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President Donald Trump’s approval of a federal disaster declaration request from Mississippi will assist in the response to the winter storm that caused widespread damage in the state in late January. Gov. Tate Reeves had sent the request three days prior on Feb. 3.

Thousands in north Mississippi still had no power Monday, more than two weeks since the storm. State emergency officials confirmed Friday the death toll from the disaster had reached at least 29.

The federal declaration Friday included approving public assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which goes toward repairs for infrastructure such as roads and government buildings. The federal government has not made a decision about individual assistance for the state, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Scott Simmons said.

Simmons said the state is “nowhere near” finished with its damage assessment, which FEMA uses as a basis for approving different types of assistance.

The federal government has stepped in to provide food and supplies across Mississippi, and on Friday approved replacement benefits for SNAP recipients in 15 counties. But it could take a while before residents see direct support through individual assistance, officials told Mississippi Today last week. While a state’s damages have to reach a firm threshold for Public Assistance, FEMA has less rigid guidelines for approving individual assistance.

Funding through public assistance is available for the following places: Alcorn, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Leflore, Montgomery, Sharkey, Sunflower, Warren, Washington, Webster, and Yazoo counties and for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Funding for emergency protective measures, which is a subcategory of Public Assistance, is also available in: Adams, Attala, Benton, Claiborne, Coahoma, DeSoto, Hinds, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lee, Marshall, Panola, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Tunica, Union and Yalobusha counties.

Republicans House Speaker Jason White and Gov. Tate Reeves face a difficult political situation after the ignominious death last week of House Bill 2, White’s big, beautiful school choice bill.

They both went on social media rants about the Senate GOP leadership, accusing their fellow Republicans of being in cahoots with leftists, liberals, Democrats, the ACLU … perhaps even Che Guevara and the Symbionese Liberation Army? White and Reeves also have pointed out these closeted liberal Republican senators even, gasp, defied President Donald Trump.

So, if this measure to have tax dollars pay private school tuition for some students is the most important issue facing Mississippi and the key to being a loyal, rock-ribbed Republican, then it should follow that White would try to revive the measure legislatively.

Or, Reeves could call lawmakers into a special session to try to force it. Otherwise, White and other House leaders could try to shut other legislation down to force the Senate back to the table.

But all of those moves are fraught with political and practical problems.

The first is, it’s pretty clear that many Mississippi Republican lawmakers oppose it, including a sizeable chunk of White’s own House caucus.

Seventeen of 78 House Republicans voted against it. White managed to get it passed by only a two-vote margin. This was only after some heavy vote whipping and a couple of Republicans appearing to “take a walk” to avoid voting.

Opposing Trump in the Mississippi statehouse might get a lawmaker in trouble. But opposing educators and parents back home, no matter your party, will get your picture taken off the wall as they say in the Legislature. There have been numerous past examples, including some very notable, very conservative Republican legislators.

Numerous senators avow that House Republicans, including some who voted for the measure, have over recent weeks anxiously questioned them, hoping the Senate would kill it.

Reviving the measure might require forcing the House to vote on it several more times. Some of White’s Republicans who reluctantly went along for the first ride might not be up for that. And having the House kill the measure after raising such a stink about those sorry Senate Republicans would be something of a boondoggle.

Forcing lawmakers into special session — perhaps even a session-within-a-session — on the issue would present Reeves with a similar scenario. He can force lawmakers into session and set the agenda, but he can’t make them vote the way he wants. He’s been very conservative in the use of his special session power, and vowed in the past not to force one when there’s no compromise afoot.

He’s a lame duck, but still has a long way to go in his second term.

It’s likely White and Reeves will do some political calculus and determine this is not the hill to die on. Of course Trump could change that calculus if he were to get intensely involved. But he appears to have bigger issues to deal with at the moment.

For now, White and Reeves might have to settle with firing social media missives at the Senate.

