BP bill survives challenge in state Senate, moves to House

A bill to create a special fund for BP economic-damages money survived a final challenge in the Mississippi Senate on Monday.

The bill by Sen. Brice Wiggins, R- Pascagoula, would create the Gulf Coast New Restoration Reserve Fund. The state over several years will receive a total of $750 million for the damage to the economy wrought by the Deepwater Horizon disaster that spewed millions of gallons oil into the Gulf, shutting down the tourism and fishing industries for months. About $50 million of the $150 million already received by the state has been spent, mostly for projects in South Mississippi.

The bill would have money from the Restoration Reserve Fund put into the Public Trust Tidelands Fund each year. It would apply the same process for administering Tidelands funds to the BP funds and would amend the Tidelands law to allow economic development projects.

The bill unanimously passed the Senate but hit a snag when Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, held the bill on a motion to reconsider.

“As a result of this spill, substantial damages, economic damages, was done to the greater part of the state,” Blackmon said. She said though the Coast took the brunt of the damage, other parts of the state lost tourism and other business and should share in the BP settlement.

A motion by Appropriations Committee chairman Eugene S. Clarke to table Blackmon’s motion passed on a voice vote and sent the bill on to the House for more work. House members could pass the bill as it is or make changes.

The bill was co-authored by Sens. Tommy Gollott, R-Biloxi; Sean Tindell, R-Gulfport; Mike Seymour, R-Vancleave; Philip Moran, R-Kiln; and Michael Watson, R-Pascagoula.

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "BP bill survives challenge in state Senate, moves to House."