‘A coastal fight.’ How Coast Restore Act project list was decided in Jackson
The process to decide the first projects funded by the RESTORE Act went as feared — with Coast Legislators fighting and other state legislators still questioning why the money is being spent only in the six southern counties.
It all played out on the Senate floor Tuesday.
The Gulf Coast Restoration Advisory Board had several meetings to narrow the list of 119 potential projects. It recommended 14 projects get some of the $750 million BP and others agreed to pay the state in economic damages from the 2010 oil spill.
But Coast senators and representatives also met many times to come up with their own list.
Not all from the Coast delegation agreed on the final list. Sen. Joel Carter Jr., R-Gulfport, said the language in the final version doesn’t match what was discussed in the meetings he attended, and he asked the Senate to hold approval until it could be worked out.
The Senate instead voted to adopt the list presented. The House also agreed on the plan to spend $65 million of the $87 million available this year.
“This is a coastal fight if you will,” said Sen. W. Briggs Hopson III, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who read the entire list of 27 projects.
“I got some members from the Coast expressing their great concern about the bill, and I’m gonna let you guys fight it out,” he said.
Coast legislators contacted by the Sun Herald didn’t return calls for comment.
Sen. David Blount, D-Hinds County, said he knew why the Senate was having the discussion.
“And that is because we made the unwise decision to designate money — that was sent to the state of Mississippi for losses sustained by the state of Mississippi — to six counties and have effectively set up a system where a small number of legislators get to appropriate that money and decide how it’s spent. And I just think that’s bad policy.”
‘A Coast back and forth’
Other pots of money from the BP settlements will go to projects throughout the state and for conservation efforts in the Gulf.
The state will receive $57 million each year through 2033 for economic damages caused by the oil spill, and it will go into the Gulf Coast Advisory Fund and be allocated each year.
Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, said the Coast delegation was not in a fight — “We’re in a Coast back and forth.”
He took Hopson on a step-by-step look at how the final list was reached.
Hopson said all but about five of the projects recommended by the advisory board made the list, which still includes projects only in the lower six counties.
The top recommendation was for $32.5 million for a University of Southern Mississippi Ocean Enterprise building at the State Port of Gulfport. It also was the top project on the Legislature’s list, but the allocation was cut to $7 million.
The second-highest recommended project of $18 million for a Coast YMCA off I-10 in Gulfport was eliminated in the final list.
Those and other cuts provided millions more for the legislators to spend on 27 projects — or nearly twice what was recommended.
What the Coast delegation wants?
Hopson, who represents Issaquena, Warren and Yazoo counties, said he isn’t as familiar with the economic needs of South Mississippi.
He warned the Coast delegation that the projects they picked better be legitimate.
“If we find out that one of these projects is a piece of junk, well next year or the year after I’m not going to be too interested in knowing what the Coastal delegation wants in their projects,” he said.
“I’m going to look to people outside the Coast to give me advice, because I don’t want to be embarrassed by knowing there’s a project on this list that’s going to mess us up.”
What deadline?
All the projects that were being considered in this first year of funding had an application deadline of Dec. 1, 2019, under the legislation passed last year.
“All the projects that you have in this legislation, did they meet that deadline?” asked Sen. Joseph Seymour, who represents parts of Jackson, Pearl River and Stone counties. If not, he asked if they would the be eligible for funding.
After consulting away from the microphone, Hopson said he was told some of the projects on the Legislature’s list may not have met the deadline.
He later was advised by Senate counsel there was a Dec. 1 deadline in the legislation, but the sentence that follows says the Legislature has the authority to appropriate, which supersedes the deadline.
Transformational projects
“The real brilliance of the legislation that established the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund was that it outlined 15 criteria that will be used to select good projects that constitute good investments on the Coast,” said Ashley Edwards, chairman of the seven-member advisory board for the GCRF.
“We used the criteria the Legislature established as our guiding principle,” he said.
The project should be well-thought-out, have a clear business plan, have demonstrated potential for an economic impact for the Coast and would be transformational for the Coast counties.
Funding the Ocean Enterprise building in Gulfport would give South Mississippi a big jump into the ocean economy that Edwards said is projected to grow by $1.5 trillion in the next 10 years.
“We were going after one of the biggest growth sectors in the worldwide economy,” he said.
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