Some GOP senators last week were not happy with some of the incoming slings and arrows. As for White questioning their conservative or Trump bona fides, they noted he pushed for “Obamacare expansion” a couple of years ago. And as for Reeves accusing them of trying to “do it in the dark and hide it from MS conservatives on a a deadline day,” they noted he’s the same feller who last year intentionally signed into law a major tax change they opposed but voted for mistakenly because of a typo.

Some other news of note last week:

• The House and Senate appear at odds over state help for winter storm-ravaged areas. The Senate voted to give the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency $20 million for initial response. House leaders appear unhappy with MEMA’s initial response, and say they’re looking for ways to more directly help communities.

• Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law changes to the state’s long-debated certificate of need system. This is aimed at allowing hospitals to more easily expand services. The law will also limit the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s exemptions from certificate of need laws.

• The House, for the third straight year, voted to legalize online sports betting. It also, in the same bill, voted to make a $600 million infusion to the state government pension plan.

Quote of the Week

“They’ll write an article about him if he goes to the Super Bowl.” – House Speaker Jason White. White was joking with the House about Mississippi Today reporting last year of a trip he and some of his staff took to the Super Bowl, compliments of lobbyists pushing for legalization of online sports betting. The House adopted a resolution commending Jamal Roberts, a Meridian native who won on “American Idol,” but Roberts could not attend the House adoption because he had obligations to appear at the Super Bowl, prompting White’s joke.

In Brief

AI regulation bill: ‘These are real kids’

Anxiety about artificial intelligence’s potential harm is rising, and Mississippi lawmakers are considering addressing it with regulations.

A bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday would make it illegal to distribute AI-generated content without the subject’s consent. Senate bill 2046 gives Mississippians property rights to the use of their image and likeness and a legal way to protect themselves.

AI technology is able to generate increasingly realistic videos but is still new and relatively unregulated. The bill’s author, Sen. Bradford Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton, told Mississippi Today, “This is not theoretical. These are real kids, real classrooms facing real consequences from fake content.” – Katherine Lin

More public records exemptions proposed

House Bill 1468, one of the last bills to pass out of committee before the Feb. 3 deadline, could allow more information to be withheld from public records requests.

The bill from Republican Rep. Brent Anderson of Bay St. Louis adds broad definitions of “personally identifiable” and “protected” information to the Mississippi Public Records Act. The bill covers any information that could identify an individual alone or when combined with other information and explicitly requires government agencies to conduct a case-by-case assessment on records requests.

The bill also has law enforcement implications. Agencies could potentially select cases to redact names from police incident reports, which have been used in the past to identify officers accused of misconduct. The broad nature of the definitions created by the measure raises questions over whether government agencies would have much wider discretion to leave specifics out of records requests. – Michael Goldberg

House considers sales tax diversion study

The House Ways and Means Committee has passed a bill that would create a study committee to evaluate Mississippi’s sales tax diversion to cities.

The governor would appoint a representative from a city with more than 50,000 residents and a representative from a town with fewer than 50,000 to serve on the committee. Legislators and representatives of business groups will also be on the committee.

Current law requires the Mississippi Department of Revenue to collect the state’s 7% sales tax, but remit 18.5% of the total to cities and towns.

Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, told Mississippi Today that several cities, including Oxford, had requested the legislation. – Taylor Vance

Mandatory computer science courses proposed 

A pair of companion bills before the House and Senate would require computer science courses for high school graduation. 

Rep. Kevin Felsher, a Republican from Biloxi who authored the bill in the House, said the bill would prepare students to deal with artificial intelligence. 

A Senate bill would require that students graduate with some level of financial literacy. Sen. Daniel Sparks, a Republican from Belmont, said his proposal is essential for students’ futures — and Mississippi’s. 

