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Last Saturday morning, viewers watching ESPN’s “College GameDay” event in Oxford saw a blue-and-white rectangular sign pop up behind Kirk Herbstreit’s right shoulder. In lettering the shape of the state of Mississippi, the sign read: “Help Save HELP.” 

Devan Williams and Bennett Matson, two seniors at University of Mississippi, had been waiting all night for this moment. The pair camped out in the Grove in sleeping bags, splitting some Chex-Mix and a Domino’s pizza, so they could be first in line that morning — all in an effort to raise awareness about a new policy that could affect tens of thousands of college students in Mississippi. 

Last month, a little-known education board that oversees the state’s financial aid programs proposed a plan that could transform how Mississippi students pay for college. 

The “Mississippi One Grant” will replace the state’s three current financial aid programs, including the only grant that takes a student’s financial need into account: the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Student, or HELP, grant, which pays for all four years of college for students from families that make less than $39,500. 

At most, low-income students will receive $4,500 in financial aid from the One Grant, far less than they can currently get from the HELP grant. If adopted by the Legislature in 2022, the One Grant will, on average, lead to lower financial aid awards for Black and low-income students, while white, wealthier students will see their aid awards go up. 

READ MORE: Black, low-income students will lose thousands in college aid under proposed program

Williams and Matson, senators in UM’s student government, were concerned when they learned the One Grant proposal would get rid of the HELP grant. They wanted to do something in solidarity. 

That’s when Matson came up with the idea to try to get a sign on “College GameDay.” 

“It’s not very often that national news comes to small-town Mississippi,” Matson said. He wanted to use that “really great opportunity to try to make some impact, to inform people about a policy that’s going to affect college students.” 

To come up with the sign, Williams and Matson got together with a fellow member of student government, Andy Flores. A HELP recipient, Flores had started a group to advocate for the HELP grant after he learned about the proposed changes. 

“Help Save HELP,” the phrase on Matson’s sign, is not just a slogan for cause — it’s also the name of the growing, grassroots coalition of college students across the state that Flores started.  

In the week since the Post-Secondary Board announced the “One Grant,” “Help Save HELP” has created a Change.org petition that has garnered over 1,700 signatures, started an Instagram account to collect student testimonials, tabled on University of Mississippi’s campus, and met with senators and representatives from across the state. 

READ MORE: Students react to proposal that would slash thousands in financial aid

Flores, the student who created the group, said the coalition now has more than 50 members at UM, Mississippi University for Women, and University of Southern Mississippi. 

For these students, the debate over the proposed One Grant is more than statistics: It’s about their friends and families. Matson, who is from Memphis, has seen firsthand how the HELP grant has made a difference in his friends lives. 

Williams himself is a HELP recipient. 

“Me, myself, I couldn’t imagine going to college — let alone the University of Mississippi — without the HELP grant,” Williams said. 

The HELP grant has not just enabled Williams to go to college, it has supported him in showing younger members of his family that college is possible. He’s from Jackson, and less than half his high school graduating class went to college. This May, he’s going to be the first in his immediate family to graduate from college. 

“It helped my extended family,” he said. “Like, my cousins, they see me here at college and they see that I was able to do it, to find a way to afford it, and it has inspired them.” 

Getting rid of the HELP grant, Williams said, will only make the problems worse. While the HELP grant was life-changing for him, as it stands, the double-major still has to take out student loans to pay for food, housing, and transportation — the cost of living that makes college possible. 

Even with the HELP grant in place, Williams said he knows many people from his high school who didn’t apply for college. He thinks the One Grant will increase the number of high schoolers in Mississippi who don’t go to college. 

“It will close up opportunities and create barriers to education,” Williams said. “It’ll be harder to overcome socioeconomic barriers if we don’t have things like the HELP grant.” 

Williams’ perspective is supported by the data. Students who come from the poorest families in the state will, on average, lose more than $3,000 under the new program, while the wealthiest students from families that make more than $250,000 will gain about $200, according to data from the Office of Student Financial Aid. 

