Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday vetoed a bill that sought to provide low-interest loans to local governments impacted by this year’s deadly winter storm and accused Senate staffers of committing unconstitutional and potentially criminal acts with the legislation.

But the basis for Reeves’s allegations of criminal action is inaccurate. 

“The plainly unconstitutional (and possibly criminal) act of the person or persons that attempted to surreptitiously change a material (and negotiated) term of Senate Bill 2632 is unconscionable and calls into question the validity of every bill that I have signed into law this session,” Reeves wrote in his veto message. 

The legislation Reeves vetoed attempted to give cities and counties devastated by Winter Storm Fern a loan using state tax dollars. The legislation stated that the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency was to give local governments loans at 1% at an annual interest rate after federal emergency relief is provided to the state. 

But Reeves said he negotiated with legislators that it should have been a 1% monthly charge to local governments, instead of a 1% annual charge. Under what Reeves said he agreed to, governments would have been charged a 12% annual loan, instead of a 1% annual loan. 

“Notably, without striking the word ‘monthly,’ the language would have resulted in a 12% interest rate charge to cities and counties rather than the clearly intended and unanimously adopted 1% rate,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in a statement. 

Reeves’ office on Tuesday appeared to continue to advocating for a higher loan rate to local governments.

Corey Custer, Reeves’ deputy chief of staff, said in a statement that if the House and Senate send the “exact same bill that 174 members had the opportunity to vote and passed, he will gladly sign it.” Custer said the governor communicated that to the lieutenant governor and the speaker on Monday evening.

After both chambers in the Capitol had already passed the legislation, legislative leaders told lawmakers that the word “monthly” was an inadvertent typo. Lawmakers unanimously voted to remove the word from the bill. 

Sen. Rita Potts Parks is a Republican from Corinth in northeast Mississippi, which was one of the towns hit hardest by the storm. She told Mississippi Today on Tuesday that the Reeves’ veto is “crushing” for her district, and it “hurts your heart” to think people in her district may suffer without getting financial aid.

“You think about raining sleet for 36 hours,” Parks said. “We were over 72 hours with nothing because both transmission lines were down. We had people anywhere from five days to four weeks without power. That’s crushing. To think we can afford a 12% loan? I don’t have a county or a city who can afford that.”

Parks is one of three legislators who met with Reeves, Hosemann and House Speaker Jason White in the governor’s Capitol office on Monday afternoon. It’s not clear what the purpose of the meeting was, but Parks said the governor did not discuss his veto of the legislation during the meeting. She only found out about the veto after she left the meeting.

Reeves is also claiming the method legislators used to take out the word “monthly” was malicious. 

The governor received the bill on March 17, with the word monthly already removed. He alleges that it should not have occurred because the House and Senate did not agree to remove the word “monthly” until later that same day, after he had already received the bill. 

He inaccurately claims Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, made the motion to remove the language on March 17. 

But the person who asked the Senate to change the language was Sen. Tyler McCaughn, a Republican from Newton, on March 13. McCaughn, on March 13, clearly states the bill number and the reason for removing the word monthly.

On Tuesday, McCaughn said that for local governments hit by the storm, “charging 12% is like kicking somebody when they are down … I don’t get it.”

In the governor’s Tuesday afternoon statement to Mississippi Today, he did not address questions asking if he planned to recant his statement that Senate staffers may have committed criminal acts or correct his statement saying the wrong senator asked to correct the typo.

“Further, attacking and accusing a Senate staffer of committing a criminal act in a veto message is malicious, unnecessary and false,” Hosemann said. 

Sen. Neil Whaley is a Republican from Potts Camp in north Mississippi, another area of the state that was hit hard by the storm. He said it’s unfortunate the governor did not discuss any of his concerns with legislators before vetoing the important bill.

“The inside baseball of all of this, everything that goes on in this chamber, the people back home don’t care about that,” Whaley said. “The only thing they’re looking for is results.”

Now that Reeves has vetoed the bill, it’s unclear if local governments still coping with damage and cleanup from the storm will receive any relief from the state. Lawmakers can override the governor’s veto, but it would require a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers to do so.

Update 3/24/26: This story has been updated to include further comments from the governor’s office.