“It’s not that a lot of Mississippians aren’t trying and working hard,” he said. “They just were not guided at the time when they were making those important decisions. I think more financial acumen … will help our people make better decisions across the board.” – Devna Bose

Bill would provide more $ for gifted education 

The Senate passed a bill that would increase school funding for gifted students and gifted education, after notable back-and-forth.

Sen. Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula who authored SB 2293, defended his bill, saying it was “about time” the Legislature stood behind the state’s gifted students. 

But Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, argued that other state education funds aren’t directed toward specific populations. For example, even though special education students draw an increased amount in the formula, state law doesn’t require that money is spent on special education, he said. 

The bill now heads to the House.  – Devna Bose

By the Numbers

$132 million

The amount state revenue through January is up over the prior fiscal year, a 3% increase.

More Legislative Coverage

House votes to legalize online sports betting and divert $600M to pension system

Proponents say this could generate tens of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue, but critics warn it would fuel gambling addiction and hurt brick-and-mortar casinos. Read the story.

House passes pharmacy benefit manager reform bill in Mississippi

The House on Wednesday passed a bill aimed at increasing regulation and transparency of pharmacy benefit managers, an issue advocates argue is critical to protecting patients and independent pharmacists in Mississippi against the risk of rising drug costs. Read the story.

Podcast: With U.S. Supreme Court likely to dismantle Voting Rights Act, MS lawmakers push for state version

State Rep. Zakiya Summers has filed the House version of the “Robert G. Clark Jr. Voting Rights Act.” It’s an effort to get out in front of what many expect will be the further dismantling of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Listen to the podcast.

Lawmakers have not unveiled a new map of Mississippi Supreme Court districts, but they still could before the adjournment of their 2026 session. 

The House and Senate have advanced so-called “dummy bills,” which are empty placeholder bills that meet legislative deadlines, but would not actually change state law without more work. These bills allow lawmakers to keep studying an issue and propose changes. 

The reason lawmakers are considering changing the Supreme Court districts is because U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock ruled last year that the districts violated the Voting Rights Act because one of the districts dilutes Black voting strength. She later ruled that the Legislature should be granted the opportunity to redraw the districts to comply with federal law. 

The two top legislators who will lead negotiations over redrawing the districts are House Judiciary B Chairman Kevin Horan, a Republican from Grenada, and Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula. 

Both lawmakers told Mississippi Today they intend to comply with the order, but Horan said the Legislature should consider all options because the U.S. Supreme Court could upend redistricting in the coming weeks. 

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering a case, Louisiana v. Callais, that deals with congressional districts, but the ruling could apply to Mississippi’s judicial districts. The central question in the case is whether factoring race into the drawing of congressional districts violates the U.S. Constitution.

A majority of the justices at the nation’s highest court signaled they were open to rolling back the federal Voting Rights Act, a Civil Rights era federal law that helps prevent discrimination whenever legislative bodies draw districts. 

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Mississippi, the Southern Poverty Law Center and private law firms on behalf of a group of Black Mississippians filed a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act against the state over the Supreme Court districts. 

Judge Aycock in Mississippi ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the state defendants appealed her ruling to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Even though the state appealed, it did not ask Aycock to pause lower-court proceedings while the appeal played out. 

The Fifth Circuit, however, did pause its appellate proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in the Louisiana case. 

If Mississippi lawmakers redraw the Mississippi Supreme Court districts, it would be the first time lawmakers have redrawn them since 1987. 

Current state law establishes three distinct Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the Northern, Central and Southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each of these districts to make up the nine-member court. 

The main district at issue in the case is the Central District, which comprises many parts of the majority-Black Delta and the majority-Black Jackson Metro area. Currently, two white justices, Kenny Griffis and Jenifer Branning, and one Black justice, Leslie King, represent the district. 

Last year, Branning, a white candidate who described herself as a “constitutional conservative” and was backed by the Republican Party, defeated longtime Justice Jim Kitchens, who is white but was widely viewed as a candidate supported by Black voters. 

