After two days of hearings, lawmakers have a better idea of needs as they prepare to spend $1.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds in the upcoming legislative session.
The state received the money from the American Rescue Plan Act and a Senate subcommittee has been listening to proposals from state and local officials how to spend the money.
The advocacy group for municipalities told lawmakers that cities need some of the federal COVID-19 relief funds for water and sewer repairs in the form of a matching grant program.
Shari Veazey is the executive director of the Mississippi Municipal League, which lobbies on behalf of cities and towns at the Legislature. She told lawmakers Monday that the MML has told its members that they should prioritize water and sewer repairs but should wait before authorizing spending with American Rescue Plan Act funds that were received in March.
She also told lawmakers that she doesn’t have a final figure on how much money should be spent on a matching grant program.
The reason the MML wanted cities to wait before spending ARPA funds is to see if more money will be provided from federal sources. Jackson received $42 million in ARPA funds, the most statewide. According to data from the National League of Cities. Gulfport was second with $19.5 million, Hattiesburg was third with $12.8 million and Biloxi received the fourth-most at $11 million.
Veazey said some of the cities are struggling with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandates that can’t be paid through rate hikes. One of those is Jackson, which will need $170 million to get its water system up to federal standards.
She said there are 275 municipal water systems throughout the state and 225 wastewater systems.
The MML had its members send individual proposals to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and lawmakers, encouraging them to get cost estimates for vital infrastructure projects.
Of the MML membership of 291 cities, towns and villages in Mississippi, 85 percent have less than 10,000 population and 52 percent are less than 1,500.
Kirby Mayfield from the Rural Water Associations told the committee that his member associations are requesting $700 million, which would represent both “needs and wants.” One of those changes is to replace analog water meters with digital ones.
The Department of Child Protective Services wants $75 million, with $25.2 million for a “continuum of care” for foster children, $8 million to help keep families together and $1 million for a child abuse prevention program.
The state Department of Mental health wants to expand crisis stabilization bed availability by 60 more beds, expanded crisis intervention trailing and mental health training for law enforcement, probation, parole and corrections officers, peer support services, seven more community support specialists at community mental health centers and 13 adolescent offender programs.
Tourism marketing organizations are requesting $52 million to help these local agencies promote tourism statewide.
The state Department of Health wants $49 million in ARPA funds for building repairs and other costs for county health departments, $32 million for repairs to its central campus in Jackson that includes $15 million for a new pharmacy building, $8.5 million for emergency response costs, including a 92,000 square foot medical equipment warehouse and $92 million for COVID and other infectious disease costs at hospitals statewide which would include $44.5 million for 76 new ICU beds and $41 million for 243 new beds.
William Carey University in Hattiesburg wants $35 million in ARPA funds for the Institute for Primary Care to train thousands of nurse practitioners, public health workers, paramedics and pharmacists, along with promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in local schools.
The school plans to double the number of physicians that graduate from its medical school from 100 annually between 2010 to 2020 to 200 per year from 2020 to 2030. Seventy percent of these physicians are primary care doctors. The school’s goal is to have 500 Carey grads practicing in Mississippi, up from the 150 as of 2020.
