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On Thursday evening and Friday morning, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency held listening sessions in the capital city to hear Jacksonians’ thoughts on the work being done with the city’s drinking water system.

While many recognized the progress in the system’s reliability, residents continued to lament JXN Water’s increased water bills, which went into effect earlier this year despite a key component of the billing change — a discount for SNAP recipients — being held up in court. Most of the complaints centered around the new $40 availability charge, as well as issues getting help through JXN Water’s call center in Pearl.

But before those meetings kicked off, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, whose 2022 order put JXN Water and its leader Ted Henifin in charge of the water rehabilitation, criticized federal attorneys over the EPA’s decision to hold the public meetings.

During a Thursday afternoon status conference, where Henifin detailed the faster-than-expected progress in fixing Jackson’s sewer system, Wingate questioned DOJ attorney Karl Fingerhood, who represents the EPA in the lawsuit over Jackson’s water system, for roughly an hour about the meetings.

The judge wondered why the EPA would invite feedback from the public in a venue outside the court, and even asked Fingerhood if the listening sessions would somehow undermine the court proceedings. Wingate repeatedly referred to a hearing he held in 2023 where he invited feedback from Jackson residents about Henifin and JXN Water’s work thus far.

While that meeting was held more than a year ago and Wingate hasn’t announced plans for one since, the judge wondered why the EPA didn’t consult him about their plans. Fingerhood explained that the meetings weren’t meant to be formal proceedings, but that the EPA had made a commitment to hear Jacksonians’ feedback and that it had been a while since the agency had last engaged with residents.

After last year’s hearing in Wingate’s courtroom, where residents and advocates made a range of requests including more communication from JXN Water, the judge filed a response brushing off most of the feedback he heard, even calling some criticisms of Henifin “racist.”

Both Wingate and Henifin also pointed to a letter that Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba sent the EPA in March criticizing JXN Water, wondering if the EPA was holding the meetings in response to the mayor’s concerns. Fingerhood denied any connection.

Wingate also used the moment as a chance to call out Lumumba, who the judge has scolded in prior status conferences, saying: “The mayor it seems to me is not a friend of this endeavor to straighten out this mess.”

Sewer and water system progress

At the start of Thursday’s status conference, Henifin informed the court that JXN Water has already repaired close to 300 sewer line failures around the city since it took over the wastewater system last year. Those include 215 that the court order listed in one of the priority projects. Henifin initially expected that project would take two to three years to finish. He added that JXN Water was able to make the repairs without any federal funds. Most of the lines needing repairs, Henifin said, were collapsed underground pipes, and were causing raw sewage to leak out onto city streets and even on residents’ property.

Henifin added that JXN Water inherited 2,200 service requests dealing with sewer issues around the city, and they’ve since reduced the backlog to under 200.

He said one of the city’s three wastewater treatment plants, the Savanna Street plant, still needs a lot of investment — about $36 million — for capitol improvements, but he added that JXN Water has been able to reduce the number of prohibited bypasses of wastewater into the Pearl River.

On the drinking water side, Henifin explained that by fixing leaks JXN Water has been able to reduce the amount of water it needs to put into the system by 25%, adding though that there is still a 50% loss of what water does get treated and sent out. The hope, he said, is to keep decreasing the amount of water needed to go out — to below 30 million gallons a day, versus the current output of 40 MGD — so that the city can finally close the age-old J.H. Fewell plant and save money on operations. To do that, JXN Water is working with four different contractors to find suspected underground leaks that never show up above the surface, thus making them harder to find.

In terms of billing, Henifin said JXN Water will in “the next few weeks” start shutting off connections to single-family homes that are falling behind, starting with the largest balances. Wingate added, “I don’t have very much mercy for those people” not paying their bills.

Public’s feedback

About 50 people showed up to each of the two meetings the EPA held at the Mississippi e-Center on Thursday and Friday. Some, like Jessica Carter, complained about a lack of communication from JXN Water when it shuts water off to make repairs.

“Just three weeks ago, I woke up and the water was off,” said Carter, who lives in northeast Jackson. “No notice, no letters, no nothing. I kept calling, kept calling, asking what’s going on … We went about 36 hours without running water this time. I have a 4-year-old, so I’m trying to figure out what do I have to do? Do we need to get a hotel room?

“I kept calling the hotline, they didn’t have the answers either… then once water came on, I was like, will be there be a reduction in the water charges for the 36 hours that the water was turned off?”

Part of the feedback the EPA asked for was over the long-term future of the system. While some said that the water system shouldn’t return to the city’s control, others noted that the city never had the resources that JXN Water is accessing.

“Before that Jackson didn’t have that money to do that work,” Natt Offiah, who grew up down the street from the meeting but now lives downtown, said about the $600 million Congress appropriated for Jackson after the federal takeover. “Now we got that money to do the work, everyone’s acting like Jackson didn’t care, but we didn’t have those resources to begin with.”