No Black person has ever been elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court, in the state with the highest percentage of Black residents, without first obtaining an interim appointment from the governor, and no Black person from either of the two other districts has ever served on the state’s high court. 

The oft-repeated mantra of the school choice crowd, or those wanting to give public funds to private schools, is that public education needs competition.

They might be right.

There may be nothing better for public education than competition – competition among legislators trying to outdo each other to provide funds for public education.

On the opening day of the 2026 session, the Mississippi Senate passed a bill that would provide public school teachers a $2,000 per year pay bump. Not to be outdone, the House passed its own bill last week that would provide a $5,000 per year raise for public school teachers, plus an additional $3,000 raise for special education teachers.

The House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, would eventually need to agree on a single plan to send to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. At this point, it is hard to fathom that the final pay raise for teachers will be much less, if any less, than $5,000.

Once that carrot is dangled, it will be hard to take back.

And if the Legislature eventually agrees on the House’s $5,000 proposal, coupled with the teacher pay raise passed by the Legislature in 2022, it would indeed be historic.

Two raises approved over a four-year span would come close to rivaling the multi-year teacher salary increase passed by the Legislature more than two decades ago.

In the 2000 session, at the behest of Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, the Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a $338 million pay raise that was fully enacted in 2005. At the time, teacher pay increased from an average of $31,892 per year to $41,445, or a jump of 30%, according to reporting by the New York Times from the 2000s.

The new proposal approved by the House would increase the average teacher salary by little less than 10% .

This year’s $5,000 pay raise would come on top of the 2022 legislation that increased teacher salaries an average of $5,140 a year, or or a little more than this year’s House plan.

The historic 2000 pay raise came after Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and House Speaker Tim Ford, both Democrats, said the state could not afford it. They spoke in unison, until Tuck (who would become a Republican more than two years later) got cold feet and reversed her position during the 2000 session and called for moving teacher pay to the Southeastern average without telling Ford. The speaker responded by saying he would support moving teacher pay to the national average – an example of legislative competition at work. 

Mississippi has raised teacher pay multiple other times through the years, perhaps most notably in 1988 under Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus when the average salary for teachers was increased 18%, according to The Associated Press.

Despite all these efforts, Mississippi teacher salaries have perpetually remained near or at the bottom nationally. House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson, a Starkville Republican, said the additional $5,000 the House is proposing this year would move the state to near the top in pay for starting teachers at $46,500 annually.

“But remember, this is a moving target,” Roberson said, explaining that other states are not standing still. He said legislators must revisit the issue constantly.

It is of note that the House leadership passed the pay raise out of committee on a key deadline day and then quickly passed it on the floor without a dissenting vote.

Before the recent action on the pay raise, the signature effort of House Speaker Jason White and his leadership team during the 2026 session in terms of public education was the thus far unsuccessful efforts to take public funds and direct them to private schools. Many argued that making public schools compete directly with private schools for state funds would force them to improve.

There is little evidence of that in other states. As a matter of fact, some states with strong voucher systems have seen student test scores regressing, while Mississippi has seen academic improvement in public schools even as it provides only limited opportunities for public money to be spent in private schools.

But it does appear that competition among legislative leaders to garner credit for supporting public education is real. 

White’s aggressive effort to pass the public funds to private schools legislation has sparked the ire of many public education advocates.

Whether that was the intent or not, White most likely would say it was not, he and his leadership team needed an action to elicit good will among public education advocates.

The pay raise does that.

As stated earlier, competition can be good – even for the public schools.

LOS ANGELES — Brad Arnold, the lead singer of the Grammy-nominated rock band 3 Doors Down, died Saturday, months after he announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer. He was 47.

The band said in a statement that Arnold, who grew up in Escatawpa, Mississippi, “passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, in his sleep after his courageous battle with cancer.”

3 Doors Down formed in Mississippi in 1995 and four years later received a Grammy nomination for the breakout hit “Kryptonite.” Arnold wrote the song in math class when he was 15 years old, according to the band statement.

