I have been surprised and disappointed to read reports that some in our legislative branch of state government are trying to disrupt and change how Mississippi has effectively responded to emergency situations for decades. In any emergency, someone has to be in charge, and in our system of government, that is the Governor. That is not to minimize the important role to be played by the State Legislature, mayors, supervisors and other elected officials. But the Governor is ultimately accountable.
Recently, the US Congress passed and President Trump signed the CARES Act, which established a $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund, from which the State of Mississippi has received $1.25 billion. The federal government has been very specific about how this money can and can’t be used. It can be used for expenses incurred between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 and it is designed to help us handle the costs associated with the Coronavirus public health emergency. The money can’t be used for revenue losses or to replace already budgeted for items in our state budget. Our state will be accountable to the U.S. Treasury Department and Congress for how we spend these funds.
State law has been very clear for decades about how to handle this type of situation. Under state statute 33-15-27, the Governor is authorized to accept such funds for the purpose of emergency management. Under state statute 27-104-21, the Governor, through the Department of Finance and Administration, has the authority to spend the funds. No action of the State Legislature is expected or required.
This is how it has worked for decades in our state, and for good reason. After a tornado, a hurricane, a flood - and as we are learning now, after a pandemic - it is customary for the state to receive federal dollars to assist with managing the emergency. In some cases, like it was after Hurricane Katrina, the sums received are in addition to what we would receive through FEMA and the federal Stafford Act. Regardless, it would be cumbersome, and thus delay and harm our state’s response if in each case the Legislature had to authorize the expenditure of such funds, or if they were to insist on deciding how the funds were to be spent.
After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government provided Mississippi enormous sums to aid in our recovery and rebuilding. The Speaker of the State House was Billy McCoy, a Democrat who often disagreed with my agenda. But he and I worked together on many aspects of our state’s response to Hurricane Katrina and as he said to newspaper columnist Bill Minor in 2006, “Nobody in the Legislature expected we would take over appropriating the money.”
I am encouraged by how Governor Reeves has approached this issue and our state’s response to both the pandemic and the resulting economic emergency. As is appropriate, he is consulting with the Legislature, local elected officials, and the private sector. His plan recognizes the importance of helping our workers and small businesses that have had to shut down because of the decisions made by the government. Governor Reeves is appropriately focused on improving accessibility to the internet for our students and teachers. This will be especially important if we have to resume distance learning this fall in the event of a second Coronavirus wave. I expect the Governor’s plan will also help local governments with their expenses and our public health community as it continues to fight against COVID-19.
It is my hope that the legislature and their leadership will set aside political differences and continue to work with Governor Reeves in both our response and our recovery. The State Legislature will have a vital role to play in many aspects of what will be a long-term effort. However, they should not attempt to micro-manage how the Governor uses federal resources to respond to an emergency.
Mr. Barbour is the former Governor of Mississippi.
Kingfish note: Leftenent Governor Delbert Hosemann stood up for his position on Facebook:
Supporting our Constitution means your voice is heard. During a time of crisis, it’s more important than ever to follow and protect our constitutional rights.
Recently, the Legislature started the process of appropriating $1.25 billion in federal funds distributed to our State for COVID-19 expenses. These funds can be used to reimburse emergency expenses, but they can also be used for the future health and economic security of Mississippians – like expanding broadband access to make distance learning easier for teachers and students, providing grants to small businesses who have been forced to close, and supporting local hospitals to fight the virus with more testing and supplies.
With 99% of all legislators voting to protect our Constitution by making sure these funds go through the constitutional process of appropriation, that means YOUR voice is heard. Your legislator will play a key role in making sure these funds are spent with transparency and accountability to you.
Time to work together to fight COVID-19 and recover. #TeamMississippi
31 comments:
Spend the friggin BP money before you start hoarding the new money.
Of course they want Haley Blubber to step in and run it! He will steal millions like he did with one of his family members during the Katrina recovery. All the cronies and their business connections will get their cuts.Their slack, tobacco spit stained mouths are salivating as I type this Remember the FBI raid? How soon people forget!
Don't let go of this one Kingfish! Dig up the old files on his involvement with the Katrina scams. As I recall no one was ever prosecuted or paid back a single dime.
Filbert is pooping in his shoes if he thinks he’s on the right side of history.
I, for one, relish the date I can vote for anyone else but him for Lt Gove #2 term and gov.
