Mississippi Today
Mayor Simmons: Greenville aims to be city of hope and opportunity
Mayor Simmons: Greenville aims to be city of hope and opportunity
Editor’s note: Errick Simmons is the third-term mayor of Greenville. This article is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing perspectives of mayors across the state.
As mayor of Greenville, it’s my honor to share our city’s journey of growth and transformation. Greenville isn’t just a point on a map — it’s a vibrant community with a rich history, culture and shared vision for the future.
With billions of dollars in investments flowing into Greenville, including the recent $1.2 billion Entergy project, we’re witnessing the dawn of a new era. These milestones are creating opportunities across education, healthcare, infrastructure and economic development, fueling a Greenville that’s resilient, inclusive and built to last.
Historic investments reshaping Greenville
Greenville is seeing an unprecedented wave of investment that touches every corner of our community. In addition to a new federal courthouse positioning Greenville as a judicial hub, we’ve launched the Greenville Kearns Aerospace Maintenance (GKAM) program. In partnership with Mississippi Delta Community College, this initiative provides local students with hands-on aviation training, opening pathways to high-paying, skilled careers right here at home.
Through Mississippi’s first formalized college network — the Greenville College Access and Attainment Network (GCAAN) — we’re helping students move from high school to college with the support, resources and mentorship they need.
This past fall, we celebrated the groundbreaking $1.2 billion Entergy investment, which will transform Greenville, Washington County and the greater Delta region. Entergy’s new combined-cycle combustion turbine facility will use dual-fuel technology, primarily natural gas with hydrogen blending capability, enhancing energy reliability while moving toward cleaner power. Scheduled for completion in 2028, this plant will be Entergy’s first newly built natural gas station in 50 years and is expected to bring valuable jobs to our residents.
To add another billion-dollar icing on the cake, the Kinder Morgan Mississippi Crossing Project, a $1.4 billion natural gas project, is designed to transport 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from Greenville to Butler, Alabama, with a planned operation date of November 2028. This project will create 700 temporary construction jobs.
Health and food access for a thriving community
Beyond economic development, we’re prioritizing health and food security, recognizing that wellness is foundational to a thriving community. Through partnerships with Mars Food, Molina Healthcare and Kroger, we’re expanding access to nutritious foods, addressing food deserts, and ensuring every Greenville resident has healthy options.
In healthcare, Delta Health System’s Mississippi Delta Family Residency Program and Delta Health Center’s new clinic are not only providing much-needed medical services but also training future medical providers who are passionate about serving right here in the Delta. This work is about more than access; it’s about building equity in the health of our community.
A resilient infrastructure for Greenville’s future
Our infrastructure investments are reshaping Greenville. With $260 million invested in the Greenville Freight Corridor, we’re creating new efficiencies for local businesses and industries. We’ve committed $92 million for essential road, bridge and wastewater repairs, and an additional $50 million in funding is supporting flood recovery and building resilience against future disasters. These projects go beyond routine repairs; they’re about Greenville’s long-term sustainability and strength.
Delta culture shines in the “City of Festivals”
Greenville’s heritage is a source of pride, celebrated through an array of festivals that showcase the best of Delta culture. Newly dubbed the “City of Festivals,” Greenville is home to the Delta Hot Tamale Festival, (2024 USA Today No. 1 Specialty Food Festival); the Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival (world’s longest running blues festival), and a host of newer festivals and events. These gatherings draw thousands of national and international visitors and embody the unique community spirit that makes Greenville special. Our partnership with Viking River Cruises is another significant achievement, bringing tourists annually to experience our history, music and culinary traditions.
Business boom and community recognition
Our city’s economic resurgence extends to our business community. Greenville has seen record-breaking business openings, including national brands like NuFarm, Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-A and Tru by Hilton, along with a boom in small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses. This growth reflects Greenville’s welcoming climate for entrepreneurs and business leaders who are breathing new life into our local economy.
Greenville’s commitment to creating a livable, family-friendly city has gained national recognition. We were honored with the City Livability Achievement Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors for our “Worship on the Water” initiative, which fosters community connections, and the National Child Well-Being Champion Award from FoodCorps, highlighting our commitment to food education in schools. As chair of the Southern Municipal Conference, I am privileged to help lead conversations around solutions to shared challenges across Southern cities, driving positive change for the Delta and beyond.