Their debut album, “The Better Life,” sold over 6 million copies. A second Grammy nomination came in 2003, for the song “When I’m Gone.”

The band said Arnold “helped redefine mainstream rock music, blending post-grunge accessibility with emotionally direct songwriting and lyrical themes that resonated with everyday listeners.”

3 Doors Down released six albums, most recently “Us And The Night” in 2016. Singles included “Loser,” “Duck and Run” and “Be Like That,” which appeared on the soundtrack for the 2001 film “American Pie 2.”

While promoting their 5th album, “Time of My Life,” Arnold said he considered himself lucky to have carved out a career in the music business.

“If you do something as long as we’ve done it, you can’t help but get better at it, you know?” Arnold told The Associated Press in 2011.

In 2017, 3 Doors Down performed at the first inauguration concert of President Donald Trump.

Arnold announced his cancer diagnosis last May, saying clear cell renal carcinoma had metastasized to his lungs. The band was forced to cancel a summer tour.

“His music reverberated far beyond the stage, creating moments of connection, joy, faith, and shared experiences that will live on long after the stages he performed on,” the band said.

The federal government approved mass replacement of benefits for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in 15 Mississippi counties hard-hit by the treacherous January ice storm that swept through Mississippi, the state Department of Human Services announced Friday. 

The benefits will be automatically uploaded to beneficiaries’ accounts in the selected counties without an application and are expected to appear in accounts in the next few weeks, said spokesperson Mark Jones. He said he did not yet know the specific date. 

“We’re working quickly to try to get those out,” Jones said Friday afternoon.  

SNAP recipients in an additional 28 counties will receive an extension until Feb. 23, 2026, to apply for replacement benefits. Only existing SNAP clients are eligible to receive these benefits. 

All people who lost power for more than four hours during the storm were eligible for replacement benefits. These benefits are available year-round in case of food destroyed due to a natural disaster, including flood, fire and severe weather. However, recipients are normally required to apply for replacement benefits within 10 days of the outage. 

When applying for replacement benefits, recipients are asked to report the value of the food lost in the disaster. If approved, replacement benefits equal to the lost food’s value will be issued, up to the maximum amount of SNAP benefits issued for the month, according to MDHS’ website. 

Winter Storm Fern struck Mississippi the weekend of Jan. 24-25, causing up to 180,000 power outages at its peak. The storm covered roads with ice, snapped trees and downed powerlines across north Mississippi. On Friday, at least 22,000 utility customers in Mississippi remained without power, according to poweroutage.us.

Jones advised people applying for replacement benefits to ensure that all information submitted is accurate. 

“Please make sure that the power outage documents you use are for your address,” Jones said. 

SNAP recipients in the following 15 counties do not need to apply for replacement benefits. Eligible clients will be issued benefits automatically. 

• Alcorn County
• Choctaw County
• Claiborne County
• Grenada County
• Holmes County
• Humphreys County
• Lafayette County
• Montgomery County
• Panola County
• Sharkey County
• Tallahatchie County
• Tippah County
• Tishomingo County
• Yalobusha County
• Yazoo County

SNAP recipients in the following 28 counties who suffered food loss as a result of the winter storm must apply for replacement benefits by Feb. 23, 2026.

• Adams County
• Attala County
• Benton County
• Bolivar County
• Calhoun County
• Carroll County
• Chickasaw County
• Coahoma County
• DeSoto County
• Issaquena County
• Itawamba County
• Jefferson County
• Lee County
• Leflore County
• Lowndes County
• Madison County
• Marshall County
• Pontotoc County
• Prentiss County
• Quitman County
• Sunflower County
• Tate County
• Tunica County
• Union County
• Warren County
• Washington County
• Webster County
• Wilkinson County 

To access the replacement request form (MDHS-EA-508), households should visit the MDHS website at https://www.mdhs.ms.gov/economic-assistance/snap/snap-replacement-benefits/. The completed form may be submitted by mail, email, or uploaded directly to the MDHS website using the document upload feature at the SNAP Replacement Benefits page. 