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The University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage launched a new longform podcast about Mississippians in World War II.

The 10-episode first season of the “Voices of Our People” podcast covers World War II from the Pearl Harbor attack to Armistice Day. The podcast consists of oral histories from Mississippians who experienced the war on the homefront and overseas, as well as storytelling from historians at USM’s Dale Center for the Study of War and Society. Mississippi musician and media personality Bill Ellison serves as the host.

“By combining the insights of our state’s leading scholars with the memories of those who lived it, the ‘Voices of Our People’ series attempts to contextualize our shared experiences with the goal of gaining a more grounded view of history,” said Ross Walton, who leads digital production and preservation at the oral history center and hosts its other podcast called “Mississippi Moments.”

“Each season of the series will examine a different historic event that shaped who we are as Mississippians and Americans,” Walton said.

The 20th anniversary of the USM center’s “Mississippi Moments” podcast inspired Walton to create a new podcast using the oral history center’s extensive collection of oral histories from World War II.

“Often unfiltered and raw, these interviews capture the deep, visceral reactions to such an uneasy age,” said Dr. Kevin Greene, historian and director of the oral history center. “They give voice to the voiceless in a way only qualitative interviewing can.”

Listen to Voices of Our People at this link.

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Mississippi Division of Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder is resigning after nearly seven years serving in the position. He will serve until the end of the month.

Gov. Tate Reeves appointed Cindy Bradshaw, the division’s deputy executive director for eligibility, to replace Snyder.

The Magnolia Tribune first reported the news.

Snyder declined to say where he would go next. He would only confirm it was a job in the private sector.

Snyder has led the division since Dec. 2017, when he was appointed by then-governor Phil Bryant. He previously served as Bryant’s policy director and counsel. 

The Division of Medicaid provides health insurance to over 700,000 low-income Mississippians, including children, pregnant women and disabled adults. 

Bradshaw served as Mississippi’s State Insurance Administrator before joining the Division of Medicaid. 

“Drew Snyder has done a great job as executive director of Division of Medicaid, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” said House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg.

The Division of Medicaid and Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment by press time. 

“Mississippi Medicaid is in the best fiscal shape in its history,” said Snyder at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee Hearing Sep. 26, less than two weeks before announcing his resignation. 

He said today, the agency’s budget represents 9.2% of the state’s total state support appropriation, down from 16% in fiscal year 2016, two years before he was appointed. 

Synder acknowledged that the state’s appropriation would increase in coming years due to reduced public health emergency federal spending and dwindling surplus funds.

Snyder took the helm at the division during a time of conflict between the division and the governor’s office. Prior Medicaid director David Dzielak was asked to resign just weeks before the 2018 legislative session after he requested an additional $47.3 million to close the gap in the agency’s budget and failed to voice agreement with Bryant’s plan for the Mississippi Department of Human Services to take over insurance eligibility determinations.

Snyder joined Mississippi Medicaid as controversy bloomed over the decision to award the division’s lucrative managed care contracts to three for-profit companies over nonprofit Mississippi True, which is managed by Mississippi hospital leaders. Though legislators made efforts to allow Mississippi True to re-bid for the contract, Magnolia Health, United Healthcare and Molina Healthcare ultimately kept the contract. 

He also oversaw the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw enrollment numbers soar to over 900,000 Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollees in May 2023 and drop to 705,000 by July 2024. During the pandemic, states were not allowed to remove beneficiaries from their rolls. In April 2023, the division was again required to review beneficiaries’ eligibility, beginning the “unwinding” process.

Snyder oversaw the rollout of extended postpartum coverage for Mississippi mothers and the beginnings of a new law allowing pregnant women to access prenatal care that went into effect in July. 

The program is currently on hold as the division works with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which requested to review additional information from the state.

Before joining Bryant’s team, Synder served as an assistant secretary of state for policy and research under Delbert Hosemann.

The director of the division serves at the pleasure of the governor and is required to meet one of three criteria: be a physician with health administration experience, hold a degree in medical administration or have three years’ experience developing policy for Medicaid programs.

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So much to discuss and dissect this week: Vandy toppling Bama, Ole Miss righting the ship and preparing for LSU, a banner Sanderson Farms Championship that now has new life, and how injuries killed the Atlanta Braves and are ruining a promising Saints season. All that and more…

Stream all episodes here.

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Oct. 9, 2009

Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” 

The Nobel officials praised Obama’s “dialogue and cooperation across national, ethnic, religious and political dividing lines. As President, Obama called for a new start to relations between the Muslim world and the West based on common interests and mutual understanding and respect. In accordance with a promise he made during his election campaign, he set in motion a plan for the withdrawal of U.S. occupying forces from Iraq.” 

Nobel officials also praised his support for a “world free from nuclear weapons.” 

He was the third African American to win the award. The previous winners were Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Bunche.