This will also impact students’ depending on their race: Under the One Grant, the average white student will receive $63 more than they would under the current system, while the average Black student will lose out on $573 of state financial aid. 

Before the 2022 legislative session starts in January, members of Help Save HELP are meeting with state representatives and senators. They have planned letter writing campaigns and phone-banking sessions. Flores is making calls to student senators at other schools to see if they will pass resolutions condemning the new program as well. 

It’s a lot of work, but it’s important, Flores said, for students to have their voices heard. The Post-Secondary Board created the One Grant without input from students or families who benefit from state financial aid. Now, Matson said, they’re making up for lost time. 

Without student input, “you’re not making a comprehensive policy,” Matson said. “At the end of the day, it’s only right to hear from the students affected, as opposed to making all of these decisions from a top down basis 

If the Legislature takes up the program, Matson said he’d like to see students' voices and experiences be centered and prioritized. Any new state financial aid policy should be “based off hearing the voices of the people that it affects,” he said. “Everyone who I know has received the HELP grant says again and again how impactful it’s been …  that’s what should be guiding policy: Proven results.” 

Getting the sign on TV “was a way to show that student representation and student voices still have a seat at the table,” Matson said, “even if we have to make that seat ourselves.”

DATA: The racial and economic impact of Mississippi’s proposed financial aid program

The post These UM students camped out to get a sign on ESPN ‘College GameDay’ about… financial aid? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau, Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender discuss the unprecedented influx of federal money and the large state surplus and how those funds might be spent by the state’s political leadership, starting in the 2022 legislative session beginning Jan. 4.

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

The post Podcast: Will windfall of federal, state funds mean transformation for Mississippi? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with TrustCare Kids Pediatrician Dr. Catherine Phillippi to discuss vaccinating kids against COVID-19 and what she has seen as a doctor during the pandemic. She gives trusted advice that you’d expect from your family pediatrician.

Dr. Philippi joined TrustCare in 2021. She earned the Bachelor of Science in Biology from Mississippi College in 1994 and her medical degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1999. Dr. Phillippi completed her pediatric training at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Prior to joining TrustCare, Dr. Phillippi practiced at Children’s Medical Group in Jackson, Mississippi, and spent time in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Phillippi is married to Dr. Mark Phillippi, a nephrologist at Central Nephrology Clinic and they have three children.

The post Mississippi Stories: Dr. Catherine Phillippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

One of the most watched issues by Mississippians when the Legislature convenes on Jan. 4 will be Gov. Tate Reeves’ proposal to eliminate the personal income tax.

But Mississippians will not be the only people watching. Also watching will be some prominent New Yorkers who can impact the state’s ability to issue and pay for debt to fund long-term projects.

“Mississippi’s general fund relies on a diverse set of revenues… There appears to be interest, however, in making a significant change in the state tax structure with both the governor and legislators proposing various means of reducing or eliminating the PIT,” Fitch, one of the three major credit rating agencies, said in an analysis of Mississippi’s financial condition. “Fitch will continue to monitor developments related to the proposed changes. A structure that results in a slower growth, a more volatile revenue system or that results in a revenue gap relative to spending needs would be a negative credit consideration.”

Fitch’s analysis is important because if the agency gives a state a bad credit rating, it will become more difficult for the state to issue bonds.

Mississippi’s general fund tax collections for the last fiscal year were $6.7 billion. If the state’s personal income tax had been eliminated, as Reeves wants to do within the next five years, the total would be $4.5 billion.

Take away the revenue from the tax on personal income and the state would have roughly the same amount of revenue it was collecting before 2010.

In essence, without the personal income tax, Mississippi’s political leadership would be trying to fund the needs of the state in health care, education and in other areas at today’s costs with the revenue from more than a decade ago.

Inflation over time normally drives up the costs of goods, wages and, yes, the revenue collected by governmental entities and private businesses. If a tax is phased out over time as Reeves wants to do, overall revenue collections may not ever decline year over year, but that does not factor in the cost of inflation. With the phase-out of the tax, the state’s ability to keep up with the rising costs of goods and services is weakened.

