Thomas Howard / The Meridian StarLt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann speaks to Meridian and Lauderdale County elected officials Thursday at Meridian City Hall.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann met with Meridian and Lauderdale County officials Thursday to talk about the state’s fund-matching program for water and sewer projects.

Earlier this year, the State Legislature earmarked $750 million of Mississippi’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to help fund water and sewer projects at the local level. Of that, $400 million was allocated for one-to-one matching for large cities and counties that received more than $1 million in ARPA funds.

“You will apply for the water and sewer to the Department of Environmental Quality, the DEQ,” he said. “I talked with DEQ, I met with them about a week ago. They’re in the process of doing this, and they are establishing someone to rank all the applications.”

In addition to the $400 million for larger cities and counties, Hosemann said an additional $50 million was set aside for smaller cities that received less than $1 million in ARPA funds. Matching funds for those cities, he said, will be a two-to-one match with the state providing two dollars for every one dollar locally.

The applications should be ready within the next few months, Hosemann said. DEQ will begin ranking the applications after July 1, he said, and look to have the funds distributed by the end of the year.

“Before the end of the year we will begin making those grants out of DEQ for water and sewer,” he said.

While the first $450 million of the Mississippi’s $750 million water and sewer fund is allocated for cities and counties, Hosemann said the remaining $300 million is reserved for rural water associations throughout the state.

Rural water associations did not receive direct allocations of ARPA funds from the federal government, so their funds will be given as grants instead of a matching program, he said.

“It’s not a match because our rural water associations didn’t get any money out of ARPA,” he said.

Each water association will be eligible to receive up to $2.5 million, with the grants being administered through the Mississippi Department of Health. Those applications are already up and running for water associations to complete.

Not much missed

In addition to water and sewer, Hosemann said, the Legislature tackled a “plethora” of issues during this year’s legislative session including a massive teacher pay raise, banning critical race theory, passing medical marijuana, a historic income tax cut and working to address election laws.

Hosemann said lawmakers also passed bills to fund road and bridge maintenance, support small- and medium-sized businesses, help rural hospitals, ensure equal pay and provide additional funding for Mississippi Department of Mental Health and Child Protective Services.

Each year, Hosemann said he gets asked what was left out, or what the Legislature didn’t accomplish. This year, he said there wasn’t much.

“The press always asks us what did we skip, and in last year, there wasn’t much,” he said. “As I rattle off all of the things we did here, we virtually took on every issue,” he said.

Looking forward, Hosemann said he plans to address one issue the Legislature failed to address. At the end of the session, he said, lawmakers tried to revive the voter initiative process that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2021.

“That’ll come back early in the session,” he said.

Criminal Justice

Hosemann said he also wanted to look at several aspects of criminal justice, including diversion programs to keep eligible non-violent offenders out of prison and a physical plan to help address Mississippi’s aging and dilapidated prison structure.

“A lot of different counties have antiquated systems that would be subject to some kind of Federal litigation measures like they just filed against the State of Mississippi,” he said.

Revamping the state’s correctional system will also include looking at workforce training to make sure offenders don’t just sit in a cell, Hosemann said, but are released ready to go to work.

This past year the Legislature appropriated $4 million to the State Medical Examiner’s office to help clear a years-long backlog of autopsy cases, but Hosemann said more funding will be needed moving forward.

The long wait for autopsy results not only delays prosecutions and drags out cases, Hosemann said. It also keeps families from burying their loved ones and prolongs their grief.

“It is still unacceptable where it sits today,” he said. “We are waiting way too long on that.”

Reducing the backlog is a priority for both Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell and for the Senate, Hosemann said. And although the delays have been reduced, he said there was more to do.

“It’s not where we need for it to be,” he said.