Funds for improving infrastructure in Jackson’s capitol district will be spread thin if Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signs House Bill 1020 into law, Capitol Complex Improvement District Project Advisory Committee Chairperson Rebekah Staples said at Thursday’s quarterly meeting.
The Republican governor has until midnight to sign the controversial bill into law, expanding the CCID boundaries beginning in July 2024. If he takes no action, it becomes law by default. If he vetoes it, the Legislature could then choose to override the veto with a two-thirds vote during the next legislative session in 2024. His office did not respond to a request for comment Friday morning.
Under the bill, the Mississippi Supreme Court would appoint a municipal judge to preside over the CCID, among other provisions proponents say would curb crime in the capital city. The new court would exist from January 2024 until July 2027 unless the Legislature extends it.
Opponents say the municipal court will take political power away from Jackson’s majority-Black voters, far from the originally stated intentions when the Legislature established the CCID in 2017 to compensate the City for the untaxed state properties by providing additional funds for road projects.
The bill increases the amount of local sales taxes diverted to the CCID by 50%, from 6% to 9%, for infrastructure repairs in the district. It also doubles the CCID’s geographic size, Staples explained Thursday, but funding for the district could increase from about $9 million annually to just $14 or $15 million if the bill becomes law.
“The way I’m kind of looking at the CCID provisions, they doubled the boundaries and size and then increased by half (the) additional sales tax diversions,” she said. “So if you annualize, I’m kind of estimating it is five-to-six million additional (dollars) for the CCID.”
CCID Co-Director Gilda Reyes explained that the new CCID boundaries go “all the way up to Northside Drive and comes to the railroad, goes all the way to the water and then comes down past Highway 80, goes as far out west as Ellis Avenue at the bottom, now down toward (Highway) 80
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