Local House members should know soon if three major Oktibbeha County projects will receive funding once the Mississippi Senate debuts its major bond bill, District 37 Reps Gary Chism, R-Columbus, and District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said Tuesday.
The fate of funding requests for constructing a new Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District-Mississippi State University partnership school and a Mississippi Highway Patrol substation for Troop G, and for renovating Starkville’s former municipal headquarters now rests with Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, they said, after all individual bond bills for the school and MHP station died in the Senate.
Both Chism and Roberson said they’re hopeful the three requests, which amount to about $20 million in combined funding, will work their way into the Reeves-led Senate’s proposal. The bond bill could be rolled out as early as next week, Chism said.
Securing the full funding amount, however, isn’t guaranteed.
“My gut tells me we’ll get $1.5 million for SPD renovations and $5 million this and next year for the school construction,” Roberson said. “MHP? We’re next in line. It should have been done before now. I feel like we’ll get a little bit of everything we’re asking for, but we won’t get it all.”
Many eyebrows were raised this session because of the number of Oktibbeha County-specific requests emerging in legislation. District 38 Rep. Tyrone Ellis, D-Starkville, dismissed the local delegation’s critics last month and said, “A closed mouth does not get fed.”
After House lawmakers filed a number of financing requests for the area, the full body passed gutted measures that arbitrarily set each bill’s ask to $1 million ahead of political posturing with the Senate.
Those bills subsequently died in Senate subcommittees.
Complicating the funding requests are ongoing negotiations between House and Senate leaders over how to address and move forward with a franchise tax cut for businesses. How House lawmakers land on the issue could determine how many financing requests wind up in the Senate’s bond bill.
“Whether or not we get our requests in the final bond bill, we’ll just have to wait and see,” Chism said.
Chism and Roberson both said the partnership school remains the biggest need for Oktibbeha County. City hall renovations are the lowest, but the request could find approval since the building qualifies for monies appropriated for historical building upgrades.
“I think (the partnership school request) gets done,” Chism said. “The highway patrol building? You never know. It could possibly wait another year, or they could split up the request like I suggested for the partnership school and just do $3 million this year and next.”
The partnership school funding request is part of a three-way financing plan to construct a grades 6-7 campus for all Oktibbeha County students. MSU previously committed $10 million toward the project — most of which came from a land donation — and the school district is expected to raise additional monies through a state-authorized reverse referendum.
Lawmakers asked for $6 million to construct a new MHP Troop G headquarters after the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority donated a Cornerstone Park parcel for the project.
Starkville aldermen previously authorized $3 million toward SPD renovations, but increasing cost projections moved the project’s price tag to about $5.4 million.
The city is seeking $2.4 million to make up the difference.
Mayor Parker Wiseman previously said the board could move forward with the full renovation by authorizing additional financing or scaling back the project’s scope to meet the city’s existing budget.
The second option, he said, leaves the door open for a future financial request next legislative term to finish out the project.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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