Jackson Free Press

The House Ways and Means Committee continued the hearing on bond project proposals at a June 16 meeting at the State Capitol. The hearing, part of the preparation for the June 28 special session, was essentially a forum for representatives of state organizations, both public and private, to vent their financial shortfalls for the upcoming year to the House committee.

Invited to the hearing were representatives from Northrop Grumman, the Department of Mental Health, Camp Van Dorn Museum in Centerville, The Hattiesburg Intermodal Facility, Mississippi Valley State, The Delta Music Institute at Delta State, the Department of Health, Mississippi Small Business Opportunities, the town of Mize, Jackson State University, Momentum Mississippi and other representatives.

Requesting more than $100 million in total, state and private representatives received no solid decisions from committee members.

Kevin Jarvis, program manager at Northrop Grumman, requested $56 million in state bond money for factory additions, such as enclosed construction platforms.

Representatives of Grand Gulf, Mississippi's only nuclear reactor, explained that the energy plant may soon see the construction of a new reactor and requested funding for the building of a new connector road to facilitate transportation to and from the reactor.

Department of Mental Health representatives asked for $15 million for structural improvements and updates to buildings facing roofing and structural problems.

Another big caller at the hearing was Mississippi Development Authority's Gray Swoope, representing Momentum Mississippi. Swoope asked for $25 million for Momentum Mississippi, a state incentive package to entice technology businesses to the state. Swoope warned that other states were already well into implementing their own versions of the same set of initiatives and that Mississippi was rapidly falling behind in the race for technology-oriented jobs.

Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, asked if Swoope felt Momentum Mississippi was worth the possible sacrifice of other much needed programs.

"We have some other projects. Many of the board members who are interested in Momentum are also interested in Northrop Grumman and a lot of other bond issues that the governor has pushed for in the past, but our position today is the question of whether we think those other projects should lay on the ground for another day," Moak asked.

Swoope said he couldn't answer that question directly but said that the MDA has projects in about 58 counties that would be positively impacted by Momemtum Mississippi.

The requirements outlined by Gov. Haley Barbour in the special session makes the passage of Momentum Mississippi, at least in some form, a requirement if other agency needs are to even be addressed, however, according to Barbour's spokesman, Pete Smith.

"The governor has stated that once Momentum Mississippi passes, then he will expand the call for consideration of other projects that the House and the Senate agree upon," said Smith.