He should have stuck to his day job at WJNT
At this stage of the game, expanding broadband service anywhere should be the last thing we need to worry about. That is crazy. Granted expanding broadband service after the covid-19 threat is well behind us should happen. It shouldnt happen with federal funds earmarked for covid-19 recovery.
Great if we can keep "consultants" including Lord Snow out of the process.
Haley,
Your years are over. Your fat fingers took enough when you were governor. Now, go to the house and realize that there’s a new leadership in town that doesn’t believe in a king or a dictatorship. Bye Haley. Bye.
Sincerely,
The People of Mississippi
So now we have 2 laws. One says the Gubnor spends the funds and now a new law has been passed saying the Legislature has the authority. The old law is still in effect. I see a veto, the legislature will override then a court battle. Gubnor has precedent on side. Any thought KF?
Sorry Haley.....you cant control this through your puppet. Goodbye.
Tater, just spend the money as you see fit and are advised. To hell with the state legislature on this issue; it is not worth your time to argue with them. And you clearly don't have time to allow them to argue among themselves.
Tater .......organized crime or should i say organized criminal! Gang of thieves, SMH waiting to get a cut! Karma sees you, and others with you from previous day and you shall reap what you sow!!!!! Look at the signs its....Biblical...
I trusted Haley to do what's right. Tater,not so much, especially after he tried to get MDOT to build him what amounted to a private driveway with taxpayer money, and also was caught napping when the TANF money was apparently wrongly directed to somebody's political cronies, professional "wrasslers", and other undeserving folks.
One thousand, two hundred and fifty million dollars of federal money and here comes Boss Hogg. No surprise there.
Tate Reeves spent two terms as State Treasurer and two terms as Lt. Governor controlling the public purse strings. Now, as Governor, he continues to demand that right. No surprise there either.
Well.....that settles it for me. If Haley is for it, I', against it!
Both parties and all politicians are trying to get their hands on the money.
There isn't any difference in any of them. It will be like it always has been. The politicians and their family and friends will get most of the money while people are arguing over which one is the biggest thief.
Hoseman has been seated in his new lawn chair for all of three months and already he is itching to be Governor. Taking pot shots at the governor's Covid decisions, slinging spit-balls from the cheap seats in the bleachers, pretending to be a lieutenant general while he's actually assigned potato-peeling duty in the mess hall as relates to this pandemic.
Delbert needs to retreat to his assigned cubicle and wait his turn. He could have run for Governor, but didn't. Just as he could have stayed in the race for Attorney General but dropped out at the very deadline for anybody else to qualify. Shades of Andy Taggart (who I did support for AG).
Delbert is not in a command-staff position in this crisis and he needs to accept that fact. The color of gubment money has flipped some sort of switch in his left brain and he has sudden visions of handing out wads of cash. It's not your job, Delbert. Hang with Gallo where you actually have influence.
Tate, Phil, Phillip and Delbert can’t carry Barbour’s jock strap. Tate has the right guy on his side. Not to mention the president also. Gunn and Delbert are about to be played. They need to get on board. People are going to be pissed if we take all this money and put Pentium 4’s and AOL in every classroom.
Can’t the legislature have enough fun with the BP money?
Haley is indirectly the reason so many of our citizens can't even get through to Mississippi's Unemployment agency.
The old Employment Security Commission was always one of the best in the nation.
All of that ended within the first few weeks of Haley's election.
He convinced the legislature to let the very efficient MESC expire and recreate the agency as the "Department" of Employment Security. (With the Governor in control).
On paper, that plan was actually sound.
(Consolidate all the duplicate "workforce" programs into one agency).
But the Unemployment Insurance section was never given a thought.
Haley replaced veteran executives with political donors.
Those people never had a clue.
And any remaining veterans of the old Employment Security Commission were silenced if they objected to "new ideas".
They "weren't team players" under the Haley regime.
Phil Bryant turned a blind eye to the Unemployment Insurance Division as well.
Haley can "hitch up his britches" and Phil can throw "his chainsaw in the pickup and drive to Yazoo",
but this situation is worse than any local weather event.
When this ends, I can't wait to see how Tate responds to the very serious problems within the Unemployment Insurance Division at MDES.
Does Haley still get a retainer for representing the Russian government?
Tate is getting ready to find out how little power he has. The Lt Gov is much more powerful and if the speaker is on the lt Governor side it’s all but over for Tate. Haley was a lobbyist who did a good job during Katrina but did enrich a lot of people who paid him back after he left.
Hosemann's argument might be worth more than the paper it is not written on, if in fact this was a 'constitutional issue' as he and Gunn are trying to claim (sell might be the more operative word.)
