$6 billion in COVID aid is coming to MS. Here’s how the money can be spent.
Every county, city, school and university will get a share of $6 billion in federal funds coming to Mississippi.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is traveling the state, encouraging local officials to plan carefully — even stash the money in the bank — until they have a project that will make a difference for generations.
“This doesn’t need to be a one- or two-year project, it needs to be one or two generations,” he said.
Under the American Rescue Fund, the state will have three years to spend the money that will come to the state in January.
“We’re going to have the best years we’ve ever had in the next three years,” he said.
This is how some of the funds are allocated:
- $1.8 billion to the state Legislature to spend on infrastructure, economic loss and other eligible expenses
- $166 million to state for capital infrastructure projects
$932 million to cities and counties
- $40.4 million to Harrison County, with $18 million to Gulfport and $11.5 million to Biloxi
- $27.85 million to Jackson County, with $2.79 million to Moss Point and $4.6 million to Pascagoula
- $9.2 million to Hancock County
- $1.6 billion to public schools, which Hosemann said is about equal to the annual budget
- $429 million to colleges and universities
- $32 million to private schools
The first call he made when he learned of the funding, Hosemann said, was to State Auditor Shad White to find out how the money can and should be spent.
Hosemann met with local mayors and supervisors in Jackson County on Wednesday, and he was meeting with officials from Hancock and Harrison counties Thursday. They are showing up, he said, because he’s got the first details of how they can use the funds.
Basically the money can be used to:
▪ Respond to COVID-19 emergency and its economic effects, through aid to households, small businesses, nonprofits and industries such as tourism and hospitality.
▪ Make investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.
▪ Provide premium pay to essential workers of up to $13 per hour or $25,000 per worker or grants to their employers
▪ Provide for government services affected by a revenue reduction from the pandemic.
Green energy projects are among those that can be funded, Hosemann said. One that would be transformational is putting solar panels on the roof of every school in the state. That could eliminate their extremely high utility bills, he said, and possibly allow the districts to sell power back to the grid.
Another potential for economic development on the Coast is the dark fiber bill, passed this year by the Legislature. Basically it allows any internet service provider to tap into the unused fiber network that was constructed after Hurricane Katrina. The grid already exists in South Mississippi, and the bill would allow any internet service provider to more affordably run lines from the grid to homes and businesses.
Hosemann warns local officials that Mississippi will be competing with the other 49 states that also wil get the funds to get pipe, asphalt, internet cable and staff for billions of dollars in infrastructure work.
“We’re going to have capacity problems,” he said.
“The money’s not coming until January. Between now and then lets do our groundwork,” he said, and urged officials to get started with environmental and engineering studies now to be ready to go with the funding comes.
The money Mississippi received under the CARES Act “was spent better than any other state,” he said, for more intensive care unit beds, small businesses and computers for remote-learning students.
Hosemann said he hopes Mississippi can do as well with this extraordinary amount of new money — which comes on top of the $100 million in projects South Mississippi already got this year from the BP Restoration Fund, tidelands and GOMESA.
If we use this money for park bench and five years from now have anything “that will be our fault,” he said.
