JACKSON — A former commissioner of the Jackson airport is suing the state over a bill that would give control of the city’s two airports to a state-appointed board.
Jeffery Stallworth of Jackson filed suit in federal court April 6 against Gov. Phil Bryant, the Mississippi Legislature and the state Transportation Department.
Bryant hasn’t yet signed Senate Bill 2162, but has said he intends to. It’s unclear how a judge will look on a lawsuit filed before a proposed measure becomes law. The state has not yet responded.
The measure would replace the five-member Jackson Municipal Airport Authority appointed by Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber with a nine-member board mostly appointed by state officials. A majority of board members would be required to live in the city of Jackson, but city officials say the move is an unlawful attempt to take away a city asset without payment.
The bill would give Yarber and the Jackson City council one appointment each. Bryant would pick two members, and suburban Rankin and Madison counties would name one each. Also getting one appointment each would be the lieutenant governor, the executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority and the adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard.
Stallworth says the bill violates the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution barring taking property without due process of law and the 14th Amendment protections requiring equal protection under the law and also barring takings without due process.
“If other citizens from Rankin or Madison County want to sit as commissioners on the JMAA, they should have to pay to do so; to do otherwise is tantamount to a taking of Jackson’s property without just compensation,” wrote Stallworth, who is representing himself in the case.
A similar 2013 move to give control of the Charlotte, North Carolina, airport to a state commission there has been tied up by litigation that says the Federal Aviation Administration must decide who runs that airport.
Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, sponsored the Mississippi bill. He said a regional board would not take anything from the city, saying Jackson would still get sales taxes and other revenue. He says the airport is used by people all over and needs a regional board.
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