Reeves maintains that the income tax phase-out will spur economic growth, resulting in an increase in revenue collections.

“Eliminating the individual income tax will further help us fuel Mississippi’s economic engine for the next 100 years,” the governor said in a narrative setting his goals for the 2022 session.

But State Economist Corey Miller said research indicates “changes to state taxes in Mississippi are likely to have marginal effects on economic growth, employment, and population.” In a report to legislators, Miller added that studies have been inconclusive, to a certain degree, on how tax policy relates to economic growth.

But in general in a small state like Mississippi, national economic conditions play a larger factor than does tax policy. Miller said various studies “suggest state spending on elementary education, secondary education, and higher education as well as infrastructure can promote economic growth over the long term.”

But Reeves contends state revenue is booming and that some of the surplus should be used to begin the phase out of the income tax.

True revenue is growing at perhaps a record pace.

In the 1990s, revenue also was growing at a record pace thanks primarily to the introduction of casino gambling in Mississippi. But by the end of the decade that revenue growth was slowing, soon followed by a national recession.

That recession centered around the first large-scale exodus of low paying manufacturing jobs from America to foreign countries. Mississippi was hit particularly hard because it had more of those jobs per capita than any other state.

The result was, for the first time in the modern era, that the state collected less revenue one year than the previous year, forcing legislators to make significant budget cuts.

Tax collections did not really rebound until Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast in 2005, resulting in a massive influx of federal funds, insurance payments and a large-scale rebuilding effort that led to increased tax collections for the state.

The latest growth, many economists say, is being spurred not just in Mississippi but nationwide by COVID-19 and the massive influx of federal funds states have received because of the pandemic.

Reeves believes that because of that growth, now is the appropriate time to enact the largest tax cut in the state’s history.

Eyes both in Mississippi and in other key parts of the country will be watching to see if legislators agree.

The post Key credit rating agency voices concerns about Reeves’ proposed tax cuts, says it is watching appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Dr. Kaye Bender is a Mississippian who has spent decades working in public health  She recently retired and has come back to Mississippi as executive director of the Mississippi Public Health Association. 

Bender also recently assumed the presidency of the American Public Health Association.  She is only the second Mississippian to hold the office.

Bender recently sat down with Mississippi Today to talk about her decision to come home to Mississippi, and the many challenges for those doing public health work in this time.

Editor’s note: This Q+A has been edited for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today: I’m excited to be talking to a Mississippian with such a distinguished career in public health. Can you just just walk me through all the different positions you’ve held? What interested you and made you want to go into the healthcare field? 

Dr. Kaye Bender: It’s been a long, long career, but it seems like it went by so quickly. So I’m originally from Laurel. And when I was 15, or 16, I had the opportunity to work at a South Mississippi Charity Hospital in Laurel as a candy striper. I’m guessing you don’t even know what that is.

MT: No, ma’am. I don’t.

Bender: Well, they don’t have them any more, unfortunately. But it was kind of a big deal for teenagers. Totally volunteer. You had a little bit of training about how to be around patients and all that kind of stuff. But basically what a candy striper did was to serve juice and coffee and snacks and help rock the babies in the nursery….It was a little auxiliary of young people, largely women in those days, who just got a chance to be exposed to health care and that sort of thing. 

