Officials Prepare To Deal With Stimulus Funds

Organizations and municipalities across the state are gearing up to make sure they meet all federal requirements when billions of dollars in stimulus money starts flowing into the state in the next year. MPB’s Phoebe Judge has more.

Mississippi is poised to receive 2.8 billion dollars in grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Obama last spring. At a meeting held by the state auditor’s office yesterday in Biloxi, representatives from community colleges and local governments met to receive a tutorial of how to navigate the lengthy and detailed federal rules that are attached to those funds. Samantha Atkinson with the auditor’s office says those rules include things such as fair wage standards and buy American provisions,

“There’s lots and lots of federal rules that are coming along with these dollars that are unique to this program only. We just wanted to do everything we could to make sure that what everyone needs to know they know.”

Tonya Taylor works for Stateline, Mississippi, a town of 600 located on the border of Alabama. Taylor says especially given the poor economy it makes it all the more important to make sure there is no trouble receiving stimulus money,

“We need as much funding as we can possibly get. We need to generate jobs in our area. We are in a rural area, and because of that we don’t’ have a lot of jobs for people that are in our area. We are almost poverty stricken, because of the economy. We think if any stimulus money comes it should go to the local government so we can provide for the people who live in that community.”

Federal regulations for the stimulus funds are expected to continue to evolve in the next year. The state auditor’s office will continue to hold training sessions for officials in the coming weeks in Verona, Starkville and Jackson.