Greenville’s global advocacy for the Mississippi River
As mayor of Greenville, I have the privilege of placing our city on the global stage, advocating for the Mississippi River’s significance to global food security, trade and climate resilience. Recently, I delivered a “TED Talk” style presentation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during the Building Resilience Conference in Washington, D.C. I addressed executives from Fortune 500 companies and federal agency representatives about the resilience-at-scale work cities are undertaking along the Mississippi River.
Together with 104 bipartisan mayors, we are collaborating with Ducks Unlimited to deploy 100,000 acres of nature-based infrastructure. This advocacy continues at international forums, such as COP26 in Glasgow, COP27 in Egypt and COP28 in Dubai, where I represented Greenville alongside mayors from around the globe, urging global investment in the Mississippi River Basin, which spans 10 states.
This collaborative work with local and international partners is essential for both food security and water quality. By highlighting the importance of the Mississippi River, we are not only advocating for our community but also positioning Greenville as a key player in the global conversation around sustainable development and climate resilience.
Greenville: A community that moves forward together
I invite you to see the progress happening in Greenville — a city bridging its rich past with a promising future. From our investments in cleaner energy and resilient infrastructure to the growth of new businesses and cultural festivals, Greenville embodies the spirit that is our Delta heritage. This is a community where opportunity meets ambition, and where every project, partnership and celebration is part of a larger story — a story of a Delta city with a legacy as rich as its future is bright.
Our journey is ongoing, but every day, I see Greenville becoming a place of hope and opportunity. We’re not just building for today; we’re building for generations to come, with Greenville as a model of what a city can achieve with vision, determination and the strength of its people.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hospitals see danger in Medicaid spending cuts
Mississippi hospitals could lose up to $1 billion over the next decade under the sweeping, multitrillion-dollar tax and policy bill President Donald Trump signed into law last week, according to leaders at the Mississippi Hospital Association.
The leaders say the cuts could force some already-struggling rural hospitals to reduce services or close their doors.
The law includes the largest reduction in federal health and social safety net programs in history. It passed 218-214, with all Democrats voting against the measure and all but five Republicans voting for it.
In the short term, these cuts will make health care less accessible to poor Mississippians by making the eligibility requirements for Medicaid insurance stiffer, likely increasing people’s medical debt.
In the long run, the cuts could lead to worsening chronic health conditions such as diabetes and obesity for which Mississippi already leads the nation, and making private insurance more expensive for many people, experts say.
“We’ve got about a billion dollars that are potentially hanging in the balance over the next 10 years,” Mississippi Hospital Association President Richard Roberson said Wednesday during a panel discussion at his organization’s headquarters.
“If folks were being honest, the entire system depends on those rural hospitals,” he said.
Mississippi’s uninsured population could increase by 160,000 people as a combined result of the new law and the expiration of Biden-era enhanced subsidies that made marketplace insurance affordable – and which Trump is not expected to renew – according to KFF, a health policy research group.
That could make things even worse for those who are left on the marketplace plans.
“Younger, healthier people are going to leave the risk pool, and that’s going to mean it’s more expensive to insure the patients that remain,” said Lucy Dagneau, senior director of state and local campaigns at the American Cancer Society.
Among the biggest changes facing Medicaid-eligible patients are stiffer eligibility requirements, including proof of work. The new law requires able-bodied adults ages 19 to 64 to work, do community service or attend an educational program at least 80 hours a month to qualify for, or keep, Medicaid coverage and federal food aid.
Opponents say qualified recipients could be stripped of benefits if they lose a job or fail to complete paperwork attesting to their time commitment.
Georgia became the case study for work requirements with a program called Pathways to Coverage, which was touted as a conservative alternative to Medicaid expansion.
Ironically, the 54-year-old mechanic chosen by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to be the face of the program got so fed up with the work requirements he went from praising the program on television to saying “I’m done with it” after his benefits were allegedly cancelled twice due to red tape.
Roberson sent several letters to Mississippi’s congressional members in weeks leading up to the final vote on the sweeping federal legislation, sounding the alarm on what it would mean for hospitals and patients.