The post On this day in 2009 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar has helped steer more than $7 million in state money to improve the affluent country club neighborhood and private golf course area where he lives in north Mississippi. 

In the process, he also purchased more property for himself around the projects. 

The state-funded projects included $2.5 million in upgrades to the county road through his neighborhood and another $2.4 million project on and around the golf course. The stated reasoning for the golf course project is that the road project made it flood — a contention that the county engineer and road project contractor disputed in interviews with Mississippi Today.

The work included building a traffic roundabout on Country Club Road — an unusual feature for a rural-suburban street — and 10 speed humps in a 1.6-mile stretch. It also included widening the road so golf carts can more easily travel, according to the county engineer. The work also included building a new lake and concrete golf cart paths and bridges on the private golf course. 

Lamar also helped steer another $200,000 in state money for the nearby city of Senatobia to buy the small water system that serves the Back Acres Country Club neighborhood in Tate County. He then helped steer another $2 million from the state to improve the system, which serves about 200 houses.

Lamar purchased a 4.5-acre piece of property where the roundabout was to be built, and he bought a strip of land bordering his backyard from the water system owner after the city bought the system.

Lamar, as House Ways and Means Committee chairman and former vice chairman, holds great sway over the state’s $7 billion budget. He’s also become the House’s de facto arbiter of “Christmas tree” bills. These are measures full of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of legislators’ pet projects for their districts. As a result, Tate County, Senatobia and his neighborhood have benefited greatly, receiving tens of millions of state dollars — dwarfing spending in similar rural areas across the state.

Lamar in an interview with Mississippi Today defended the spending on his neighborhood. He said the road project was badly needed for safety for a “very dangerous road.” He said the road project then caused flooding on the golf course and surrounding yards and the county was responsible for fixing it.

Lamar said the small water system serving the neighborhood was in terrible shape and the source of many complaints. He noted the state Public Service Commission signed off on Senatobia taking over service.

He said his purchase of property around the state-funded projects was incidental and “like any other sale or purchase … between two private entities.” He insinuated his wife handled the transaction for the roundabout property, although state records indicate he did. 

Lamar cut a second interview with Mississippi Today short, saying he would not answer further questions. But he sent a written statement saying that, “After helping with thousands of projects across the state, this result is inevitable” — that he or his family would own property “in the vicinity of a public infrastructure project.”

He refused to answer any questions about his helping secure an additional $400,000 in state money to improve a quiet, already well-paved cul-de-sac in Northeast Jackson where he also owns a home.

“Any potential innuendo of wrongdoing is baseless and only diverts time and effort away from the real progress that we are making,” Lamar said in the written statement.

But there has been debate and questions from local residents about whether the Country Club Road project completed early last year was really needed or whether the project was overkill. They’ve also questioned the work on and around the private golf course and whether the road project really exacerbated country club flooding. 

Locals created a Facebook page called “TateCounty Watchdogs,” with its posts and comments centered on the state-funded county work at the country club.

The watchdog group has questioned why, if the road project caused flooding on the golf course and surrounds, taxpayers funded the more than $2 million fix instead of the county going after surety with the contractor or engineer to cover it.

Numerous current and past Tate County supervisors declined to answer such questions or did not respond to calls requesting interviews. Others said they know very little about the country club projects.

There was a common theme among many of the dozens of residents and county and state officials including lawmakers Mississippi Today interviewed or attempted to interview: They cited fear of the powerful lawmaker Lamar in declining to comment on the record. 

For fellow lawmakers, Lamar holds the purse strings in the House for projects in their districts. For locals, Lamar’s family is a prominent one. His family law firm serves as legal counsel for Tate County, including the county board of supervisors that approved the projects in question. Lamar’s father served as county attorney before the county contracted the work with the firm. Lamar’s mother is a former state Supreme Court justice and Institutions of Higher Learning college board member.

‘Mother Nature caused the flooding’

Tate County Engineer Kevin McLeod, whose firm designed the Country Club Road and golf course projects, said the road “was mainly a safety and maintenance project.”

“Safety in that speed bumps were added, it was repaved and we added a 4- or 5-foot paved shoulder on one side so golf carts could travel safely,” McLeod said. “At public meetings, people were saying golf carts were using the road but it wasn’t wide enough for them to travel safely.”

McLeod said that despite “some residents who think that’s the case,” the road project did not cause flooding.

“The road project did not cause flooding,” McLeod said. “Mother nature caused the flooding.” He said that as the project was nearing completion, the area had two massive rains, “where even the best areas would flood.” He said residents mistook the historic deluges as the project causing more flooding. 

“Soon after that we got phone calls — not many, but a few — from people who said it never did this until the road project started,” McLeod said. He said a retention pond on the front nine holes of the golf course had a bad standpipe. He said two main ditches through the country club, one through the front nine holes and one through the back nine, “had not been maintained in years.”

Bram Billingsley, owner of Ste-Bil Grading that did the Country Club Road project, said he built the road as designed and, “I find it hard to believe that what we did caused all this drainage work on the golf course.”