Mayor John Horhn announced Friday that he is nominating former Pittsburgh Bureau of Police commander RaShall Brackney as the next chief of the Jackson Police Department.

The capital city conducted a months-long recruiting process, which included community listening sessions, after Joseph Wade retired as chief in September. Brackney’s nomination must be confirmed by the Jackson City Council.

Horhn, who became mayor in July, selected Brackney from a list of four finalists announced last month. She was the only woman among the finalists, and she would become the third woman to serve as Jackson’s police chief. Her family hails from the Jackson area.

“I’m honored by the opportunity to serve the people of Jackson and to work alongside the dedicated men and women of the Jackson Police Department,” Brackney said in the city’s press release. “I’ve always believed that you can’t have real public safety without strong community trust. I look forward to listening to residents, partnering with neighborhood leaders, and supporting officers as we work to make every part of this city safer. I’m committed to helping build a department that reflects those strengths, treats every person with dignity, and focuses on preventing violence while solving crime.”

If confirmed, Brackney would take helm of Jackson’s police department as officials are celebrating a decline in homicides to pre-pandemic levels.

After retiring from a 30-year career at in the Pittsburg police force, Brackney served as the police chief for Charlottesville, Virginia, and for George Washington University in Washington.

Horhn’s announcement Friday noted that federal partners have relied on Brackney for her knowledge on police bias and reporting of hate crimes. Brackney holds a PhD in instructional management and leadership and taught at George Mason University with a focus on “on police legitimacy, transparency, and reimagining public safety,” the release said.

“Dr. RaShall Brackney has spent her career working at the intersection of public safety and community trust, and she knows effective policing depends on accountability and transparency,” Horhn said in the release.

She’s expected to arrive in Jackson in mid-February to meet with city officials and community leaders.

“My investments in Jackson run deeper than a title or position,” Brackey said in the release. “Jackson has a proud history and a resilient spirit, and my aim is to support the community’s positive growth during my tenure.”

Tyree Jones, the Hinds County sheriff, has been serving as Jackson Police Department’s interim chief since Wade left.

Among the finalists who were not selected was Wendell Watts, who is currently serving as the assistant chief of patrol operations. JPD’s other assistant chief, Vincent Grizzell, recently announced he’s stepping down effective next week, a decision he says was forced due to political reasons, WLBT first reported.

As Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s financial crisis plods on, more people are stepping up to propose remedies aimed at keeping the hospital’s doors open. 

Hospital leaders warned in December that the facility was on the brink of closure under the weight of debt owed to the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. This debt stemmed from overpayments from a program designed to support struggling hospitals. The public hospital faces a looming deadline at the end of February to reach an agreement with the agency, but hospital officials say negotiations have stalled.

Under the agreement, the hospital was expected to secure a bond by Jan. 31. The terms of a bond remain unresolved, said Gary Marchand, the hospital’s former interim CEO who is now serving as an executive consultant advising the hospital’s board.

“Our understanding is that the parties will have to bring this dispute back to the Chancery Court for any further relief from Medicaid’s efforts to reduce the hospital’s payments,” Marchand said in an email to Mississippi Today. 

Matt Westerfield, a spokesperson for the Division of Medicaid, declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to do so during ongoing litigation.

Greenwood Leflore Hospital serves roughly 300,000 patients in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the state with limited access to health care. The facility is jointly owned by the city of Greenwood and Leflore County. Members of the City Council and Board of Supervisors told Mississippi Today they were unaware of the current status of efforts to secure a bond. 

At the same time, state lawmakers are proposing legislation to provide relief. These bills include measures that would give hospitals more time to settle overpayments during times of financial hardship and outline the terms for a potential sale of the hospital, backed by a proposed $10 million state appropriation. 