So it was during that experience that I decided I wanted to become a nurse. I just thought it was so cool to be around people who were in the position to help people when they were experiencing trauma in their life or illness, but also happy things like having babies and that sort of thing. So when I graduated from high school, I went to Jones County Junior College for the two year nursing program to be a registered nurse and worked for a year in Laurel just as a general med surge nurse at the hospital. Then I got married and moved to Jackson, and when I started working in Jackson, I also went back to school to work on the next degree, my BS in Nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

But here’s where the public health part kicks in. I was working at a private hospital in Jackson. I was working in labor and delivery, neonatal and intensive care. I was 20 years old, and not very savvy at all. I was doing well to use my nursing skills to take care of patients, but I wasn’t very savvy at all about health care financing and policy. And I got really frustrated internally with the number of pregnant women who had not had any prenatal care because they didn’t have a way to pay for it. And that women showed up in the emergency room ready to deliver, only to be turned away and sent up the street to the University Medical Center. The rules are different now about what happens in emergency rooms, but it just frustrated me, just that sense of inequity long before we started talking about equity and disparities in health care. I got the sense of ‘is this how I want to spend my career?’ It just really became a burden. Then I was offered a position at the Hinds County Health Department working on a team to prevent high-risk pregnancies. And I thought, ‘okay, I can do that.’ So I went to work in that position and fell in love with public health in the broadest sense. And 26 years later, I left the health department, but I had five or six different jobs during that time.

MT: Over those 26 years, what sticks out in your mind as the the biggest improvements made to public health in Mississippi and in coming back now what do you see as the biggest challenges that we face in that area?

Bender: Unfortunately, we still have some of the same issues, but thankfully through the work of a lot of people across the state we have made quite a bit of progress. We’ve still got a long way to go. Over that 26 years, I spent about half of that time working at the local level leader at the county or public health district level and the last 12 years as being at the state level as Deputy State Health Commissioner, so I had a chance to work on a little bit of everything. I think our efforts on childhood immunizations through the years have certainly been very successful. We’ve had challenges with the COVID (vaccines). I don’t understand it. I know we’ve never seen anything like it before. 

And for the last 20 months or so we’ve all been learning as we’re going and that means that sometimes what you do changes, but what we do know about viruses and diseases is that if a vaccine can be produced, it can prevent or eradicate bad diseases. I mean, in my lifetime, we’ve seen people not have polio, we’ve seen people not have smallpox. And we’ve seen the rates of measles and mumps and rubella and even chickenpox and later shingles for older people really be reduced significantly. And we’ve seen deaths from influenza and pneumonia be reduced significantly. So I think in our state, particularly, one of our greatest wins has been immunization generally, of the kids. I would also say our challenge is to instill the same kind of confidence in COVID vaccinations that we’ve been able to for the other childhood vaccinations. And there’s the whole misinformation problem. I think the fact that people get information from a variety of sources is a good thing, but I also think it plays into this whole dilemma of individuals not being able to differentiate between what is misinformation, and what is good, solid scientific information. 

Another thing we’ve seen some improvements are the chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. We certainly have a population that is still far too obese, and therefore has more diabetes and hypertension than we should have, but in the time I’ve been in public health, the embracing of physical activity and eating better has changed significantly. But on the flip side, we have a long way to go because we still have so many areas that are food deserts, where a lot of poor families in particular don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Some of the disappointment for me is, I truly don’t understand the politicization of good public health when it comes to COVID. It’s perfectly fine that we disagree about policy related to our health, and I am certainly one who believes very strongly that people should have choices. But really, we’re all Mississippians and my public health philosophy is that the health of all of us determines the health of our state. And not just from a health standpoint, physically or psychologically, but economically. If we don’t have a healthy, well-educated workforce then we don’t have a healthy state. And so when we politicize the opportunities to offer good advice and sound policy advice relating to everything from pandemics, to quality education, to Medicaid expansion, or other ways to improve access to health care like telehealth, then that’s not a political question to me, that’s a question of taking care of each other so that our whole state becomes stronger.

MT: Will you tell me a bit about when you found out that you were going to be the president of the American Public Health Association, and executive director of the Mississippi Public Health Association? What was that process like for you?

