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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

State representatives prepare to make decision on Gov. Tate Reeves spending authority over federal coronavirus stimulus money, at the statehouse in Jackson, Miss., Friday, May 1, 2020.

The 2019 Legislature appropriated $8.6 billion in federal funds to various agencies of state government. These were funds passed by the United States Congress, signed into law by the president and sent to Mississippi for various programs, ranging from money for Medicaid beneficiaries to funds for highway construction and maintenance to funds for pandemics like COVID-19.

The total state budget, including those federal funds, is $19.23 billion.

The reason that the Legislature appropriates the federal funds – funds that already have been appropriated by Congress – is that generally speaking the executive agencies would not have the authority to spend the funds without action of the Mississippi Legislature.

An additional $1.25 billion in federal funds directed to Mississippi to help pay for the cost of fighting the deadly COVID-19 pandemic are at the heart of a heated debate between Gov. Tate Reeves and the Legislature. The Legislature, which recessed on March 18 for safety concerns related to the coronavirus, will return to the Capitol Thursday to take up legislation to use a portion of those funds to provide help for small businesses and to perhaps deal with a gubernatorial veto of the bill preventing Reeves from spending the funds.

To grasp the issues surrounding the federal funds it might help to understand what can be a sometimes confusing and sometimes contradictory state budgeting process.

Mississippi Supreme Court cases going back as far as at least 1905 give the Legislature the power of the purse – the authority to appropriate.

The 1905 case – Colbert vs. State – identifies the power to appropriate as the Legislature’s “supreme” power.

Each year the Legislature passes more than 100 budget bills to fund the various agencies that make up state government. Each bill provides how much money the agency has for the upcoming fiscal year to operate. And the bills provide the sources of that money. State tax collections and federal funds are the primary sources of revenue for state agencies.

Most of the appropriations bills – at least for the larger agencies – also give the agency the authority to spend any unanticipated federal funds it might receive if it gets those funds when the Legislature is out of session. It is called “escalating authority” to spend federal funds that were not appropriated by the Legislature.

That escalating authority allows agencies to spend federal funds sent to help the state deal with emergencies, such as tornadoes, hurricanes or even a pandemic. The escalating authority also can be used to allow an agency to spend federal funds that Congress might provide that were not anticipated by the Legislature.

In a nutshell the current fight between the governor and Legislature boils down to the fact that the Legislature believes $1.25 billion is too much escalating authority for the governor to have. They want a say in how the money is spent.

It is important to note that the bill recently passed by the Legislature leaves the governor $100 million for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, to spend to address COVID-19 issues. And presumably, the Legislature also would place some of the $1.25 billion at the governor’s discretion for the new fiscal year, beginning July 1.

In addition, other federal funds related to the Coronavirus – close to another $1 billion — have gone to multiple agencies, such as the Emergency Management, the Department of Health, the governor and education entities to deal with the pandemic. Those funds are being spent through the agencies’ escalating authority – granted by the Legislature – with no interference from the Legislature.

In a commentary in support of Reeves’ position, former Gov. Haley Barbour, who was able to expend federal Hurricane Katrina funds without legislative interference, pointed to a state law that he said clearly gave him and would give Reeves the authority to spend the funds. The law, 27-104-21, which authorizes the escalating authority, goes on to say the funds can be spent “unless otherwise specified in the appropriation bill, the executive director of the Department of Finance and Administration shall have the authority to approve escalations in a budget using one hundred percent (100%) federal money.”

Reeves believes he can more efficiently spend the funds to address needs as they become available. He says the Legislature, which often is burdensome, cannot respond as quickly as he can.

Reeves has at times lashed out at the Legislature saying in a worst case scenario their actions could result in people dying.

“This is power politics at its worse,” he said recently.

Legislators believe they are just doing their constitutional duty to appropriate state funds.

At any rate, legislators will be in session at least Thursday and Friday and will presumably take up a Reeves veto should one occur. Or another possibility in the often-complex legislative rules is a senator might try to make a motion to reconsider. If Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann recognizes that motion, it would have to be tabled and in essence the bill would have to be voted on again by the full Senate. If it was then approved by the Senate, it would go back to Reeves giving him an additional five days to veto it.

The bill to prevent the Republican Reeves from spending the money passed the Republican-contolled Legislature last week with no dissenting votes in the 122-member House and two no votes in the 52-member Senate.

It takes a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override a veto.

A bipartisan group of north Mississippi senators sent out a statement Wednesday, saying “Each of us wants to work with the governor for the next four years.  We simply don’t think it’s right for any one individual to have complete control over $1.25 billion.”

The post Reeves, legislative showdown: Federal funds always part of state budget appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The war of words continues between the Legislature and the Governor over CARES spending authority. The Legislature comes back into town on Thursday to start spending the money and to override a possible veto.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Battle of the COVID Sea appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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The Mississippi Department of Mental Health confirmed Friday that 56 patients and an unknown number of staff at four of its 12 facilities have confirmed COVID-19 infections—a much higher number than reported previously, according to figures from the agency.

