Newton residents were given a special opportunity Wednesday to meet with Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves as he made a visit to town with Sen. Terry Burton.
Burton said Reeves has been a long-time friend in the Legislature for both himself and the City of Newton. The policies and actions that have benefited Newton over the years, he said, are, in part, a result of Reeves work.
“(Reeves) has been really good to me in my role as Senate pro-tem, and I worked with him as Energy Chairman prior to that,” Burton said.
“We’ve always had a good working relationship. I say that to say by him being good to me, that translates into he’s being good to you.”
At a reception at the historic McElroy-Hoye House, organized by Newton Chamber, Reeves and Burton talked with local officials and residents about the special legislative session in August, what was accomplished and how Newton might benefit from the bills passed by the Legislature.
“We’re coming off of special session in which we came together and made a big dent in a challenge we had in our state in terms of public infrastructure,” Reeves said.
“We passed three pieces of legislation during this special session.”
The three bills, Mississippi Infrastructure Modernization Act, the creation of a state lottery and the distribution of BP settlement money from the gulf oil spill, will come out to about $1.7 billion of new money coming into the state over the next five years, Reeves said.
That it only took five days for the Legislature to pass the three bills, and the fact that all three were passed with a majority of both Democrats and Republicans on board, is a huge accomplishment, he said.
“In today’s hyper-partisan world, that is unusual,” he said. “But, what happened was Democrats and Republicans came together to do what was best for Mississippi and what was best for our local communities.”
For Newton, Reeves said, the end-result of the special session is an additional $551,000 of funding for the county and $119,000 for the Town of Newton to put toward infrastructure projects each year.
“In addition to that, and this is something I’m really proud of, when you start looking at Decatur, and Union, and Chunky and Hickory, all of them will get anywhere from $16,000 to $60,000 a year more to do just that,” he said.
“Instead of making a big difference throughout our state, it’s going to make a big difference here.”
Reeves said, in his opinion, the Legislature accomplished something great in the special session.
Of course, he said, nothing is perfect, and the bills may need to be tweaked as time goes on.
But for now, he said, the small communities in Mississippi can finally afford to renovate their aged infrastructure and improve life for residents.
“They’ve often said that legislating and passing legislation is kinda like making sausage,” he said. “You really don’t watch the process, but often times the end result is very edible and very enjoyable.”
“That certainly could be said about where we find ourselves on that particular special session.”
For the past seven years, Reeves said he and a Burton have shared the same priority: to create jobs.
However, he said a government does not create jobs. The role of the government is to create a good environment for private businesses to expand and grow.
“The infrastructure bill, lottery and BP money that will help Mississippi towns as a result of the special session will help create the type of environment where companies want to hire more people,” Reeves said.
Although a Legislative bill is never perfect, he said Mississippians can be proud of what their elected leaders accomplished.