Dr. Bender: I’m incredibly blessed with both those titles. When I left the Washington D.C. Public Health Accreditation Board in December of 2019 to come back to the state, one of my greatest concerns was whether I could be useful back in the state.  I’ve been gone for ten years and you lose a lot of context about public health work over that kind of time period. I certainly wasn’t ready to sit on the front porch in a rocking chair all the time, there will be a time for that, but not yet. The first first offer came when the executive director of the Mississippi Public Health Association decided to retire. Charles “Buddy” Daughdrill had done an awesome job. He and I had worked together in the past. And so the question came to me from someone who’s very active in that association, so I applied for the job and got it in May of 2020. I was just very thrilled to be back in the arena of education, advocacy policy, and in general, being very supportive of not only the health department, but nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and others who promote the health of Mississippians. So I was happy as a clam to have that job and to teach a little bit at once and thought, okay, I can be useful. 

So it’s gonna be a wild year, but I’m looking forward to meeting with public health professionals all around the country. We have some serious work to do, across the country and in Mississippi to rebuild our public health system. COVID-19 took its toll in a lot of ways, but I’m hopeful that we can get past this and rebuild  and be stronger from the lessons we’ve learned.

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The post Marshall Ramsey: Priorities appeared first on Mississippi Today.

When Lane Kiffin and Mike Leach signed on to coach football in Mississippi, we knew things would be different. We knew they were two of the highest profile coaches ever to come to the Magnolia State. We knew that, if they coached in Mississippi according to their histories elsewhere, the scoreboards at Scott Field and Vaught-Hemingway would have to work overtime.

We knew the national media probably would pay more attention to the SEC’s two Mississippi schools. Heck, we thought, perhaps the national media will learn which one is which.

Above all else, we knew it would be interesting.

But I gotta tell you: Nothing prepared me for last Saturday when ESPN’s GameDay came to Oxford and there was Kiffin on the set with Corso, Herbstreit and the rest, and it came time to pick games. And then they got to the Mississippi State-Auburn game and it came time for Kiffin to give his pick.

And these words came out of his mouth: “I would like to say this: Mike Leach is the best offensive coach in America. I’m taking Mississippi State.”

Next commercial, I played it back. He really said that. Ole Miss fans in The Grove reacted just as you might expect. They booed lustily. Kiffin just grinned.

A few minutes later, the State-Auburn game began. Auburn took a 28-3 lead. But then State fired back with what really did look like the best offensive plan in America. Six Will Rogers touchdown passes later, Mississippi State had defeated Auburn 43-34. 

At least it looked like the best offense in America until that evening when Kiffin’s oh-so-balanced offense shredded Texas A&M’s proud defense for 504 yards in a 29-19 victory. The numbers were amazing: 257 yards running, 247 passing, 93 offensive plays in all.

The guess here is that Kiffin knows little about the long history of hatred and hostility in the Ole Miss-Mississippi State football history. He probably doesn’t know that coaches at the two schools have a long and sometimes sordid history of despising one another.

“Jackie Sherrill is a habitual liar,” the late Billy Brewer of Ole Miss once said of his Mississippi State counterpart.

“Billy doesn’t know the meaning of the word habitual,” Sherrill shot back.

Fans of both schools ate it up. (So did sports writers.)

Leach likely hasn’t read much of that history either and probably could care less. He probably doesn’t know that Mississippi State legend Dudy Noble coached at Ole Miss early in his career before returning to State. He probably doesn’t know that Noble once told a sports writer: “I know what hell is like; I spent two years at Ole Miss.”

Even the gentlemanly David Cutcliffe once got into the spirit of the Egg Bowl rivalry. Ole Miss and State coaches have always been on high alert during Egg Bowl week, always believing the hated rival would spy on their practices. One year, Cutcliffe planted a “spy” dressed in maroon peering over the top of the stadium at practice. He dispatched an assistant coach up the stadium steps to check him out. The assistant hollered down to the practice field: “He’s a State fan. What do you want me to do?”

“Throw him over the side,” Cutcliffe retorted.

And that’s what happened — only stunned Ole Miss players didn’t know the “spy” was actually a mannequin. Legend has it the Rebels’ practice intensity was raised a couple notches that day.

And then there was ex-State coach Dan Mullen, who before leaving for what he believed would be greener pastures at Florida, perfected the art of disdain for Ole Miss. He would not even call Ole Miss by name. “TSUN” became the acronym for The School Up North. Something worked. Mullen won five of nine Egg Bowls.

