Meridian and Lauderdale County taxpayers will shoulder less of the burden for local infrastructure projects as the area is set to receive state funding for several planned improvements.
In a Council of Governments meeting Monday, Sen. Jeff Tate said the legislative process is complicated with more than 4,000 bills being filed each year. Most of those do not survive to become law, he said, and those that do are often altered via amendments that can drastically change what the bill was intended to do.
Despite that, Tate said, Meridian and Lauderdale County’s state representatives and senators were successful in securing appropriations for quite a few projects.
“I just want to talk good about some project money that we were able to get over here in East Mississippi,” he said.
Included in the appropriations are:
— $500,000 for Meridian Regional Airport for its terminal upgrade project.
— $2 million for repairs to Archusa Creek Water Park Dam, which broke in July 2023.
— $400,000 for Meridian Fire Department.
— $1 million to address two bridges on Centerhill Martin Road in need of repair.
— $500,000 for street paving and infrastructure in Meridian.
— $200,000 to the East Mississippi Veterans Memorial Park located along Highway 11 near Key Field.
— $500,000 for the city of Meridian’s wastewater treatment plant.
Also appropriated was funding for Lauderdale County’s volunteer fire departments to buy an off-road vehicle to be used in the event someone needs to be rescued from an area current vehicles cannot safely go and $200,000 for Main Street Meridian, Tate said.
“As far as money coming back to East Mississippi, I think we were treated very fairly by the state this go around,” he said.
PERS
Another big piece of legislation that will directly impact Meridian and Lauderdale County was the passage of a bill limiting the authority of the board tasked with overseeing the Public Employees Retirement System. PERS is the state pension fund for those working in government and public service positions including Meridian and Lauderdale County employees, public school teachers and administrators, university professors and support staff and more.
The PERS board previously announced it would implement a 5% raise to employer contributions into the retirement fund as fewer workers and lower-than-expected investment returns have raised concerns about the fund’s longterm ability to pay its benefits. Employers currently pay 17.4% into PERS, and employees pay 9%.
Under the legislation, which Gov. Tate Reeves allowed to become law without his signature, the Legislature, not the PERS board, will have the final say in raising rates. The bill also implemented a 2.5% increase in the employer contribution to be phased in over several years.
“Just so all y’all know, we’re never going to touch anybody’s benefits with PERS,” Tate said.
Although current PERS members’ benefits will not change, Tate said it appears likely the Legislature will create a new tier of benefits for those joining PERS in the future. Under the current benefit plan, retirees receive an automatic 3% cost of living adjustment each year, which is often paid out in one lump sum known as the “13th check.”
Future employees, Tate said, will likely see their benefits function more like a 401K and will not receive that cost of living raise.
“We just can’t afford this 13th check to go on to future employees,” he said.
Meridian City Councilman George Thomas, who has been a vocal opponent of the PERS board’s plan to increase the employer contribution, said the Legislature’s action to limit the board’s power will save city taxpayers millions. Had the 5% increase gone into effect, he said, it likely would have cost around $2 million per year.
“If this thing continued like they wanted to go, we were looking at $1.5 million to $2 million in the next few years in extra money we’d have to integrate into PERS,” he said.