Hancock County BP Town Hall Meeting

Today, South Mississippi had a second chance to provide input on how the state should spend more than $700 million of BP settlement money.
Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves and several other state legislators met with Hancock County residents at city hall in Diamondhead. Reeves began the meeting with a few words regarding his opinion that a vast majority of the money should be spent in South Mississippi before opening up the floor to resident suggestions.
Several people took the podium with ideas for where to put the money, like transportation improvements and environmental restoration.
One resident had an idea for how he’d like to see the money managed, saying a long term funding mechanism may be beneficial so we could continue to reap the benefits years in the future. Hancock County resident Clay Wagner said, “What you’re hearing in the meeting today, I’m sure what was heard in Harrison County and what will be heard in Jackson County are all really, really good ideas, but they’re things to do right this minute. They’re not really taking a long term approach of a pool of money we’ve got that we’ll never get again. To us, and I say us the business community, it makes sense that a portion of this money goes to a long term funding source so that every year that comes by, this conversation can come up of what projects do we need to look at this year.”
Lt. Governor Reeves will hold another town hall meeting on Wednesday, November 30th at 2 p.m. at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Jackson County.