East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian has 31 patients with COVID-19 and 36 cases among staff, according to the Meridian Star.

East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian is the hardest hit, with 31 patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and 36 cases among staff, according to reporting by the Meridian Star. The hospital has 372 psychiatric beds, 35 chemical dependency beds, 226 nursing home beds.

According to Bill Blair, director of support services at Boswell Regional Center in Magee, that facility has no cases among patients and six cases among staff at the on-campus facility. Staff who test positive for COVID-19 are immediately sent home and can only return when they test negative for the virus, Blair said.

The other 25 cases are split between North Mississippi Regional Center in Oxford and Ellisville State School in Ellisville, according to Adam Moore, communications director at the Department of Mental Health.

North Mississippi Regional Center provides 24-hour care to 485 individuals living in 12 campus cottages and 20 ICF/MR 10-bed community homes throughout north Mississippi. Ellisville State School serves approximately 240 people on the main campus and additional persons in the community.

When asked to elaborate on how many cases were at each facility, Moore said the agency is following the state Department of Health’s lead. “The Mississippi State Department of Health currently is not identifying long-term care facilities or confirmed numbers at these facilities in light of privacy considerations and stigmatization of the facilities,” Moore said.

When asked to confirm these figures, Health Department Communications Director Liz Sharlot said they could not release information on facilities and cases of COVID-19.  “If the facilities wish to announce information, that is their decision,” Sharlot said.

Department of Mental Health’s various behavioral health programs include Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield in Rankin County and its satellite program, Specialized Treatment Facility in Gulfport.

East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian has several satellite programs: North Mississippi State Hospital in Tupelo, South Mississippi State Hospital in Purvis and Central Mississippi Residential Center in Newton.

Department of Mental Health also operates five regional programs for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and a specialized program for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. These programs are at Boswell Regional Center in Magee and its satellite program, Mississippi Adolescent Center in Brookhaven, Ellisville State School in Ellisville, Hudspeth Regional Center in Rankin County, North Mississippi Regional Center in Oxford and South Mississippi Regional Center in Long Beach. These programs provide residential services and licensed homes for community living.

ALSO READ: ‘It’s Easy to Overlook the Effect of COVID-19 on People with Serious Mental Health Issues’

The Department of Mental Health stated that precautions were being taken to keep the spread down in the state mental health facilities.

“DMH is following all Mississippi State Department of Health guidelines regarding PPE and isolation,” Moore said, referring to the acronym Personal Protective Equipment. “DMH-operated programs are conducting screenings and temperature checks before employees enter campus. Families of individuals served have been notified in cases when someone is confirmed to have the virus. Individuals served are regularly screened for symptoms and DMH programs have established isolation areas if a client tests positive.”

When asked to elaborate about the conditions quarantined patients are kept in, Moore said, “At EMSH, there are classrooms in the athletic complex building that are utilized as isolation spaces. At other DMH programs, there are specific wards, units, rooms, or cottages on the campuses that were prepared in advance of positive test results as areas that would be used solely for individuals who tested positive.”

Other precautions taken to slow the virus’ spread include changes to scheduling staff rotations and appropriate PPE, said Moore. “Once staff is assigned to the unit, they are given full Personal Protective Equipment to use while providing care. If a building/group home has positive COVID-19 cases and/or patients/residents/clients who are symptomatic, the building/group home is placed on quarantine, which means there is limited access to the building/home for only essential staff. Staff do not rotate on other buildings/homes,” Moore said.

This story was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that seeks to inform, educate and empower Mississippians in their communities through the use of investigative journalism. Sign up for our newsletter.

The post COVID-19 confirmed at four Mississippi mental health facilities appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Third generation restauranteur Jerry Kountouris, owner of Mayflower Café, holds a photograph of his father, Mike Kountouris, inside of his restaurant in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

Greek immigrants opened Jackson’s venerable Mayflower Cafe, now a downtown mecca of broiled fish, as a hamburger stand 85 years ago. This week, the Mayflower offers something that it hasn’t since that very beginning in 1935: curb service.

In Oxford, James Beard Award-winning chef John Currence has rolled his four restaurants into two in recent weeks, packing family meals into Cryovac bags and also selling groceries.

In Hattiesburg, restauranteur Robert St. John’s six restaurants and two bars sit mostly empty of customers with three of the six providing meals on the go.

Governor Tate Reeves Monday issued an order allowing Mississippi restaurants to open beginning Thursday morning for in-house meals under strict guidelines. But many are still restricted by city ordinances and others say they don’t feel safe opening under conditions in the current pandemic.

