Local lawmakers have successfully returned to the drawing board to rework a disaster relief proposal that had previously been vetoed by Gov. Tate Reeves, sparking a public clash among some of Mississippi’s top elected officials.
After the governor alleged that an unconstitutional and possibly criminal route was taken to pass legislation aimed at lowering the interest rate levied on local governments impacted by Winter Storm Fern, local lawmakers have moved to rectify the situation.
On Wednesday, conferees in both the House of Representatives and Senate stripped an unrelated bill and agreed to terms on a short-term loan program for storm-struck cities and counties with no interest upfront but a 3% annual interest rate after reimbursement has been received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Less than a day later, both chambers passed the measure unanimously.
“This is a 0% interest rate for the time that people are waiting for FEMA to reimburse them for the money that they’ve already expended,” Sen. Scott DeLano, R-Biloxi, explained. The only time that we trigger an interest rate at all — this 3% interest rate — is after all of the reimbursements are made to the local jurisdictions, and there may be a loan amount that is outstanding that normally would be from something that FEMA deobligated or didn’t approve as part of the reimbursement.”
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency would administer the program and provide loans to local governments that apply for them.
At this time, it is unclear whether or not Reeves will sign the legislation, though his camp has told SuperTalk Mississippi News that he is open to enacting what he believed to be originally agreed upon by both chambers. The governor sparked controversy with his veto of Senate Bill 2632, which would have created the program with a 1% annual interest rate, countering that he believed it would be a 1% monthly rate – effectively a 12% annual rate.
In his veto message, Reeves said the bill that made its way to his desk was “materially different” than what was passed and accused someone in the capitol of altering the measure to represent something other than what was greenlit by the House and Senate. The governor even attributed an amendment made in the original bill to the wrong lawmaker.
Firing back, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann accused Reeves of misrepresenting the process and unfairly targeting lawmakers and legislative staffers. Hosemann called the veto message “malicious, unnecessary, and false.” The original text of the bill inadvertently included a 1% monthly interest rate, Hosemann said, with Republican Sen. Tyler McCaughn offering an amendment that was approved on March 13 to remove the term “monthly” and take it to a 1% annual rate.
Hosemann, after the reworked measure passed Thursday, espoused a sense of urgency, saying lawmakers “need to hurry” to get much-needed assistance to communities hit hardest by the winter storm.