. and Vicksburg native Delbert Hosemann recently sat down with The Vicksburg Post and spoke about the slate of ongoing projects in Warren County – including those currently underway and those he says are sorely needed – as well as what he sees in the immediate future for his hometown and the state as a whole.

Hosemann said the state project that will have the most immediate impact on Warren County is work to expand the overpass at Exit 15 in Flowers, which is scheduled to see work begin in early 2025. But Hosemann said Vicksburg is in need of improvements in other areas as well.

“It’s sorely needed,” Hosemann said of the work in Flowers. “It’s got the Love’s truck stop there and all of those trucks are getting on. It’s quite busy for Warren County in sales, but it’s very dangerous there. The only place that I think is more dangerous is the Clay Street exit. I have told them repeatedly that people will be injured there and they need to fix it and have a longer runway. When you come off that ramp and look to your left, there are trucks on you immediately. I’m hopeful that that will be in (Mississippi Department of Transportation) Commissioner (Willie) Simmons’ plan. We make the decisions about funding, but they pick the roads. We have supported them with over a billion dollars in funds. We will have continuing maintenance and capacity projects as long as I’m lieutenant governor.”

While the ramp to exit Clay Street needs expanding, Hosemann said he is also actively involved in plans to bring traffic onto Clay Street from I-20.

“We have been meeting with Katie Blount, who runs archives and history, and we have also met with the architects that are designing the new interpretive center, or conference center, that is going out there for the (Vicksburg National Military Park). We have placed approximately $17 million into that already. In 2024, there was $7 million that came for the Vicksburg Military Park interpretive center and that coincides with $10 million that we got last year, and Sen. (Briggs) Hopson and I are pushing toward an eventual investment by the state of $40 million. Of course, it will be more than that, so our arrangement with the friends of the military park is that they will raise the remainder.”

Hosemann said he and Hopson recently visited Gettysburg, Penn. in an effort to generate solid ideas for the park’s new center and said using state funds to develop the 17 acres at the park ultimately made more sense.

“We didn’t want to rely on the federal government because of how long it would take,” he said. “Using state funds, we’re still several years out, but we should have it completed by 2028 or 2029. It’s going to be awesome and very visible by the cars that go by there on Clay Street. We think that there’s about half a million people that come here and I’m not so sure that we couldn’t have another 100 to 200 hundred thousand people here in Vicksburg. We’re having meetings (with the architects) about once a month as they’re drafting out what it will look like.”

On the opposite end of town, Hosemann said work is focused on Warren County’s new south port project.

“We appropriated $8 million for the new south port. The $8 million covers the wetland mediation, and next will be, of course, to construct the port and the levy. Pablo (Diaz) is working hard to find a tenant to pay the bills,” he said.

Hosemann also touched on the recent meetings in Vicksburg and Yazoo City aimed at finding a solution to the decades-old flooding problems in the South Delta. During those meetings, four proposed plans were pitched at town hall-style gatherings, allowing for public input from those most affected by the flooding.

“It is way too late,” he said. “The United States misled the people in the South Delta. This situation was supposed to be done 30 years ago or more and it’s never been done. I respect so much Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith for taking the lead to push for the pumps. It’s an obvious necessity. I grew up on Eagle Lake and we should have had this done more than 40 years ago. We need a solution. I don’t care if it’s plan two or 22. We need something to pump the water out so my people can still farm and live in their houses. I’ll leave that up to the Corps of Engineers. It’s very complicated. But, the farmers aren’t having a banner year this year and it’s just hard to plan when you don’t know if your house is going to be underwater.”

On the state level, Hosemann said he is actively working in a number of policy areas to improve life for Mississippi residents in areas ranging from taxes to education.

“Sen. Hopson and Sen. (Josh) Harkins are doing a state fiscal policy study group. We’ll be looking at all the taxes in Mississippi and the capacity and the bonding. Since I have been lieutenant governor, we have paid off $1.2 billion in state debt in bonds. I want to continue that. I’m committed to that and I think Sen. Hopson is, too. We lag behind in our labor force, so we’re doing our labor force participation study. We have a mental health task force. We have significant problems with absenteeism (in schools), including here in Warren County. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent of the school year, which is 18 days. Warren County is over 20 percent. When your kids aren’t coming to school, their opportunities to have a better economic future – or even a social future – are very limited. So, you’ll see us moving attendance officers to local school districts to complement what we did for career counselors. We have career counselors in every school now. I want our attendance officers to be knocking on doors and finding out why our children aren’t in class. And you’ll see a significant raise in attendance officers’ salaries to attract people to that

“I’ve been a proponent of reducing the grocery tax and I’ll be a proponent of that this year. So, you’ll see us talking about reducing taxes further. If we reduce the grocery tax, during my eight years as lieutenant governor, we will have reduced taxes by over $1 billion, so we’re working hard on being good stewards of everybody’s money.”

Hosemann also said November could bring the state one step closer to the goal of finally expanding Medicaid for Mississippi’s working poor.

“It could happen,” he said. “It really depends on the presidential election. President Trump was in favor of Medicaid for working people. So was the Senate and so am I. We had it paid for by the (Health Maintenance Organizations) and managed care organizations. They had agreed to pay a fee of about 3 percent, which generated about $120 million to pay for about 75,000 working people who weren’t covered. I anticipate, if President Trump gets elected, you will see that proposed again and passed by the Senate.”

As for his own future, Hosemann has not yet confirmed rumors he will run for governor at the end of Gov. Tate Reeves’ current term in 2027; however, Hosemann said he has no plans to leave public service.

“I’m working on being lieutenant governor,” he said. “I have enjoyed my time in public service and I’m not ready to retire. I enjoy the work we’re doing and I think we’re making a difference. If you look at our body of work, it’s very strong and I see the state going in the right direction. I want to make sure that it continues to do that. So, we’ll see here pretty shortly on how we go forward with that. I have a vision of where this state needs to be and I’m going to keep driving us toward that. It depends on people wanting to hire me. As long as they keep wanting to hire me, I’m going to keep working.”