Mississippi lawmakers on Thursday moved to revive a low-interest loan program for cities and counties damaged by Winter Storm Fern after Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed an earlier bill, House leaders said.
The program was reintroduced as part of a compromise “conference report” in a separate bill. The House unanimously approved the plan Thursday morning, and the Senate is expected to follow, lawmakers said. If both chambers approve, the measure will return to Reeves for consideration.
Under the proposal Reeves vetoed, local governments would have been able to borrow from the state at a 1% annual interest rate that would begin after federal relief arrives. The new plan introduced Wednesday sets a 3% annual interest rate after reimbursement from the federal government, according to lawmakers involved in the talks.
In his veto message on the first proposal, Reeves said he had negotiated a 1% monthly loan rate with legislators — which would amount to 12% annually. Legislative leaders said last week that including the word “monthly” was a mistake and agreed to remove it.
“Our neighbors in North Mississippi have suffered too much devastation, and we must provide financial relief as quickly as possible,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in a statement. Senate leaders rejected Reeves’ allegations that staffers removed language in an unconstitutional or criminal manner and called the accusations reckless, according to a statement from the Senate. Republican Sen. Tyler McCaughn of Newton told Mississippi Today that lawmakers were exploring different ways to revive the program and favored moving it in another bill as the quickest way to get relief to hard-hit communities.