Mississippi’s restaurants, which employ approximately 122,000 people representing about 10 percent of the state’s workforce, face a precarious future. Some, surely, will not survive.

Said Pat Fontaine, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association: “In Mississippi and nationally, there will be massive changes to the industry. There will be major changes to the way restaurants operate and, unfortunately, there will be closures. The longer this goes on, the more closures there will be.”

robertstjohn.com

Robert St. John operates six Hattiesburg restaurants.

“We are in unchartered waters; there’s no script for this,” said St. John, also a syndicated columnist and author. “What most people don’t understand is that restaurants operate on a unique business model. We have tight windows of opportunity – 11 to 1 at lunch, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. for dinner and the number of times you can turn over those tables makes or breaks you. With social distancing we’re looking at cutting capacity by 50 percent. The numbers just don’t work.”

Brothers Hal and Malcolm White opened Hal and Mal’s – a restaurant, bar and entertainment center – 35 years ago. The place has endured mass business flight from downtown Jackson, Southeastern Conference football’s exit from the capital city, stiff entertainment competition from casinos, Hal White’s death and so much more.

But, surviving the COVID-19 pandemic will be by far most difficult of all, White said.

“We’ve borrowed all the money we can borrow, and our employees have not missed a paycheck,” White said. “We are paying our bills as best we can. We are doing the best we can to prepare to open back up at some capacity, later in May, but, honestly, we don’t know. Nobody knows. Nobody knows what the restaurant business is going to look like on the other side of this. We just know it is going to look really different.”

When restaurants do open they will be limited to half capacity. Waiters and waitresses must wear masks. Disposable menus will be printed on paper. Temperature checks at the door have been discussed. Unfortunately, touch thermometers are not available.

Rick Cleveland

Malcolm White makes a point about the restaurant industry.

“Maybe I am being overly pessimistic and I hope that I am,” White said. “But I think we will lose 50 percent of our independent restaurants. It’s such a tough business. We operate on profit margins of between 4 to 7 percent when everything is ginning perfectly. Physically, and mentally it’s extraordinarily difficult. I just think this extended crisis will give a lot of people, already whipped down, a chance to say, ‘No mas, no mas.’”

Fontaine said a National Restaurant Association survey conducted three weeks ago was revealing.

“Forty percent of restaurants nationally were closed with no takeout or delivery,” Fontaine said. “Eleven percent of those said they were not going to return to business. I would expect our numbers in Mississippi to pretty much mirror that. And the longer this goes the worse it gets.”

Restaurants that do not serve alcohol, Fontaine said, operate with a profit margin of four to five percent. Restaurants serving alcohol operate with a profit margin of 8 to 9 percent, still low compared to many industries.

Geno Lee

Geno Lee, who operates Big Apple Inn at locations on Farish Street and North State Street in Jackson, has gone takeout only and says he will not serve to in-restaurant diners until he feels it is safe, no matter what city and state authorities say. “I just feel like it is our job to keep ourselves safe and not the government’s,” Lee said. “We’ve put our chairs up for now.”

Lee, who has received regional and national acclaim for his pig ear sandwiches, says his restaurants have suffered “a big decline” in business. “We’ve operated at zero profit for the last month,” he said. “But I promised my employees a paycheck as long as I could keep going. I’ve got a good landlord who has been very gracious. We’re going to go as long as we can.”

At Mayflower Cafe, Jerry Kountouris, the third generation owner, begins curb service Tuesday night with a limited menu. Customers can call in their orders from 1 until 4 p.m. and then pickup between 5 and 8.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Kountouris said. “I’ll just be honest, it’s going to be really tough to make it even when we reopen at half capacity for dining in the restaurant. State and city offices are closed. We are surrounded by office buildings, not homes, and most of those offices are empty. It’s going to be really difficult to make a go of it. But we’re gonna try.”

ajaxdiner.net

Ajax Diner in Oxford is normally bustling at lunch and dinner.

Randy Yates, who operates the popular Ajax Diner on The Square in Oxford, was one of the first restaurants in Mississippi to close because of the pandemic, closing on March 15.

“We were going to try to do it with social distancing but it took our seating capacity down to a third,” Yates said. “I knew it was useless and I also thought it was dangerous. I talked to my staff. They agreed that closing was the right thing to do.”

Yates plans to reopen later in May when Oxford city government allows, but does not seem optimistic.

chefjohncurrence.com

Chef John Currence

“I can’t imagine doing half of what we’ve ever done,” he said. “It’s gonna be hard.”

Currence, who operates City Grocery just down the street from Ajax, is more optimistic.

“I am by nature optimistic, “ Currence said. “We in the restaurant business are experienced problem solvers because of the profession we’re in. We are continually making decisions on the fly. We’ll figure it out.”

The post State’s restaurants face precarious future even after Reeves’ new executive order appeared first on Mississippi Today.