“All I know is we did the work as designed, or the county wouldn’t have paid us,” Billingsley said. “Now we’re being blamed … If they think it’s the fault of the contractor, then yes, the county should have done something. We’re bonded 100% on performance and payment. If we were outside our lines, then file a claim on our bond. That would be 1-2-3, just like a blank check. But they didn’t do that.”

According to minutes of the Tate County Board of Supervisors, the county received two letters claiming the road project was causing flooding, one from a homeowner and one from the Back Acres Country Club. The letters had identical wording and called for the county to fix the flooding.

But the county did not file a claim against the contractor for the road work. Instead, Lamar and the Legislature stepped in again, with an additional $2.4 million in state dollars for work to fix drainage on and around the golf course.

County Engineer McLeod said he wrote up an estimate for the drainage work, “the county sent it in, it got put on a list and they were lucky enough to get some funding for it.”

Lamar and McLeod said the county received easements for all the work it did at the country club and in neighbors’ yards. McLeod said all of the curbed concrete golf cart paths the county built “were put in to raise them up so they could act as a levy to slow the water down behind them,” not for ease of golfers getting around.

A representative of the contractor that did the golf course work did not return calls for an interview.

Tate County District Attorney Jay Hale, a former Back Acres Country Club board member who still helps the club board with legal issues, said his sister was the homeowner who wrote the complaint letter because her property had severe flooding from the road project.

“We put the county on notice that they had caused a problem,” Hale said. “… My sister and brother-in-law were getting ready to sue the county. There were numerous complaints from residents. They flooded the country club with that project. It’s moving the same amount of water, but much faster. My sister had videos of water flying down her property. At one point her pool was about to go underwater.”

Hale said Country Club Road was in bad shape and he believes the initial project was needed, though he added, “I guess that’s probably up for debate.” But he said the county was responsible for fixing the drainage afterward.

“None of the country club members wanted (the drainage project),” Hale said. “They understood it was needed for drainage, but it shut down the golf course, at least nine holes at a time, for a year.”

Jason Carter, current Back Acres Country Club board president, said, “This wasn’t a beautification project.”

Hale and Carter said the concrete golf cart paths the county built with state funds — about $200,000 worth — were to replace paths the county destroyed with its drainage work. They said the club liked the way the new paths looked, so it shelled out about $30,000 of its own money to rebuild others on the course to match. They said residents questioning the work could have confused the club’s work with the taxpayer-funded work.

Hale said some of the questions and complaints about the work could be simply because it was done for a country club neighborhood.

“There are about 300 members, out of 28,000 people in the county,” Hale said. “I guess people don’t like seeing money put into where it went.”

Watchdogs take note of ‘Trey Way’

Lamar’s scoring lots of tax dollars for his neighborhood and district has in recent years drawn the ire of some fellow lawmakers. But it has also raised questions and attracted scrutiny from his own constituents.

The TateCounty Watchdogs Facebook page was formed in June, about the same time Mississippi Today started receiving messages and questions about the work.

Some locals have nicknamed Country Club Road “Trey Way.” They’ve questioned the government doing work in and around Back Acres Country Club and whether work on the golf course was more about golfing than drainage.

“This project is spending just over $2.1 million dollars on the Back Acres Country Club private golf course,” the initial Watchdog post said. “Over $200,000 is being spent on golf cart paths per itemized listing.” 

A later post said: “The next step is to inspect the premise under which all this Tate County money was spent on a private golf course, rather than the abundance of the public property issues we have … Who is the responsible contractor, and why was his bond against surety company not pursued?”

Another post said: “It is common knowledge the back 9 flooded before the road project. If the damage was caused by the county road project, why can’t the county explain which contracted party is responsible?” One local commenter on the page said, “Country Club road was the best road in the county before they did the work.”

But the administrator of the TateCounty Watchdogs page, contacted through private message, declined to identify themselves or speak about the issues on the record. Numerous other residents contacted shared that trepidation.

Residents early last year did publicly voice complaints and sign a petition to the county about the large number of large speed humps on the improved Country Club Road – 10 in less than two miles. They said the speed humps, roundabout and two three-way stops were ridiculous and could impede first responders trying to traverse the road. Lamar addressed residents at a hearing about the speed humps and said they were needed for traffic safety. But after the complaints, the county came back and milled off half of the speed humps.

Residents have had trouble getting answers from county leaders. Several present and past county leaders contacted by Mississippi Today brushed off questions, claimed they knew little about the projects or didn’t return calls and messages. About a month after Mississippi Today submitted written questions, the county supplied some written statements but did not answer some main questions.

Tate County Supervisor Leigh Ann Darby represents the area. She notes she took office in January and “this project predates me.”

Darby said she knows little about the projects, but is aware of the questions being asked about them, including why the county didn’t go after contractor surety if the road caused flooding.

