This program, titled the Mississippi Agriculture Stabilization Act (MASA), provides assistance for Mississippi agriculture producers negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government says American Rescue Plan money may only be spent on certain expenses. JACKSON, Miss. Though unemployment continues to decline in Mississippi and the majority of participants in the program are employed, Reeves said RAMP disincentivized work. We do not sell or share your information with anyone. It's very insulting and degrading. On March 26, 2020, The Department of Revenue suspended the accrual of penalty and interest on new assessments and prior liabilities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The .gov means its official. The Department of Revenue will end the period of suspension and begin to accrue penalty and interest on new assessments and new outstanding liabilities beginning on August 20, 2020. Nationwide, median listing prices for houses were up 16.6% in July from the previous year, and rent grew by 14.1% in June 2020 over June 2021, according to Realtor.com reports. Here's a breakdown of how state lawmakers spent the money, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the national moratorium on evictions until July 31. We work to provide free, accessible news for everyone to create a more informed Mississippi and hold public officials accountable. Health: $129.7 million for health care, including $80 million for hospitals and nearly $50 million for other health providers and nonprofits, including food pantries. While Gov. by Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today May 12, 2021, This and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.. Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. As a nonprofit, your support is what powers our work. Yes. If youre not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and include our website, You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor. The money is a windfall for schools in Mississippi, which have long gone underfunded by the state Legislature based on the formula it created to fund public schools. "They don't care. The Social Security adjustment only impacts SNAP households that also receive Social Security benefits. The only method to file for a Mississippi extension is to file Form 80-106 Payment Voucher by marking the EXTENSION PAYMENT box and submitting the estimated amount of tax due. The date is also extended for first quarter 2020 Estimated Tax Payments and the 2019 Extension Payments to May 15, 2020.. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday. Tenant advocates said that the range of outcomes, varied by where people live, raises questions about whether the rental assistance effort has been equitable for the nations most vulnerable tenants, who are disproportionately people of color. A coalition of nonprofits that works to help people apply for the program said it is difficult to access, particularly in a state that struggles with high illiteracy rates and low broadband availability. These funds will allow us to make sure our most vulnerable clients receive help when they need it.. Hinds County Administrator Kenny Wayne Jones said that Harrison Countys success in distributing funds made him think: Weve got to get on the ball.. The program began accepting applications in late April and ran radio ads. You have to credit Mississippi Today. The Legislature will have no say in spending the funds going to local governments and education entities. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. LRDs. Currently, ABC regulations allow restaurant customers to remove one bottle of wine from a permitted business when the bottle was partially consumed during the course of a meal, the permittee securely reseals the bottle for the customer, places the bottle in a sealed bag and the restaurant provides the customer with a receipt showing that a meal was also purchased. After a storm hit Jackson this winter, the Mississippi Black Womens Roundtable gave out $50,000 in rent relief in a matter of weeks. A balance of tax due after May 15, 2020 is potentially subject to late pay penalty of % per month not to exceed 25% and late pay interest of % per month. Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Home Corporation, said the program launched without software that could help speed up the review of applications. More details can be found below, on the FNS blog (also available in Spanish), and in the Recent Changes to SNAP Benefits infographic. Housing rights advocates and participants in the Mississippi program said the issue in their state isn't finding work, like Reeves said, it's finding wages that can pay for growing living costs. Help keep the momentum going by rejoining our member community today. For perspective, the state K-12 budget is a little more than $2 billion a year. The government COVID-19 eviction moratorium has ended. The municipality had the fifth highest eviction rate among the nations largest cities, according to an analysis from The Eviction Lab. Claims will be prioritized based on the timeliness of submission, the basis of the claim, and other factors. Low 49F. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. Sections 27-19-79(7) and 27-61-8, hereby declare that because there is a state of emergency resulting from the potentialspread of the COVID-19 virus, it is necessary to assist and expedite all efforts of relief. Mississippi Agriculture Stabilization Act, Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, Mississippi Agriculture CARES Act Management System (MS CAMS). The site is secure. Health: $10 million for Health Department to establish Mississippi ICU Infrastructure program. When emergency allotments end, you will return to your normal SNAP benefit amount which, depending on your household income, may be less than the maximum benefit for your household size. That has streamlined the process, because then we let the person know, OK, this is the last thing we need, she said. If you are interested in providing paid services and goods for disaster relief, . Less than a third of applicants were unemployed, but nearly 70% earned less than the