Leach, quite obviously, has not taken the same tact.

Asked this week about Kiffin’s Gameday comments, Leach responded, “He’s setting the stage for a really good Egg Bowl. I’d be lying if I told you he didn’t think he’s the best offensive coordinator. It was modest of him to say … We’ll just let the love keep coming both directions.”

But will we? 

You should know that Kiffin and Leach are not the first two coaches to try and change the culture of hatred between the two schools. Matt Luke and Joe Moorhead were intent on doing that. And we saw how long that lasted.

It surely seems Leach and Kiffin have more staying power, should they both decide to stay.

And they have probably realized what I have long contended. That is, it’s hard enough to coach one of the Mississippi teams in the SEC West without spending so much time and energy tearing down the other school. The jobs are difficult enough without all the back-biting.

The larger question perhaps is whether or not Kiffin and Leach can ever get their two fan bases to buy into their lovey-dovey back and forth.

The guess here: A century and 20 of constant vitriol seems a habit that will be hard to break.

The post What if the Egg Bowl were to become a lovey-dovey affair? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi School Boards Association is joining 12 other states’ associations in breaking from its national federation over what it says has been lapses in governance on the national group’s part.

The problems came to a head in late September when the National School Boards Association (NSBA) authored a letter to President Joe Biden asking federal agencies to assist local law enforcement in protecting school board members, students and educators from threats and potential violence stemming from debate over issues such as masks and critical race theory.

The NSBA offers resources to local school boards, including the Center for Public Education, Council of School Attorneys and others. It also advocates for policies that help public schools.

The MSBA Board of Directors voted Monday to end its membership with the association, saying it will no longer allow the NSBA to speak for the MSBA and does not see “the value of continued membership.”

“The September 29 letter from NSBA to President Biden, with the inflammatory language and the request for federal agencies to intervene in our communities, was just one in a series of lapses in governance,” an email from MSBA President Leroy Matthews and Executive Director Denotris Jackson stated in an email to school board presidents and superintendents. Jackson did not respond when asked by Mississippi Today for details about what these lapses were.

Jackson previously said the letter to Biden was sent without the knowledge of the MSBA.

The email from the MSBA also said it would be working with other state school boards associations to create a new organization. The leaders noted 12 other state associations have officially withdrawn from the NSBA and another six have not paid their dues for the year.

The National School Boards Association, or NSBA, cited a “growing number” of instances across the country of disrupted meetings and sometimes violence in the letter it sent to Biden. The organization asked for the federal government’s help in identifying threats and suggested that some of the actions could constitute domestic terrorism or hate crimes.

“NSBA believes immediate assistance is required to protect our students, school board members and educators who are susceptible to acts of violence affecting interstate commerce because of threats to their districts, families and personal safety,” wrote NSBA President Viola Garcia and Interim Executive Director and CEO Chip Slaven.

The letter mostly cited threats via mail and social media, disruptions and some instances of violence stemming from the debate over mask-wearing policies in schools. 

The NSBA’s letter to the president also mentioned that school board members are on the receiving end of strong opinions — and sometimes, actions — regarding another hot topic: critical race theory. The theory, which centers around the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions, has been banned by some states from being taught in schools. 

 Although State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said recently this theory is not being taught in Mississippi schools, state leaders, including Gov. Tate Reeves, have said they intend to do the same. At least one lawmaker has recently indicated he will be authoring legislation to prohibit its teaching in Mississippi schools.

The post Miss. school boards group withdraws from national association over ‘inflammatory’ letter to Biden appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As millions more federal dollars flow to Mississippi for expanding broadband internet access, large cable and telecom companies and rural electric cooperatives are already sparring over the money.

During two days of state Senate Energy Committee hearings this week, officials from both sides laid out their cases for how they could best provide more rural high-speed internet access. At issue is about $162 million the state is expected to receive as part of the American Rescue Plan Act that can be used for broadband expansion projects — plus hundreds of millions more expected to soon be earmarked for Mississippi internet expansion.