If it was a constitutional issue, then we have been violating the constitution during the tenure of ten governors and seventeen legislatures. If this was such a constitutional issue, why didn't Phillip raise it back when he was just a junior member of the House and Barbour used this statute for numerous disasters, including of course Katrina and the BP Oil spill. Or why didn't he raise it when Bryant used it in the furtherance of the BP Oil spill.
I guess at those times it was not a 'constitutional issue - it only became one when he and Delbert went on a power hunger spree and saw a billion dollars they wanted to get their grubby political paws on.
For over 40 years it has been recognized that disaster dollars that were granted to the state needed to be managed in a different manner than regular Mississippi tax dollars - which are 'constitutionally' appropriated by the Legislature.
For Delbert to claim that this is a 'constitutional issue' it would take accepting their theory that the legislature has 'appropriated' these dollars from the state's general fund - which they weren't doing UNTIL they passed a special piece of legislation moving these federal grant dollars into the general fund.
This is pure bullshit, originated by the power crazed narcissist Lieutenant Governor and sold to the Speaker, how of course bought right in once he thought he could have a much bigger piggy bank to raid for personal goals.
Of course the legislature went along with it - those individual members were promised that they could start earmarking the pot for their pet projects --- kinda like they do when the leadership needs to buy votes to pass a bond bill; they decorate the bill up like a Christmas tree until they have the requisite number of votes to pass it.
But, this is not a bond bill - this was supposed to be a package to fix the broken economy, with all the funds having to be expended by no later than December 31st of this year. And to be spent within certain guidelines.
With the legislature f**king this up, Mississippi will end up sending back untold $$$s to the feds, while many Mississippians needs are left unfullfilled because there is no way in God's green earth that the Legislature (not even the ever omnipotent Delbert) can see what needs will need to be met this fall, or how any estimate that they project now will adequately cover the needs without over-obligating them; resulting of course with unspent dollars on January 1 that go back to DC.
Thank you Delbert and Phillip for screwing this up as well as you have, only to satisfy your own egos.
If Delbert and Gunn get their hands on one point whatever Billion dollars, expect a much longer wait if one calls MDES just to ask a simple question.
( Filing an actual Unemployment claim will be delayed yet another two months)
To all those who talk about how terrible the legislature is, have you forgotten who the present of the Senate was for the last 8 years? Now that Tate reeves has been promoted out of that position, may they can actually do something with the BP money.
I was glad Haley Barbour oversaw Katrina funds.
I am also glad Tate won’t oversee COVID funds.
That’s all I have to say.
Haley Barbour has a historically great Governor. Tate Reeves has plenty of ability, and has what it takes to be.a good and effective Governor.
The problem for Tate is if he tries to govern like Haley did. Haley was able to succeed because his party in the House was strong and united (he never lost a veto), and key senators of both party (including Lt. Gov. Tuck, then Bryant) were pretty much on the same page with him.
The situation is much, much different now. Speaker Gunn today is far more powerful than Billy McCoy on his best day, not because of any shortcomings of McCoy, but because the dynamic is so different than it was. House Dems today are in such a minority that they hardly count at all. If only a handful break off on any issue, a veto can be overridden (unthinkable in Haley’s time). In the Senate, there is a natural reaction to having been ridden so hard when Tate was Lt. Gov. Senators know that the Lt. Gov. Is the one who butters their bread, not the Governor.
Tate will be fine unless he tries to govern like Haley. That can’t be done with the current climate. Hosemann and, especially Gunn, are far too stout to allow that to happen. They will demand a say-so in running things, and they have the clout to make it happen. Tate will need to engage with the Legislature and forge consensus with the Speaker and Lt. Gov.; otherwise, he will he run over some more. He can a solid that and lead if he learns to I accept the new paradigm in state government. (Really, it is an “old” paradigm, more like the 1980’s and 1990’s, and not at all like the anomaly of the past twenty years).
7:24 is spot on. I would add the current climate is more akin to the time before Gov Fordice. We are living in an era more like that than folks realize. The difference is the state is run by the GOP.
What a shock! Money shows up to be spent and the legislature decides to come back to work.
They could start by appropriating the BP funds through the process they created.
Just remember to follow the money...
Delbert will win this dispute
Delbert over-exposed his lust for power as an old man with nothing to lose...and just because you don't like Tate, doesn't mean precedent isn't on his side. Veto the thing, let them vote to override, then find the judge Tate....
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