area median income where they lived. All SNAP households received a temporary boost in benefits due to emergency allotments, so all SNAP households have or will see a decrease to the SNAP benefits they receive when emergency allotments end. All images and videos posted by MDAC are copyrighted images and videos of MDAC and are the property of MDAC. Lauderdale County, too, has added HVAC systems to all four high schools and the two middle schools, Northeast Middle and Southeast Middle, at a cost of more than $2 million. The site is secure. Before the pandemic, many renters in Jackson, the county seat in Hinds County, were one crisis away from losing their homes. Where will it go? The three Mississippi programs represent just a sliver of $25 billion in federal rental assistance that local and state governments across the nation are scrambling to deploy from the Covid-19. USAGov is the official guide to government information and services, Financial assistance for food, housing, and bills, Financial assistance for housing and bills, Passports and travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, Federal websites with COVID-19 information, Directory of U.S. government agencies and departments. Want more WLBT news in your inbox? "Mississippi will continue to say no to these types of liberal handouts that encourage people to stay out of the workforce. a proud member of the The state of Mississippi has applied for more than $2 billion in American Rescue Plan funds a key first step to the state receiving the federal stimulus money for local and state governments to spend. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. In housing crisis, the government banned evictions. In Hinds County, where close to three-fourths of residents are Black, officials had disbursed only 3 percent of its $7 million emergency rental assistance fund as of mid-June. The temporary boost to SNAP benefits put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, known as emergency allotments, ended nationwide after the February 2023 issuance. Social Security payments are not excluded under the law, so states must count them as income. We contracted for companies to come in and do deep cleaning at campuses with outbreaks of Covid, where we had to shut down for two weeks.. Any taxpayer that has been impacted and is unable to file by the extended due date may request an extension from our office by contacting us at 601-923-7700 or, Telephone/Internet Liquor Order & Curbside Delivery. During this year's legislative session, Mississippi's Republican-controlled House and Senate made plans to spend most of the $1.8 billion the state is receiving from the federal government for. Mississippi is violating its own constitution by directing $10 million in pandemic relief money to private schools, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a parents' group that supports. He added that there were different reasons the county trailed Harrisons program, but he declined to go into specifics. RAMP has been a huge aid to fill the gap, even though it often took months to arrive. The state and its two largest counties have received $200 million in federal Covid-19 relief funds to cover back rent, with the aim of preventing these evictions. She also asked a church to help distribute applications and left several at a library. DR-4528-MS. $166 million for capital projects statewide, primarily for rural broadband access projects. Many struggling tenants in Mississippi worry over what will come first: a constable at their front door ordering them to leave, or the arrival of desperately needed rental assistance that will allow them to stay. Households that receive SNAP and Social Security benefits will see a decrease in their SNAP benefits as early as January 2023 because of a significant increase to their Social Security benefits to reflect the cost of living. Toni Johnson, a program coordinator with the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable, hopes to see an on-the-ground push. That leaves much of the money still up in the air. Altogether, the Meridian School District is set to receive more than $47 million from the three pandemic relief packages. The money is a windfall for schools in Mississippi, which have long gone underfunded by the state Legislature based on the formula it created to fund public schools. Govs. SNAP emergency allotments were a temporary strategy authorized by Congress to help low-income individuals and families deal with the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. ESSER III: A third major pandemic relief bill adopted in March 2021 provides nearly $122 billion to states, most of which is to be distributed to local education agencies. JACKSON, Miss. This means by March 2023, all SNAP households benefits will return to normal amounts, without the added supplement. When we originally budgeted for buses, they were running about $90,000 apiece and we had budgeted for nine but because of price increases we were only able to afford eight, Hardy said. If a taxpayer is unable to file the return by May 15, 2020, and expects to owe a balance of tax, then the taxpayer should file for an extension. This collection of social media tiles can be used for Instagram and Twitter to assist our partners in communicating about the upcoming changes to SNAP benefits. The U.S. Department of Treasury set up a mechanism this week to begin the disbursement of $350 billion to state, local, territorial and Tribal governments as part of the American Rescue Plan that was passed earlier this year to provide financial relief to governmental entities and individuals who might have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2. Offering Mississippians Young and Old Tangible Help Today to Create Lasting Hope for Tomorrow, SNAP EBT beneficiaries residing in areas affected by the severe storm can purchase ready-to-eat hot foods with th twitter.com/i/web/status/1, The P-EBT call center will close April 28. Review requests will continue to be processed even after the call center twitter.com/i/web/status/1, What am I able to buy with EBT benefits? Tate Reeves, a Republican, said early this month that next Monday