In December, Marchand testified during a hearing in the case with Medicaid that the hospital’s ongoing financial difficulties, paired with $3.5 million owed to Medicaid, would force the facility to close.

“We will make our last payroll tomorrow,” Marchand said Dec. 18, when he was then serving as interim hospital CEO. Before reaching the agreement that gave both parties more time to negotiate, Marchand warned that once layoffs were announced, staff would likely seek work elsewhere, making it difficult to reopen the hospital even under new leadership.

The dispute with the Division of Medicaid began in June, when the agency informed the hospital it would recoup $5.5 million in state-directed payments, or supplemental funds intended to offset low Medicaid reimbursement rates. In September, hospital leaders warned the agency that the proposed repayment schedule of $900,000 a quarter — with about $2 million already recovered in 2025 — would severely strain the hospital’s finances. 

The overpayments resulted from Medicaid calculations based on outdated data that did not account for reduced patient volumes after the hospital closed its labor and delivery and intensive care units in 2022. According to the Division of Medicaid, hospitals were notified two years ago that a reconciliation would take place in 2025. They did not know then how much they would owe. 

The two sides have since sparred over the terms of a repayment plan. At a December court hearing, the Division of Medicaid said it would require financial guarantee before negotiating a repayment plan, a stipulation the hospital said it would agree to. 

The conflict between the hospital and Medicaid officials in Mississippi is but the latest trial in a litany of hardships the hospital has faced. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, the hospital was losing up to $9 million a year, Marchand previously told Mississippi Today. To keep its doors open, the hospital shut down departments and clinics, went up for lease multiple times, drew down millions of dollars in credit, applied for grants from the state Legislature, and pursued a more lucrative hospital designation. In 2023, the hospital suspended the use of 173 beds to control costs, according to an audit. 

The House passed a bill Wednesday sponsored by House Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee, a Republican from Hattiesburg, that would require the Division of Medicaid to give providers 12 months to repay “incorrect payments” if immediate repayment would cause financial hardship. 

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee passed a bill with similar provisions, which would stall recoupments from Greenwood Leflore until May 1. 

During a Jan. 28 Senate budget hearing, Mississippi Medicaid Executive Director Cindy Bradshaw said the payments were not made “incorrectly,” but were the result of the program’s routine reconciliation process. Hospitals are aware that when inpatient visits decline, as they have at Greenwood Leflore in recent years following the closure of beds and services, they will owe money during reconciliation. 

“A prudent businessperson would have been setting that money aside,” Bradshaw said. 

Marchand said McGee’s bill alone would not be enough to save the hospital.

“The hospital’s financial situation requires a multi-year repayment plan to prevent the closure of service lines,” Marchand said. 

Lawmakers have also advanced a separate proposal aimed at the hospital’s long-term future. A bill authored by House Public Health and Human Services Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, would authorize the city of Greenwood and Leflore County to sell or lease the hospital within the next year, provided they continue to operate the emergency room and swing-bed program. The bill would also appropriate $10 million to a potential new owner.

Creekmore said that he, along with Senate Public Health and Welfare Chairman Hob Byran, a Democrat from Amory, met with the hospital board twice in recent months.

“It was evident they did not want to be in the hospital business anymore,” Creemore said. “They want to sell or lease it.” 

Marchand said he appreciates lawmakers’ efforts to save the hospital, but there are no current efforts to sell the hospital. 

“At this time, the hospital has taken no steps to consider closure of any service lines or entertain a sale or lease of the hospital,” he said.

City Council President Ronnie Stevenson said he would be open to a proposal to sell the hospital to the right buyer, so long as it would maintain the hospital’s long-term sustainability. 

“I just want to make sure we sell to the right people,” Stevenson said. “…I don’t see us, the county and the city, able to maintain it without any help.” 