“I would say, yes, a lot of money was funneled into that project for a public road, then was rolled over into the golf course,” Darby said. “I know that question has been posed numerous times. I have not heard a definitive answer to that.”

Darby said she joined the Back Acres Country Club long ago but has not been an active member for years.

“I was not involved in any aspect of obtaining that money,” Darby said. “I don’t play golf. My family doesn’t, and I don’t even travel that road often … But I am for complete transparency, and I am raising questions, too … I saw the public records request you sent up here … I am for complete transparency and I don’t want Tate County hiding anything.”

Current Tate County Board President Tony Sandridge was a supervisor when the projects were approved, but he said he also knows very little about them.

“If it’s not in District 3, I’m really not sure about it,” he said. 

Supervisor George Stepp said he is new to the board and knows little about it other than, “It was all state funded, no money from the county – I can tell you this … I try to stay away from some of this. I don’t get too involved.”

About a month after receiving written questions from Mississippi Today, the Tate County Board of Supervisors responded in writing with a letter signed by Sandridge, but the responses left much unanswered.

“Current elected officials and staff do not have the knowledge to answer questions surrounding the history of this project other than what is recorded on the county’s official minutes,” the written response said. “… Tate County, to our knowledge, has never made a finding as to the cause of the flooding. Whether the flooding existed prior to the road project, worsened after the road project, or was caused by extreme weather events that are the acts of God, the Tate County Board of Supervisors realized a problem existed …”

The statement said the two letters received about flooding “are the only two formal complaints ‘as a result of the project’ made to the county and spread on the minutes” but one other nearby neighbor in 2022 complained to the board about drainage.

The statement did not answer why, if the project caused or exacerbated flooding, the county did not hold the contractor or engineer accountable. Instead, Sandridge wrote, the county was doing work “necessary to promote the health, comfort and convenience of the inhabitants of Tate County.”

The county’s response noted that when the initial, partial state funding for the project was secured, the county was under the “beat system” where each supervisor manages roads in his or her district, and that former Supervisor Cam Walker who retired in 2019 was in charge of that district.

Walker, whom Mississippi Today had been unable to reach for comment, provided a brief written statement as part of the county’s response. He said the road was dangerous and he had been working to improve it since at least 2006, but was unable to secure funding. He said he attended at least two public hearings when he was in office where citizens demanded the road be “improved and made safer.”

‘That’s a private transaction’ 

Lamar built his home on Country Club Road on the outskirts of Senatobia in 2015. 

In 2018, as the Legislature struggled to find money in austere times for badly needed infrastructure improvements statewide, Lamar helped secure $1 million for overhauling Country Club Road. The money sat in the county’s bank account for a while. In 2020, Lamar helped steer another $1.5 million to the road.

In 2018, Lamar defended funding for the project after it was temporarily axed from the legislative spending bill and a reporter asked about it being the road on which he lives. He said it’s a main thoroughfare that badly needed safety improvements and at least two people had been killed on it. Records show there were two traffic deaths on Country Club Road – one in 2004 and one in 2016.

Lamar said at the time, “I don’t apologize for working to help my people. That is my job.”

In 2022, Lamar helped create the Tate County Erosion Control and Repair Fund with state legislation. To date, the country club golf course area work is the only project that has been completed through the fund.

Lamar said there is nothing untoward about him buying property related to the Country Club Road project or the city takeover of the neighborhood water system after helping fund them with state dollars. 

JT Delta Company LLC bought the 4.5 acres on the north of what was to become the new roundabout on the road after the state funding was approved. Lamar said, “My wife owns that LLC … and it’s a real estate company.” But state records show Trey Lamar as the only officer and registered agent of the LLC, and it appears he handled the paperwork for the purchase.

“That’s a private transaction,” Lamar said. “It had nothing to do with the county, so it’s like any other sale or purchase of real estate between two private entities … That project was already decided on when that purchase was made. I don’t design roundabouts or design intersections. So that’s something that would have been done by the county and the county’s engineer.”

Lamar said that after the city of Senatobia bought the small New Image water system serving the country club neighborhood, it hooked the area up to the city system and didn’t need the small strip of property the small system owned adjacent to Lamar’s backyard. 

“It’s, I don’t know, a tenth of an acre,” Lamar said. “So when the city purchased that system, they abandoned that well, and I think they sold the equipment that was there … That system was owned by one gentleman … and left him owning a tenth of an acre or whatever … I purchased that in a private transaction … that had nothing to do with the water system.

“I’m not on city water,” Lamar said. “I wasn’t on the New Image system … I’m on a private well.”

Lamar said he made the land purchases after the state funding and projects were approved.

State law prohibits public officials from using their official positions to obtain, or attempt to obtain, financial benefit for themselves.

State Ethics Commission Director Tom Hood, speaking generally and not about Lamar or the country club projects and land deals, said a public official helping secure improvements to his neighborhood or street would not necessarily pose a legal issue. He noted a past Ethics Commission ruling that said a city could extend its water system to land owned by a mayor.