would be the last day to apply for assistance. Graphic by Bethany Atkinson The Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), through the CARES Act, provides payments to state, local and tribal governments impacted by COVID-19. Another large expenditure with ESSER funding was the purchase of eight new county school buses at a cost of $800,000. You cant edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. That is one initiative we found we cannot do without, so going forward that is going to be a priority for us is to fund the iPads absent ESSER funds because we feel it is a necessity for our students to have a device.. It was funded by two Covid-19 economic bills passed by Congress in 2020 and 2021, which provided billions of dollars of rental relief to states to administer to people economically disadvantaged by the pandemic. Apply online at DisasterAssistance.gov Apply via a smartphone Apply by phone 1 (800) 621-FEMA (3362); TTY 1-800-462-7585 The Integrity Group did not respond to requests for comment. Our audit staff will resume normal audit functions, but will continue to work with taxpayers that are negatively impacted bythe Pandemic. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Mississippis statewide program to distribute federal funds has also gotten a slow start, spending less than 2 percent of the $186 million dedicated to helping tenants pay back rent, or past-due utility bills, as of June 24. High near 80F. And dozens of hearings are scheduled to take place before the moratorium lifts at the end of July. Online filing is encouraged! Bracey Harrisis a national reporter for NBC News, based in Jackson, Mississippi. FNS calculates cost-of-living adjustments for SNAP annually, like the Social Security Administration. You have to go where the people are to share the information.. During the pandemic, Mississippi has had the highest COVID-19 death rate of any state outside the Northeast. Total CRF funding allocated to Mississippi is approximately $1.25 billion. Any amount helps us keep producing quality journalism for Mississippi. The Mississippi Legislature recently authorized, through Senate Bills 3058 and 3061, roughly $13 million to assist agriculture producers. This page will be updated as additional information and resources become available. LRDs are established by city ordinance. While business has picked up, it's still difficult to meet her rent of $935. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. Please reload the page and try again. More clinics were planned over the next month, but they will have to be canceled because of Reeve's decision, she said. Housing assistance: $20 million for rental assistance grant program, providing grants up to $30,000 to eligible rental businesses that lost rent income from March-December 2020. In order to take advantage of this extension, you will need to renew the policy and then file a claim for losses. For information about the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund III (HEERF III), see this page: coronavirus.olemiss.edu/heerf-iii The Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress and signed into law on March 27, 2020 is intended to provide economic relief for individuals impacted by the pandemic. The Department recognizes that some taxpayers may have been impacted by the recent storms. When the funds became available in March, she emailed 75 landlords about the program. By GLENDA SANDERS | gsanders@themeridianstar.com, MASON, Michael Apr 20, 1954 - Apr 16, 2023, RAMEY, Michael Apr 15, 1940 - Apr 5, 2023, MHS student named Educators Rising president, Meridian investors buy in on solar community, Three-run home run lifts Enterprise over West Lauderdale, Meridian track and field clinches District 6-6A, DAR's Samuel Dale chapter hosts awards tea, BRAD DYE: Meetings, partings, and the gift of time, Three West Lauderdale athletes ink letters of intent, La Familia: The story of a family in South Mississippi, Supervisors hear update on county projects. To help ease the financial burden during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is providing up to $9,000 reimbursement for funeral expenses related to COVID-19. You have to credit Mississippi Today. By law, all income (both earned and unearned) is included when determining SNAP eligibility and benefit amounts, unless explicitly excluded by statute. Since Congress allocated ESSER funding based on the formula used for federal Title 1 programs, the money is being distributed to schools based on the number of low-income students enrolled. The temporary boost to SNAP benefits put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, known as emergency allotments, ended nationwide after the February 2023 issuance. of pot during traffic stop, Police: 2 teens fight over gun at KFC in Mississippi, causing it to fire, Jackson homeowner shoots male intruder in the leg; female also detained, Vicksburg Police arrest man after finding dog with severe injuries at apartment complex, Request a First Alert Weather School Visit, Advertising Non-Discrimination Certification. The Department of Revenue will resume issuing assessments on August 20, 2020. Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) SBA Debt Relief. However, patrons must stay within the boundaries of the LRD. FEMA Disaster Relief Fund. All Rights Reserved. To file an Unemployment Claim, visit the MDES website at www.mdes.ms.gov or call the MDES Contact Center at 601-493-9427. , except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style the. Radio ads business has picked up, it 's still difficult to meet her rent of $ 935 the of... Primarily for rural broadband access projects must count them as income they will have be... Covid-19 pandemic a breakdown of how state lawmakers spent the money still up in program! Million to assist Agriculture producers to arrive fns calculates cost-of-living adjustments for annually... That also receive Social Security Administration ESSER funding was the purchase of eight new county School buses a... For Mississippi third of applicants were unemployed, but nearly 70 % earned less than a of... 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