Senate Bill 28 56 would allow local governments to establish payment plans for residents who are struggling to pay their water bills. The measure had universal support in the House and Senate, but Governor Tate Reeves vetoed the bill. On Facebook, he wrote it only applies to Jackson, and while it is supposed to be for the needy, there are no safeguards in place to ensure that.
But Lea Campbell, Co-Chair of the non-profit Poor People's Campaign, says that’s not true. “Nobody’s being ‘let off the hook’ or getting free stuff. There’s payment plans that would be established," says Campbell. "And again, clean water is literally a matter of life and death. So the fact that he found it acceptable to unilaterally veto this bill that’s gonna disproportionately affect poor Mississippians, it’s unconscionable."
Danyelle Holmes, National Coordinator with Poor People’s Campaign, claims the timing of the veto seems to strike back at black and brown Mississippians who supported removing the state flag with its confederate emblem. She says “The politics that are being played with the lives of Mississippians at the expense of a flag coming down is not the way to move Mississippi forward. And this bill shows the divisiveness that’s still there and the evil that’s as resonated within his heart.”
The group is asking lawmakers to override the veto.
The Governor’s office did not offer a comment on Holmes’s opinion. But Reeves does say in his Facebook post that he knew the decision would not be a popular one. Legislators are expected to return to the capitol on Thursday.
