Typo in House bill stifles $15 million meant to protect Mississippians from storms

By Alex Rozier | Originally published by Mississippi Today

As Mississippians take precautions to protect themselves during the ongoing hurricane season, many will not be eligible for grants to strengthen their homes because of a typo that state lawmakers left in an appropriations bill.

During the session earlier this year, state officials celebrated after the Legislature finally approved a program to make homes more resilient to natural disasters, an effort that first began in 2007 in response to Hurricane Katrina two years earlier. The Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program, administered through the state Insurance Department, offers grants of up to $10,000 to build roofs designed to withstand strong winds and water damage.

While passing the measure this year, the Legislature also appropriated $15 million for the program in a separate bill. But in that House bill, lawmakers wrote that the $15 million was contingent on the passing of Senate Bill 2406, an unrelated measure dealing with roads and bridges, rather than Senate Bill 2409, the storm resilience bill. SB 2406 died in a Senate committee in February.

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who has advocated for the mitigation program for years, attributed the mistake to human error: “You got 2406 instead of 2409, that’s easy to do. If you look at a (keypad), the six is right above the nine.”

The Mississippi Insurance Department did secure other funding for the program, $2 million through the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association, more commonly known as the state wind pool. But not only is the amount $13 million less than what lawmakers initially pledged, but also only those living in the state’s three coastal counties are eligible for the wind pool funding. The $15 million would have been open to any home in the state, as long as it has wind insurance and is a primary residence.

Chaney said legislation often contains such errors that are corrected before taking law, but Gov. Tate Reeves did not allow lawmakers to fix this typo.

“When the governor signed the bill, he also said he wouldn’t allow the scrivener’s error to be corrected,” Chaney said. “I said, ‘Governor, you realize that we won’t have any money (for the program).’ (He said,) ‘You’ll figure it out.’ I didn’t argue with him. He’s the governor.”

When reached for comment, Reeves press secretary Shelby Wilcher pointed to the governor’s message when signing the errored bill, where he acknowledged the $15 million couldn’t be spent because SB 2406 died. Wilcher didn’t respond to a follow-up question about why the mistake wasn’t corrected.

Rep. John Read, a Republican from Gautier and chair of the House Appropriations A Committee, was the bill’s lead author. Read did not reply to a phone call from Mississippi Today.

Andy Case, the Insurance Department’s director of Property and Casualty Rating, said the department is confident the Legislature will fix the mistake in 2027 to restore the funding to the full $15 million.

“We haven’t heard from anyone who is in opposition to what we’re doing,” Case said. “We have every reason to believe this will be a major priority on day one when they meet (next session).”

Mississippi is one of the most vulnerable states in the country to climate change, a Mississippi Today project reported last year, and home mitigation funding was one of the main strategies experts highlighted to reduce the impacts of future natural disasters.

Last week, Reeves requested a federal disaster declaration to help the state recover from Tropical Storm Arthur, which damaged over 500 homes in Mississippi last month. If granted, it would mark the third declaration the state has received just over halfway through 2026.

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article