“If you’ve got to speculate about something affecting property value, then that’s not enough,” Hood said. “If there’s no pecuniary benefit, then there’s no violation. You have to prove monetary benefit to somebody caused by the government action … Even going from a gravel road to a paved road, if the only benefit is you don’t have to wash your car as much — those are difficult questions.”

Hood said a public official purchasing property around a public project also wouldn’t automatically pose an ethical question.

“That could be a problem if they were using nonpublic information for the purchase,” Hood said. “But if the information was already public, that statute wouldn’t apply … The short answer on these situations is: it depends.”

Meanwhile, TateCounty Watchdogs, which recently had more than 2,200 followers, posted: “In our opinion, even if it was all ‘State money,’ that is no justification to use public monies in this way. Every working Tate Countian pays income tax in to the state of Mississippi. The state then allocates some of that money back out to the counties for roads, infrastructure and whatnot. If our County is placing these dollars into private properties, it will require that much more in County taxes for Tate County to meet her obligations.

“Stay tuned to avoid being taken advantage of as you live your life in and around Tate County,” the post concluded.

READ MORE: Click here to return to the series summary

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In a capital city infamous for its crumbling roads and lack of money to fix them, a powerful lawmaker helped steer $400,000 in state taxpayer funds to repave a small, already well-paved northeast Jackson cul-de-sac where he owns a house.

Simwood Place, located in the affluent LoHo neighborhood of northeast Jackson, is a sleepy residential street home to 14 colorful, single-family homes. It’s tucked away behind The District at Eastover, a multimillion-dollar retail development along Interstate 55 that boasts high-end shops and restaurants.

This isn’t the typical kind of road project the state of Mississippi would usually get involved in. But House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, one of the most influential leaders at the state Capitol, owns one of the 14 homes on the street.

Lamar is a top lieutenant of House Speaker Jason White and the House’s point person for deciding how state money is doled out in the Legislature’s annual local projects bills, commonly called the “Christmas tree bill.”

Public land records show that Lamar’s business, JT Delta Company, purchased a Simwood Place home in August 2023. Just a few months later, in the next legislative session held in early 2024, the $400,000 Simwood Place repaving project was approved by state lawmakers. This appropriation, tucked into a lengthy bill, later surprised some lawmakers and local city leaders.

Democratic Sen. David Blount and independent Rep. Shanda Yates, the two state lawmakers who represent that part of Jackson, told Mississippi Today that they did not ask legislative leaders to appropriate money for the project, which is usually how local projects receive funding. 

“This was not one of my projects,” Yates said. “I don’t know anything about it.” 

Lamar declined to answer any specific questions about the Simwood Place appropriation, abruptly ending a telephone interview with Mississippi Today about state dollars he’s secured for various projects and the property he owns near those projects. Mississippi Today subsequently sent Lamar a list of written questions about the Jackson property, and he also declined to answer those.

However, he told Mississippi Today in a general statement that it was “inevitable” that his family members would own private property near public road projects.

“Any potential innuendo of wrongdoing is baseless and only diverts time and effort away from the real progress that we are making,” Lamar said.

Mississippi law states that public officials cannot use their official office, either directly or indirectly, for “pecuniary benefit” or to somehow enrich themselves. 

State Ethics Commission Director Tom Hood, speaking generally and not about Lamar or the Simwood Place project, said a public official helping secure improvements to a street where they own a home would not necessarily pose a legal issue. 

“If you’ve got to speculate about something affecting property value, then that’s not enough,” Hood said. “If there’s no pecuniary benefit, then there’s no violation. You have to prove monetary benefit to somebody caused by the government action … Even going from a gravel road to a paved road, if the only benefit is you don’t have to wash your car as much — those are difficult questions.”

Legislative leaders keep tight control over what gets added to the final Christmas tree bill, which becomes a powerful political tool for keeping rank-and-file members in line with the leadership’s policy agenda. 

But it’s become increasingly common in recent years for the top lawmaker who controls excess funds like Lamar, to have large power over how much money they can steer toward their personal pet projects. 

Jackson-area lawmakers have asked legislative leaders for years to help fund local road projects, and they claim those requests have continuously fallen on deaf ears, making the Simwood Place project even more notable.

The legislation that allocated the funds for the Simwood Place project routed the money through the Capitol Complex Improvement District’s Project Advisory Committee, a board composed of local and state appointees who recommend to lawmakers which Jackson-area projects they should fund.

The CCID is a carveout of the capital city that receives extra state funding and police protection, and Lamar has passionately and successfully pushed to expand that district further into the city, including the area of Jackson where his home is located.

During the 2023 session, Lamar successfully led the effort to pass legislation that created a separate CCID court system within Jackson — the Blackest large city in America — that will be entirely appointed by white state officials.

