Mississippi asks judge to dismiss lawsuit over $36 million in Jackson ARPA funds
Attorneys for the state of Mississippi asked U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate on Thursday to dismiss a federal lawsuit alleging the state discriminated against the city of Jackson by withholding $36 million in American Rescue Plan Act matching funds, a lawyer for the state said.
The complaint, filed last summer by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of two Jackson residents and the city’s NAACP chapter, contends the state imposed extra barriers for Jackson to access matching funds through the state’s Municipality & County Water Infrastructure grant program, the SPLC said. The funds were intended to help repair Jackson’s struggling water system, the complaint says.
The SPLC says the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the State Treasury of Mississippi and the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration, all named as defendants, required the majority-Black city to submit a plan to receive matching funds—a requirement the state Legislature did not include for other cities when it created the MCWI program in 2022, the complaint alleges.
A lawyer from the state attorney general’s office, Lisa Reppeto, told Wingate that the injuries described in the lawsuit stem from Jackson’s broader water crisis, not from the specific lack of ARPA funds. Reppeto said the plaintiffs’ “beef” is with the city of Jackson or the federal receiver, JXN Water, not MDEQ director Chris Wells or State Treasurer David McRae. She also argued that ordering the state to release the funds now would violate federal ARPA deadlines that require funds be obligated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.
SPLC attorney Crystal McElrath said Jackson was awarded $36 million in matching funds in November 2022 but that the state has sent only $4 million to JXN Water, leaving $32 million still held by Mississippi officials. McElrath told the court that U.S. receivership manager Ted Henifin was appointed shortly after the award, leaving little time for city officials to access the funds. When asked whether Jackson submitted a plan, McElrath pointed to a 2021 letter from then-Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and the city’s 2012 infrastructure master plan; Reppeto countered that those documents predated ARPA spending and did not satisfy MCWI requirements, the attorneys said.
Wingate, who also oversees the federal receivership of Jackson’s water and sewer systems, closed the hearing saying he would meet with the parties next Monday before deciding whether to dismiss the case or consider the state’s other arguments for dismissal, court filings show.
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