Leflore County Supervisor Anjuan Brown said he, too, would support a sale if it was necessary to save the hospital.

But Rep. Solomon Osborne, a Democrat from Greenwood, said the bills proposed to help the hospital are nothing more than stop-gap measures that skirt what he sees as the more obvious solution to saving the hospital: Medicaid expansion. 

“It wouldn’t really solve the long-standing problems that we have,” he said, pointing to the hospital’s large portion of uninsured patients. 

And, he added, if the Legislature is willing to give $10 million to a potential hospital buyer, they could offer the same amount to the hospital’s existing owners to shore up its finances.

Preparing for the worst-case scenario, the hospital’s administration said it is seeking approval from the state Legislature to file for bankruptcy in a Jan. 20 memo to staff. Officials stressed it would be used only “in the event it becomes necessary” and that they remain optimistic bankruptcy can be avoided. 

The Greenwood City Council approved a resolution on Jan. 20 authorizing the hospital board to take steps needed to pursue bankruptcy protection if required.

“A last, last resort,” said Stevenson. “We will not do this unless it’s a last resort just to save the hospital.” 

The Board of Supervisors tabled the request at its Feb. 4 meeting. Supervisor Brown said he needed more information on how a bankruptcy filing could affect employee pensions before voting.

The hospital has recently made strides to shore up its tenuous finances. In April, Greenwood Leflore was one of three hospitals in the state chosen for the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program, an initiative operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“We thought we had finally climbed out of the COVID hole,” Marchand said Dec. 18 of the hospital’s acceptance into the program. 

But Greenwood Leflore’s trials are likely not over yet. The state-directed payments that helped to stabilize Greenwood Leflore’s finances after it was forced to close valued services are set to be reduced over time beginning in 2028 as a result of federal cuts to Medicaid included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” signed by President Donald Trump in July.

During a House Public Health and Human Services committee meeting Tuesday, Creekmore urged lawmakers to support his proposal, acknowledging that it could change as it progresses through the legislative process. 

“I do believe we need to try every effort we can to keep this hospital open,” he said. 

Mukta Joshi is part of The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship.

Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, has agreed to abandon efforts to acquire a warehouse in northern Mississippi and turn it into a detention center for immigrants, according to U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker.

Wicker’s announcement came days after he had written to Noem opposing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, acquiring an industrial warehouse in Byhalia.

The Republican senator wrote on his X account Friday, “I just spoke with DHS Secretary Noem about the proposed ICE detention facility in Marshall County. I relayed to her the opposition of local elected and zoning officials as well as economic development concerns. I appreciate her for agreeing to look elsewhere.”

His office did not respond to a request for comment.

In his letter to Noem, Wicker had said he supported immigration enforcement but worried that putting a detention facility in Byhalia could overwhelm the town’s infrastructure. The warehouse would reportedly have held up to 8,500 people — more than four times the population of the town. 

The warehouse is one of nearly two dozen industrial facilities that showed up on a list of possible detention sites in a document spread online recently. Under the Trump administration, ICE has been allocated $85 billion — an unprecedented spike — making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the country. It has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars as part of a $45 billion plan to expand detention centers.

Wicker also noted in his letter Tuesday that the warehouse was one of the few existing facilities in northern Mississippi that could draw industrial development and that it had been seen as a key site to bring “meaningful growth” to the region. Turning it into a detention facility would erase that opportunity without benefiting the community, he wrote. 

Some community members who gathered at the warehouse in mid January to oppose its conversion expressed fears that it would endanger the community. Citizens’ concerns about unlawful arrests by ICE have manifested in unprecedented demonstrations across the country, with major cities seeing tens of thousands taking to the streets in protest.

Some residents said they planned to voice their concerns before the county’s board of supervisors during their next scheduled meeting on Feb. 17. “No ICE detention center in our community!” a flyer being circulated reads. 

A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to a request for comment.