Mississippi State Auditor Shad White told state senators that they should have asked him to testify about the Mississippi welfare scandal long ago during a heated exchange at the Mississippi Capitol this week.
The Republican auditor’s office investigated the misspending of at least $77 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds that should have gone to the poorest families in the poorest state. Between 2016 and 2019, former Mississippi Department of Human Services Director John Davis directed millions in TANF money to improper uses, including to wealthy sports figures like Brett Favre, who lives in Lamar County, Miss.
Though seven people, including Davis, have faced federal and state charges, Favre has denied any wrongdoing and prosecutors have not charged him with any crimes.
During the Mississippi Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Jan. 22, Vice Chairman Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, brought up the TANF scandal, noting that Favre is one of his constituents in his district. Several months after news of the welfare scandal broke in 2020, Favre vowed to return $1.1 million he had received in welfare funds to record ads and give speeches, initially giving back $500,000 that May. In October 2021, White demanded Favre return the remaining $600,000 plus $228,000 in interest; Favre returned $600,000, but did not pay the interest the auditor had demanded.
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During the hearing Wednesday, Polk challenged White’s figures, saying that “several numbers people” reviewed the figures and did not find that Favre owed the same amount as the auditor’s office found. The remark incensed White.
“You should have been asking tough questions about why this amount of money was misspent in the first place,” White replied. “You should have been holding hearings on why this money went missing. I’ve never been asked a single question about the seven people who pleaded guilty to state or federal charges, and the first question I get is, ‘Hey, what’s up with the Brett Favre thing?’ That, to me, defies common sense right there.”
Mississippi Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont,
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