Governor Tate Reeves is expressing frustration --over a plan by Mississippi legislators to take control of the Federal Cares Act funds. The state is receiving $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus stimulus money. The Governor unveiled his plan this week-- on how the money will be spent. During yesterday's coronavirus briefing, Governor Reeves expressed his displeasure in how lawmakers want to change the process of dispersing the funds.
“I don’t really give a damn who is in charge of this money. What I care about is the people who need it, and they need it now. We can’t develop a system where the people who need the money can not quickly access it. We have to be flexible. We can’t allow politics and bureaucracy to cost Mississippians the money that they so badly need, and they so badly need it quickly.”
Republicans who lead [leed] the House and Senate say the Mississippi Constitution gives spending authority to the Legislature. But Reeves says a state law enacted decades ago gives the governor some spending power during emergencies.
“If this legislation is changed, and it limits the executive authority during a time of emergency, then what then what that means is every time there’s a tornado, every single time there’s a hurricane, if the virus comes back in the fall, we’ll be calling a special session of the legislature.”
Legislative leaders have instructed the department of finance and administration to hold the federal dollars until they figure out a plan to distribute them.
The conflict between the Governor and Lawmakers could play out in the next several days as legislators return to the Capitol today for the first time since mid-March because of the pandemic.
