Mississippi
Come to breakfast – Mississippi’s Best Community Newspaper
Come to breakfast
Printed 7:00 am Sunday, January 22, 2023
- From left, state Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, state Rep. Sam Mims, R-McComb, and state Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, spoke to about 50 Natchez space residents on the Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Breakfast in 2022. (Jan Griffey | The Natchez Democrat)
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, in a current Natchez go to, mentioned Mississippi is in “superb financial form” with $1.4 billion in surplus funds and $350 million remaining of the American Rescue Plan Act fund.
Now state leaders are taking a look at methods to spend all of it.
Let’s speak about what’s NOT in good condition.
One of many high issues dealing with our state at this second, which ought to concern all of us, is Mississippi’s hospitals.
Hospitals face the problem of constant to avoid wasting lives, no matter whether or not or not the affected person pays for it. These days, it appears, the vast majority of working Individuals face financial hardship escalated by inflation.
Most hospitals are offering care with a deficit and somebody wants to select up the slack.
In any other case, rural hospitals comparable to ours, which may’t afford to function within the crimson, would be the first ones to go. In a metropolis that’s riddled with low-income senior adults who desperately want fast and inexpensive entry to healthcare, that’s a scary thought.
Amid these challenges is a scarcity of nurses to workers accessible beds, a problem that has continued because the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republicans and Democrats alike have rightly and justly turned their consideration to Mississippi’s healthcare system on the very starting of the 2023 legislative session.
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann lately introduced 4 payments pending in Senate committees geared toward serving to hospitals and rising the healthcare workforce in Mississippi.
One other challenge dealing with Natchez and Adams County, as all the time, is the continuation of flooding, drainage points and erosion. A current examine carried out by the Metropolis of Natchez recognized just below $58 million price of initiatives to alleviate these points.
Don’t anticipate that each one to be taken care of this yr earlier than elections, however perhaps the state can assist us chip away on the iceberg.
At 7:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 23, is the annual legislative breakfast on the Natchez Grand Resort hosted by the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce.
Everybody in our neighborhood is invited to attend and listen to concerning the agenda of the 2023 legislative session from our elected officers.
As that is an election yr for our legislators, they’ve been very vocal about what’s vital to them. Let’s be vocal about what’s vital to us.