Jackson Free Press

"This legislation funds our national security needs, makes thoughtful investments in infrastructure, and promotes innovation that will grow our economy. I look forward to an improved appropriations process next year."

— U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in a press release on highlights for Mississippi in Congress' budget for FY2016.

Why it stinks: As citizens of Jackson, reading the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman's press release about all the goodies he's bringing back to Mississippi is like reading your parents' will and finding out you got their 1994 Ford Taurus. Sure, it's better than nothing, and you'll probably put it to good use. It's that we were expecting ... more. Remember how African Americans in Hinds County delivered Cochran from the jaws of defeat in his 2014 re-election campaign, and everybody hoped it might pay off in the form of a fat congressional allocation from Thad? The University of Mississippi Medical Center and Jackson State University got a li'l something something. Hawkins Field is mentioned in the press release. Youth Build, a national program that helps train young people for construction careers and has an office in Jackson, got $84.5 million all together. With everything the capital city is going through right now—a $400-million EPA consent decree, deteriorating streets, high unemployment—Thad could have delivered a little more for Jackson.