The Mississippi Senate this week passed a bill that would give survivors of first responders who died of COVID-19 contracted on the job $100,000 in death benefits.
Sen. Kelvin Butler said in a weekly report that Senate Bill 2782 would establish a special fund to be known as the Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters Death Benefits Trust Fund. The initial money put into the fund would be $200,000.
The Department of Public Safety will be responsible for the management of the trust fund and the disbursement of death benefits.
The bill has been referred to the House Appropriations Committee for more debate.
The Senate also passed SB2822, which would set aside $750 million from the state’s $1.8 billion share of American Rescue Plan Act funds to create a pool of money for local water projects.
The funding would be overseen by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and disbursed under the Mississippi Municipality and County Water Infrastructure Grant Program.
The program would allow municipalities and counties to apply for funds to improve water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.
The bill moves on to the House for more work.
Senate Bill 2706 would create the “COVID Impact Literacy-Based Promotion Modification Act,” which give leniency to third-graders who were unable to pass a required reading test in order to move on to the fourth grade.
The students would require remediation in order to be promoted.
The measure is being offered in response to the disruptions of distance learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years.
Other bills the Senate passed would establish a grant program for local governments to apply for funds for new voting machines, allow election commissioners to serve without being tested, increase salaries for state troopers and Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics officers, give salary increases to county sheriffs and district attorneys, separate state parks management from the state wildlife office and build a new state liquor distribution warehouse and seek private operators for it.