In October 2023, the CCID’s project advisory committee published a prioritized list of infrastructure projects that used an objective scoring process. The master plan did not identify Simwood Place as one of its priorities.

Rebekah Staples, the CCID committee chairwoman, told Mississippi Today that the Legislature used the organization as a pass-through for several infrastructure projects the committee members didn’t ask for, though she didn’t think that process was necessarily bad. She’s currently reviewing those projects.

While she respects the Legislature’s power to appropriate state dollars, Staples said one of her main goals going forward is to ensure lawmakers are informed of the committee’s scoring process and how it prioritizes road projects.

Ward 7 Jackson City Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay represents Simwood Place at the local level and is a member of the CCID committee. She said she did not ask lawmakers to spend money repaving the road and knew almost nothing about the project.

“If I had asked for this, I would have worked it through the city’s Public Works Department or the 1% sales tax committee,” Lindsay said.

The Department of Finance and Administration, the entity that will eventually disburse the money for the Jackson repaving project, has yet to release the funds to the CCID committee, so the work to improve the road has not begun.

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For many Mississippi lawmakers, Christmas comes again in March or April each year as they typically pass bills full of hundreds of millions of dollars in pet projects — referred to as a “Christmas tree” bill.

But the process of doling out these funds is more of a Bacchanalia and raw politics than good cheer.

And not all lawmakers, or communities, share in the largesse. Those in power tend to get more, as do those who help do the bidding of legislative leaders.

Some get squat, particularly House members who buck their leadership on key votes.

A community’s need for a project is typically far less a factor.

Some lawmakers, such as Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, who oversees Christmas tree spending in that chamber, really make out. He’s helped steer tens of millions of dollars to his rural county and hometown in recent years, even earmarking more than $7 million for improvements in and around the private country club neighborhood where he lives.

By late in the session, legislative leaders will have figured out how much extra cash is floating around the multi-billion dollar state budget — or in lean years how much the state can afford to borrow — for a Christmas tree bill. This typically ranges from $200 million to $400 million a year.

Lawmakers swarm, pushing to get all the bacon they can bring home to their districts for road projects, parks, courthouse renovations, museums — any capital projects not included in main appropriations bills or agency budgets.

It’s pork-barrel spending, not prioritized by statewide need or population, but by politics. It’s how a relatively affluent city or county can get $2 million to spruce up a sports complex, while a struggling city can be snubbed on its request for $2 million in badly needed sewerage repairs.

“It is raw politics,” said House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez. “It’s a quid pro quo: Will you follow orders? Would you do what we ask, and have you been compliant? … It’s kind of used as punishment-reward, a carrot-stick type thing.”

Rep. Dan Eubanks, a Republican from Walls, is one of very few lawmakers who votes against most Christmas tree bills, particularly when they’ve involved borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars in lean years.

“If something’s for a core function of government, that’s one thing,” Eubanks said. “But when it’s, ‘Here, let’s build you an equestrian park or fund your private school’s band’ — there’s a lot of that that goes on.”

Legislative leaders keep tight control over who gets what added to the final Christmas tree bill, and this becomes a powerful political tool — both a carrot and a stick. A lawmaker who bucks the leadership on an important vote can have their projects denied. A lawmaker who goes along can be rewarded.

In the 122-member state House, in particular, the Christmas tree bill has been used by speakers of the House and their leadership teams to push through agendas and keep members in line.

“I got punished this last session,” Johnson said. “There have been drainage projects and road projects in my area that I’ve been getting partial funding for to try and build up, save until we have full funding, for a few years. Essentially I was cut completely off this past session … You would think, I think the public would think, that we are identifying where the greatest needs are.”

Eubanks said: “I haven’t really brought home much in the way of Christmas tree money. I have a neighborhood in my district that had water so bad it couldn’t be drunk, and it would stain clothes. The city couldn’t afford filtration. I wanted it put in a regular appropriation, but somehow it wound up in a bond bill. Since I vote against them, when all was said and done they gave the credit to a different legislator, who doesn’t represent the neighborhood. That’s what happens if you stand up and speak your conscience and vote your conscience.”

Eubanks said he voted for a Christmas tree-type bill this year, but only because it appeared to have mostly legitimate infrastructure projects and, more so, because it included badly needed work to help congestion on Interstate 55 in his area. 

“I have even voted against things that would have helped my district before,” Eubanks said. “… I would never go ask for money to put in a merry-go-’round or walking trail that would only benefit a few folks … I do remember years when they had things such as fixing a levy on private property and putting in new streetlights for a historic district and building a walking trail for an equestrian center. Those aren’t core functions of government.”

For some rank-and-file lawmakers, securing major funds for local projects is their main goal of a legislative session.

“It’s like what happens in D.C. (with Congress),” Eubanks said. “You justify your reason for being there by bringing the money home.”

