Attorneys for the state of Mississippi presented arguments on Thursday to dismiss a federal lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against the city of Jackson by withholding $36 million in pandemic recovery funds meant for infrastructure improvements.
On behalf of two Jackson residents and the city’s NAACP chapter, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed the complaint last summer. The lawsuit, which is asking the court to order the release of the funds to the city, focuses on extra barriers state lawmakers enacted for Jackson to access matching funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The SPLC is accusing the state, through three different state agencies in their official capacity, of racially discriminating against Jackson by requiring the majority Black city to submit a plan to receive matching funds through the state’s Municipality & County Water Infrastructure grant program, which would have gone to help repair the city’s struggling water system. The state Legislature, which created the MCWI program in 2022, didn’t include such a requirement for any other city.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate, who is overseeing the federal receivership of Jackson’s water and sewer systems, is also presiding in this case. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which administered the MCWI grants, the State Treasury of Mississippi, and the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration are listed as defendants in the case.
A lawyer from the state attorney general’s office argued on Thursday that injuries included in the lawsuit are a result of the broader Jackson water crisis, not the specific lack of ARPA funds.
The plaintiffs’ “beef” is with the city of Jackson or federal receiver JXN Water, not MDEQ director Chris Wells or State Treasurer David McRae, attorney Lisa Reppeto argued to Wingate.
Moreover, ordering the state to now release the funds to the city would violate federal deadlines around obligating ARPA funds, she added. The law requires funds to be committed by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.
Jackson was awarded $36 million in matching funds in November 2022, SPLC attorney Crystal McElrath said. Shortly after, Wingate appointed JXN Water manager Ted Henifin to run the city’s water system, leaving little time for Jackson officials to access those funds, McElrath said.
When asked whether the city ever did submit a plan, McElrath pointed to previous spending plans published by Jackson officials, including a 2021 letter then-Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba sent to state leaders as well as the city’s 2012 infrastructure master plan. Reppeto countered that such plans couldn’t apply to MCWI requirements because they predated ARPA spending.
McElrath said the state has only sent $4 million of the matching funds to JXN Water, leaving $32 million that Mississippi officials are still holding onto.
Wingate closed Thursday’s hearing by saying he would meet with the parties next Monday morning before deciding whether to dismiss the case or to continue with the state’s other arguments for dismissal.
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