Among Roberson’s chief concerns is a change in the mechanism called state directed payments, which allows states to beef up Medicaid reimbursement rates – typically the lowest among insurance payors. The new law will reduce those enhanced rates to nearly as low as the Medicare rate, costing the state at least $500 million and putting rural hospitals in a bind, Roberson told Mississippi Today.
That change will happen over 10 years starting in 2028. That, in conjunction with the new law’s one-time payment program called the Rural Health Care Fund, means if the next few years look normal, it doesn’t mean Mississippi is safe, stakeholders warn.
“We’re going to have a sort of deceiving situation in Mississippi where we look a little flush with cash with the rural fund and the state directed payments in 2027 and 2028, and then all of a sudden our state directed payments start going down and that fund ends and then we’re going to start dipping,” said Leah Rupp Smith, vice president for policy and advocacy at the Mississippi Hospital Association.
Even with that buffer time, immediate changes are on the horizon for health care in Mississippi because of fear and uncertainty around ever-changing rules.
“Hospitals can’t budget when we have these one-off programs that start and stop and the rules change – and there’s a cost to administering a program like this,” Smith said.
Since hospitals are major employers – and they also provide a sense of safety for incoming businesses – their closure, especially in rural areas, affects not just patients but local economies and communities.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is the only Democrat in Mississippi’s congressional delegation. He voted against the bill, while the state’s two Republican senators and three Republican House members voted for it. Thompson said in a statement that the new law does not bode well for the Delta, one of the poorest regions in the U.S.
“For my district, this means closed hospitals, nursing homes, families struggling to afford groceries, and educational opportunities deferred,” Thompson said. “Republicans’ priorities are very simple: tax cuts for (the) wealthy and nothing for the people who make this country work.”
While still colloquially referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the name was changed by Democrats invoking a maneuver that has been used by lawmakers in both chambers to oppose a bill on principle.
“Democrats are forcing Republicans to delete their farcical bill name,” Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer of New York said in a statement. “Nothing about this bill is beautiful — it’s a betrayal to American families and it’s undeserving of such a stupid name.”
The law is expected to add at least $3.3 trillion to the nation’s debt over the next 10 years, according to the most recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Hospitals see danger in Medicaid spending cuts appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This article reports on the negative impacts of a major federal tax and policy bill on Medicaid funding and rural hospitals in Mississippi. While it presents factual details and statements from stakeholders, the tone and framing emphasize the harmful consequences for vulnerable populations and health care access, aligning with concerns typically raised by center-left perspectives. The article highlights opposition by Democrats and critiques the bill’s priorities, particularly its effect on poor and rural communities, suggesting sympathy toward social safety net preservation. However, it maintains mostly factual reporting without overt partisan language, resulting in a moderate center-left bias.
Crooked Letter Sports Podcast
Podcast: The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of ’25
The MSHOF will induct eight new members on Aug 2. Rick Cleveland has covered them all and he and son Tyler talk about what makes them all special.
Stream all episodes here.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Podcast: The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of '25 appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Mississippi Today
‘You’re not going to be able to do that anymore’: Jackson police chief visits food kitchen to discuss new public sleeping, panhandling laws
Diners turned watchful eyes to the stage as Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade took to the podium. He visited Stewpot Community Services during its daily free lunch hour Thursday to discuss new state laws, which took effect two days earlier, targeting Mississippians experiencing homelessness.
“I understand that you are going through some hard times right now. That’s why I’m here,” Wade said to the crowd. “I felt it was important to come out here and speak with you directly.”
Wade laid out the three bills that passed earlier this year: House Bill 1197, the “Safe Solicitation Act,” HB 1200, the “Real Property Owners Protection Act” and HB 1203, a bill that prohibits camping on public property.
“Sleeping and laying in public places, you’re not going to be able to do that anymore,” he said. “There’s a law that has been passed that you can’t just set up encampments on public or private properties where it’s a public nuisance, it’s a problem.”