In the House, Chairman Lamar, a top lieutenant of Speaker Jason White, has become de facto arbiter of the Christmas tree spending. Lamar’s committee handles state debt and in lean years Christmas tree bills are paid for by borrowing. But with state coffers full largely from federal pandemic relief spending in recent years, there has been at least a few hundred million dollars a year cash on hand for pet projects. Lamar has remained largely in charge of the spending that would normally flow through the Appropriations Committee.

And Lamar and his district have benefited greatly from his tasking. State spending on projects in rural Tate County and its cities including Senatobia has dwarfed spending for similar sized counties — and even spending for Jackson, the state’s largest and capital city. Over the last three years, Jackson received $5.9 million for earmarked projects. Tate County received $38.6 million.

“I think when you hold all the keys, people won’t question it,” Eubanks said, “because if you do, you won’t get anything … That’s part of the mindset, you don’t want to be on the wrong side of who holds the keys … Those in control of it seem to get all the things they want.”

Christmas tree projects get little vetting on their merits on the front end. But once they’re approved, they receive nearly no oversight. After the Legislature passes the hundreds of millions a year in spending, that’s usually the last most rank-and-file lawmakers ever see of it.

Once the Legislature approves the spending bill, the Department of Finance and Administration is tasked with disbursing the funds to hundreds of counties, cities and nonprofits around the state. 

DFA requires local organizations to sign a memorandum of understanding and to file quarterly reports on how they are spending the money. Marcy Scoggins, a spokesperson for DFA, said most local entities file their quarterly reports, and the agency eventually contacts them if they’re delinquent. 

But the department is essentially a repository. It has no legal authority to penalize local entities that don’t file the required reports, and it doesn’t scrutinize the work or spending. Other than the attorney general’s office or the state auditor’s office getting involved — and they rarely do — there’s virtually no way for DFA to ride herd on the work or programs being funded. 

A Christmas tree or similar bill can also be hundreds of pages long, and so full of wonky state code language and references to other bills that it’s hard for lawmakers outside of the leadership and budget team to know exactly what’s in it. 

Earmarks are routinely sneaked into it.

Lawmakers in the past have been surprised by spending they’ve approved, such as one year when some other lawmakers learned after the fact that when they approved a Mainstreet Mississippi grant fund, someone late in negotiations inserted language that said for the purpose of that fund, “Municipality means the city of Senatobia, Mississippi” instead of previous language that said any city of less than 15,000 people would qualify for the grants.

In recent years, it’s also one of the final things the Legislature passes during the session, often late at night when legislators are tired, angry at each other and ready to return home to their districts. This process can cause legislators to miss some of the line-items in the bills and provide almost no oversight or participate in legitimate debate on the bill.

Mississippi Today asked House Speaker Jason White, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Gov. Tate Reeves about the Christmas tree bill process and whether they consider it an efficient way to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year. It also asked the three Republican leaders about the projects Lamar has helped fund for his neighborhood.

White and a spokeswoman for Hosemann responded with written statements about the process, but neither commented on Lamar. Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment.

White noted that the projects House members submit are typically projects “that local governments have been unable to fund and the lawmaker has identified as a need in the community after hearing from their constituents.” He said the projects often include letters of support or visits to the Legislature by local officials “to express the gravity of the need.” He said that in the 2024 session, there were more than $1 billion in requests from House members.

“In my 13 sessions we have almost always had a capital projects bill, either funded through a bond bill or cash surpluses,” White said. “Under Republican leadership, the state has realized budget surpluses … With these surpluses, the Legislature has been able to cut taxes, make historical investments in education and our teachers, and the capital projects list has grown, often with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure and economic development projects.”

White said DFA oversees the use of the money the Legislature allocates for local projects “through a system of checks and balances” and a quarterly report and “local governments must comply with all state laws regarding procurement and bidding.”

White said: “In my first session as speaker, we did strive to have a more open and transparent appropriations process as we moved through the session. I applaud our chairmen for their shared commitment to increasing transparency in the process and I know the representatives support our effort to provide more time and solicit member input … We continually look for ways to provide greater transparency and accountability on spending of all taxpayer dollars.”

White, in his first term as speaker, has called for the Legislature to get more of its budgeting done earlier in the session and slow the process down so the rank-and-file have more time to scrutinize spending.

Leah Smith, spokeswoman for Hosemann, wrote: “We understand how important projects are for communities, especially small and rural communities … We also believe it is important to track these projects to ensure they are being completed in a timely manner and in the way prescribed by legislation.

“This summer it was brought to our attention for the first time that some entities are not submitting quarterly reports … with the Department of Finance and Administration,” Smith wrote. “We also learned many municipalities, some of which may have received projects, have not submitted their annual audit to or been audited by the state auditor as required (by law). We are committed to increasing transparency and accountability related to all projects.”

Smith said that Hosemann “has always been in favor of moving back deadlines to allow ample time for legislators to examine bills before they are moved for final passage, especially when they are appropriating significant taxpayer dollars.”

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