Jackson delegation discusses 2024 priorities for capital city. See what they are

In the 2023 legislative session, 65 bills that aimed to improve the City of Jackson never made it off the cutting room floor. That total represents each and every bill submitted by the Jackson delegation.

Not one saw the light of day in the full House or Senate.

Bills that would help with city schools, universities, roads, update community hubs and provide development funds all failed in committee, while other funds were cut from the state’s bond issuance bill.

This year, members of the Jackson delegation have submitted about 20 bills aimed to do what couldn’t be done last year. Those bills include additional funds for elderly and community center renovations, money for a new Hinds County Court building, equipment to the Jackson Police Department and road upgrades to help attract more economic development.

Hinds County Democratic Rep. Chris Bell is the leader of the House of Representative’s Black Caucus. He told the Clarion Ledger the issues his delegation plans to face this year have been the same issues for many years.

The Clarion Ledger also spoke to several council members about their priorities for the city this session, but Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba was not available for comment.

“The conversations that we had with the mayor and his staff in the early part of January, was pretty much the same request that we have been asking for years,” Bell said. "One bill that I filed again this year is to provide an appropriation to the City of Jackson to help update our senior citizen facilities and community centers throughout the city. A lot of them are in bad shape. A lot of our seniors, especially during the summertime, utilize those facilities to stay cool, and sometimes in the winter to stay warm.”

Bell has also submitted several other bills that would appropriate millions towards building a parking lot for the city’s convention center, establish funds for a development project that would build a multi-purpose sports facility and hotel on Terry Road as part of the City Plaza Project, as well as funds for a new court building, to name a few.

The plan is to redevelop 33 acres of the former Jackson Square Promenade on Terry Road into a work-stay-play area that focuses on sports tourism.

When completed, the development, the Mississippi Athletic Center, would have 10 basketball courts that double as volleyball courts and 50 yards of turf that can be used for football, baseball and soccer. The entire development would cost $58 million. The MAC will be the anchor with small businesses and other opportunities for business surrounding the anchor. That development could face competition from a new sports development in Gluckstadt announced this year.

That development could also serve as court rooms and offices for a new court in the Capitol Complex Improvement District established by House Bill 1020 last year. That bill, if approved by the appellate courts, will create a new unelected court system within an expanded CCID, add temporary appointed judges to the Hinds County court system, increase the boundaries of the CCID and the Capitol Police force.

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Bell said that he and other Jackson area legislators are also looking to reverse HB 1020 through legislation this year, but they are waiting on a final ruling from United States Court of Appeals before filing anything. The deadline to submit any bill is Feb. 19.

Rep. Zakiya Summers, D, said she plans to file a bill that would create a taskforce to help revitalize commercial areas of downtown.

“By providing investment and allocating dollars that help with our tourism industry, our entertainment industry, as well as with economic development, that not only (helps) the City of Jackson, but helps the entire state of Mississippi,” Summers said.

Sen. Hillman Frazier, D, told the Clarion Ledger he wants to focus on Jackson State University and hopes to write funds into the state’s appropriations bill to improve student dorms on the campus.

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Last year, several bills were filed to give funds to the Institutions of Higher Learning for the purpose of building new living spaces for JSU students, but none of those bills made it out of committee.

Several House members that spoke to the Clarion Ledger also said that the new Republican house speaker, Jason White may be open to more funds and projects going to the Jackson area than former House Speaker Philip Gunn, also a Republican.

To that point, White told the Clarion Ledger via email he hopes to work with area legislators on issues in the state’s capitol city.

“As our state’s Capital, Jackson is the epicenter of Mississippi and therefore deserves the attention to infrastructure improvements, some of which are long overdue,” White said. “Our metro area has my attention, and I am committed to having the conversations with those House colleagues that are prioritizing the City of Jackson in putting its best foot forward."

Does Jackson have a lobbyist?

Jackson legislators said while they are willing to work with local officials, one of the city’s biggest hurdles in the capitol building is not having a lobbyist to work on their behalf.

Bell said the city hasn’t had a lobbyist for years. The role of hiring a lobbyist falls within Lumumba's duties, but the city council has to approve the pick.

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“I have been on record saying that the City of Jackson needs a lobbyist, and I don't know why they are waiting to hire one,” Bell said. “We are missing out, and that's the issue… It's further hindering the growth of the city Jackson.”

Frazier and Summers, who have been serving as legislators for years, said the city would greatly benefit from hiring a firm to lobby for the city’s interests like other cities in the state do.

“It's certainly necessary, particularly for the capital city because our delegation is so large, and there's so many issues that we're trying to solve through legislation,” Summers said. “It's so good to have someone who is totally dedicated to the needs and the requests of the city, and we have expressed, as a delegation, this to the mayor and to the city council.”

Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote said the fact that there is no one in the 2024 legislative session lobbying for the city is "irresponsible."

"That's how so much of the government in Mississippi operates. I wish it just where you could talk to the state legislature and the state leaders and go back and forth, but that's not how it operates. Lobbying is a big part of the communications between the different parts of government," Foote said. "We need to work in that set-up with a lobbyist that has the trust of people in the state house and works with people at the federal level as well."

Ward 7 Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay agrees.

"It would certainly benefit the City of Jackson to have a capable and competent lobbyist advocating for our needs," she said.

Legislative goals for the Jackson council

Foote and Lindsay, as well as Ward 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell said they have been talking with legislators to secure better funding and more resources that would provide for much-needed infrastructure improvements.

Lindsay has been in talks with state legislators about securing more funding to help with the city's sewer system, which is currently run by JXN Water and Third-Party Water Administrator Ted Henifin. Unlike the city's water system, also headed by Henifin, the sewer system did not receive any federal funding, which has made it hard because sewer expenses have exceeded revenues.

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Grizzell sent a letter to Representative William "Bo" Brown and Sen. Frazier at the beginning of the session with personal requests for Ward 4. He requested $500,000 for parks, $25,000 for cameras for the city's real time command center, as well as $1 million for infrastructure, including roads and bridges.

"We have a couple parks that have million-dollar needs and $25,000 would buy six cameras for my ward," Grizzell said. "Some of the areas I have are annexed from Hinds County and we are seeing issues with deteriorating roads, streets and areas that haven't had a lot of success getting help from the county."

Foote said he was focused on all properties in the city that have been forfeited to the state due to unpaid property taxes. While he hasn't worked with members of the Jackson delegation on this, he said he has been in communication with the Mississippi Secretary of State's office.

"I'm trying to facilitate the secretary of state's office to get these properties back into the private sector's hands, so we can have people take advantage of low-priced housing. Once you get a certain density of abandoned houses then you're just inviting squatters and vagrants and it becomes harder to attract people to invest in the city," Foote said.

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Abandoned properties also create public-safety concerns, Foote said, so he is trying to speak with law enforcement agencies at the city, county, state and federal levels about increasing public safety across the city.

Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley also wants to see something done about state properties, specifically that they are exempt from any type of maintenance, creating "overgrown properties that are allowed to mar the development of our neighborhoods and our city and are public health nuisances."

Hartley's proposal is to take a portion of the money the state receives from the selling of properties and put it into a pot for municipalities to use to maintain the state properties.

Got story ideas? Contact Charlie Drape at cdrape@gannett.com

Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson delegation discusses 2024 goals for Mississippi capital city