The “Real Property Owners Protection Act,” authored by Rep. Brent Powell, R-Brandon, is a bill that expedites the process of removing squatters. The “Safe Solicitation Act,” authored by Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, requires a permit for panhandling and allows people to be charged with a misdemeanor if they violate this law. The offense is punishable by a fine not to exceed $300 and an offender could face up to six months in jail. Wade said he’s currently working with his legal department to determine the best strategy for creating and issuing permits.
“We’re going to navigate these legal challenges, get some interpretations, not only from our legal department, but the Attorney General’s office to ensure that we are doing it legally and lawfully, because I understand that these are citizens,” he said. “I understand that they deserve to be treated with respect, and I understand that we are going to do this without violating their constitutional rights.”
Wade said the Jackson Police Department is steadily fielding reports of squatters in abandoned properties and the law change gives officers new power to remove them more quickly. The added challenge? Figuring out what to do with a person’s belongings.
“These people are carrying around what they own, but we are not a repository for all of their stuff,” he said. “So, when we make that arrest, we’ve got to have a strategic plan as to what we do with their stuff.”
Wade said there needs to be a deeper conversation around the issues that lead someone to becoming homeless.
“A lot of people that we’re running across that are homeless are also suffering from medical conditions, mental health issues, and they’re also suffering from drug addiction and substance abuse. We’ve got to have a strategic approach, but we also can’t log jam our jail down in Raymond,” Wade said.
He estimates that more than 800 people are currently incarcerated at the Raymond Detention Center, and any increase could strain the system as the laws continue to be enforced.
“I think there’s layers that we have to work through, there’s hurdles that we are going to overcome, but we’ve got to make sure that we do it and make sure that my team and JPD is consistent in how we enforce these laws,” Wade said.
Diners applauded Wade after he spoke, in between bites of fried chicken, salad, corn and 4th of July-themed packaged cakes. Wade offered to answer questions, but no one asked any.
Rev. Jill Buckley, executive director of Stewpot, said that the legislation is a good tool to address issues around homelessness and community needs. She doesn’t want to see people who are homeless be criminalized, but she also wants communities to be safe.
“I support people’s right to self determine, and we can’t impose our choices on other people, but there are some cases in which that impinges on community safety, and so to the extent that anyone who is camping or panhandling or squatting and is a danger to themselves and others, of course, I fully support that kind of law. I don’t support homelessness being criminalized as such,” Buckley said.
Many of the people Wade addressed while they ate Thursday said they have housing, don’t panhandle, and shouldn’t be directly impacted by the legislation. But Marcus Willis, 42, said it would make more sense if elected officials wanted to combat the negative impacts of homelessness that they help more people secure employment.
“There ain’t enough jobs,” said Willis, who was having lunch with his girlfriend Amber Ivy.
The two live in an apartment together nearby on Capitol Street, where Ivy landed after her mother, whom Ivy had been living with, suffered a stroke and lost the property. Similarly, Willis started coming to eat at Stewpot after his grandmother, whose house he used to visit for lunch, passed away.
Willis holds odd jobs – cutting grass, home and auto repair – so the income is inconsistent, and every opportunity for stable employment he said he’s found is outside of Jackson in the suburbs. The couple doesn’t have a car.
Making rent every month usually depends on their ability to find someone to help chip in, said Ivy, who is in recovery from substance abuse. She said she’s watched problems surrounding homelessness grow over the years in Jackson. Ivy grew up near Stewpot and has lived in various neighborhoods across the city – except for the times she moved out of state when things got too rough.
“There was just moments where I just had to leave,” Ivy said. “Sometimes if you hit a slump here, there’s almost no way for you to get out of it.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post 'You're not going to be able to do that anymore': Jackson police chief visits food kitchen to discuss new public sleeping, panhandling laws appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
This article primarily reports on new laws in Jackson, Mississippi, targeting public sleeping, panhandling, and squatting, focusing on statements by Police Chief Joseph Wade and community perspectives. The coverage presents the legislative measures—authored by Republican and independent lawmakers—with a tone that emphasizes law enforcement challenges and community safety, reflecting a conservative approach to homelessness as a public order issue. While it includes voices concerned about criminalization and the need for social support, the overall framing centers on law enforcement and property protection. The article maintains factual reporting without overt editorializing but leans slightly toward a center-right perspective by highlighting legal enforcement as a solution.
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