“(U.S.) Treasury has specified that its preference is for this money to go to cooperatives, nonprofits and government agencies for broadband,” said Michael Callahan, CEO of the Electric Cooperatives Associations of Mississippi. “… This money was tailor-made for co-ops … There are some very core, poor parts of the state of Mississippi that desperately need broadband.”

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Mississippi Today’s full coverage of spending of billions of federal stimulus dollars.

But Mayo Flynt, president of AT&T Mississippi, told lawmakers: “We do think this is a job for the private sector and not the government sector to do … Scale is your friend, you’re going to get more return for your dollar, and this is a scale business … We believe that a competitive process or (requests for proposals) is going to help you get the best bang for your buck. Competition is a good thing. We are in the game and are competing.”

In 2019, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law allowing electric cooperatives to provide internet service — an effort to expand broadband access in a poor, rural state where an estimated 40% of the state lacked access. The effort has been likened to providing electricity to rural Mississippi in the 1930s. Proponents said large cable and telecom companies were failing to expand service into rural areas because it wasn’t profitable enough.

But cable and telecom providers say they have spent millions in private funds expanding internet service in Mississippi, and that they shouldn’t be cut out of government funding for expansion.

“We think everybody should be able to take part in this,” said T.J. Taylor, director of the Mississippi Cable Telecommunications Association. “It’s best to have a program that is technology neutral, vendor neutral that emphasizes getting this out there as quickly as possible to unserved areas.”

Mississippi has already received hundreds of millions of federal dollars for broadband expansion in recent years. It received $495 million from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and lawmakers earmarked another $75 million last year from the first round of pandemic relief the state received. Most of this money went to rural electric cooperatives.

READ MORE: How are other states spending COVID-19 stimulus money?

Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley and PSC staff Director Sally Doty testified to the Senate committee that the electric co-ops and small rural phone companies that received the earlier round of funds have laid thousands of miles of fiber optics and hooked up thousands of households.

After the hearing, Presley said: “If there is any idea circulating that somehow companies like AT&T can gobble up this $162 million intended for cooperatives and non-profits, I think that idea will be dead on arrival at Treasury based on their own guidance. Cooperatives and nonprofits who put people above profits are who these funds are designated for and that’s who should get them under any plan sent in by the governor. To try and please the AT&Ts of the world with these funds will only delay broadband expansion. I would fight that tooth, nail and claw.”

Gov. Tate Reeves will have to apply to Treasury for the $162 million in ARPA capital funds — separate from $2.7 billion in ARPA funds going to state and local governments (much of which could also be used for broadband and other infrastructure projects). Reeves recently said he intends to do so. The deadline for applying is Dec. 27.

Callahan said that while the governor must apply for the funds, there is some question whether he or the Legislature would control spending them. Reeves and lawmakers have clashed over who controlled spending of federal pandemic stimulus, with the Legislature prevailing thus far.

“I believe this is the governor’s money to spend,” Callahan said. “… I believe that was done on purpose, because so many governors lost (control of) the money in the CARES Act — they wanted to throw them a bone.”

Chris Champion, vice president of government relations for C Spire, told lawmakers he hopes Mississippi joins most other states and creates a dedicated broadband agency to direct expansion efforts.

Senate Energy Chairman Joel Carter, R-Gulfport, said he and his committee are searching for “a rock-solid plan on how to deploy fiber” and “provide high-speed connection to all of Mississippi that we can.”

In addition to the hundreds of millions the state has received through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and pandemic ARPA stimulus for broadband, the state is also expected to receive from $500 million to $1.1 billion for broadband expansion from the infrastructure bill Congress passed last week.

“There’s enough money flowing right now and coming to this state that we would to be able to hook up fiber service to every Mississippi home,” Presley said.

READ MORE: Mississippi broadband internet expansion ‘pedal to the metal’ as federal money flows

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