It’s been over a decade and a half since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill happened, spewing more than 130 million gallons of BP-owned oil into the Gulf of Mexico across 87 days. What’s considered the largest maritime spill in history resulted, five years after, with Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Texas being on the receiving end of a $20.8 billion settlement with the oil and gas giant.
In Mississippi, officials are still working to use what remains of the more than $2 billion the state received as part of the settlement. As it was written, $750 million was for economic damages to be distributed over a running period. As of today, the state has in excess of $250 million left in the coffers for lawmakers to consider dishing out on an annual basis through 2033.
And preliminary reviews of how next year’s round of money should be spent differ widely.
Last month, the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund Advisory Board – a seven-person board tasked by lawmakers in 2016 with helping guide the distribution of settlement funds – submitted its recommendations for 16 projects to the Mississippi Development Authority. MDA, the state agency given a primary administrative role in how the economic damages portion of the money should be used, serves as the main liaison between the legislature and the committee review recommendations at this point in the process.
Recommendations by the GCRF Advisory Board included everything from airport runway extensions and sewer and gas enhancements to funding for housing at a private university, a downtown redevelopment plan, and a performing arts center. It also included a $7 million revolving loan trust fund to support targeted industry development and recruiting across the six-county coastal region.
“[The recommendations] were grounded in transparency, public engagement, and with the goal of identifying projects that have the greatest regional impact,” GCRF Advisory Board chair Jamie Miller said at the time. Recommendations stemmed from a review of nearly 90 applications and four public meetings.
“The board is committed to recommending projects that meet the statutory intent, leverage private investment, and create long-term economic opportunity across the coast,” he continued.
MDA received the GCRF Advisory Board’s recommendations, and the agency’s advisory board quickly scored and ranked the projects and made its own set of recommendations.
In a letter sent by MDA executive director Bill Cork to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Dec. 1, a dozen projects suggested by the GCRF Advisory Board were recommended to be nixed, with three surviving: a wastewater system expansion in George County, the construction of an industrial park building in Pearl River County, and an industrial park and sewer project in Stone County.
“These projects expand industrial capacity and improve speed-to-market. They should be funded,” Cork wrote. “However, this year’s applicant pool does not reflect a coordinated regional strategy or the transformational impact envisioned when the Legislature created the GCRF.”
Cork wrote that the legislature’s goal with the creation of the GCRF was to transform the Mississippi Gulf Coast into an economic development engine “capable of attracting large-scale investment, improving competitiveness, [and] advancing statewide economic goals.” In his mind, the rest of the projects suggested by the GCRF Advisory Board “reflect real local needs and public responsibilities” and should not be funded by money from the settlement with BP.
He did show some level of support for the GCRF Advisory Board’s idea of a revolving loan fund, but suggested a revamped version under a “unified coastal strategy.” MDA’s recommendation includes a three-level loan program that would have separate funds for ports, airports, and technology and entrepreneurship. The levels would be initially funded by settlement dollars, but leverage state, federal, and private funds not attached to the BP money to create “replenishing capital bases.”
The goal, according to Cork, is to support existing industries that are synonymous with the region and create a business environment that is more ready for prospective industries.
Cork continued in the letter, writing that he and Gov. Tate Reeves have met with prospective companies that have not yet chosen to locate on the Mississippi Gulf Coast because of a lack of regional help and readiness.
“Over the last two to three years, multiple multi-billion-dollar prospects have expressed interest in the Coast,” he explained. “We could not respond effectively – not because of policy or workforce limitations, but because the region lacked the product and coordination they required.”
To meet demands from prospective businesses and support existing ones, Cork asserted that GCRF resources should be used to create a comprehensive master plan that aligns the six coastal counties and identifies regional priorities and growth within existing industries like shipbuilding and at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, determines key sites like ports and railways necessary to support all industries, creates a prioritized list of infrastructure needs to attract large-scale employers, and provides a marketing and readiness strategy to help pick future projects.
“Projects aligned with this master plan should receive priority access to the revolving loan funds and future GCRF grant rounds,” he wrote. ‘This will ensure that state investments are guided by a data-driven, region-wide strategy rather than disconnected local applications.”
During a Monday morning interview on Mornings with Richard Cross, Reeves echoed Cork’s sentiments, calling the coastal region an “economic development goldmine” that has yet to be tapped.
Other areas of the state, like Madison County outside of Jackson and the Golden Triangle, have joint economic development groups in place that have helped open the door for over $40 billion in private-sector investment since Reeves took office in 2020. The Republican said the same is needed along the Gulf Coast.
“I don’t begrudge any of the local entities, whether it’s a city, a county, a nonprofit, or a charity organization, for asking for state funds,” Reeves said. “They are trying to put together a capital stack to do whatever individual project that they are interested in, and I don’t blame them at all for asking for it.
“But we believe we need to think bigger. We need to realize that we have an economic development goldmine in the state of Mississippi, and we need to be investing in the future. We need to think transformational. And that’s really what our executive director Bill Cork and his team at MDA were getting at with respect to the GCRF.”
While Cork and Reeves are on the same page in turning the page from the GCRF Advisory Board’s recommendations and instead pushing for the BP settlement money to be used in addressing needs for existing businesses and attracting new ones, it will be up to lawmakers to make the final call. Reeves’ nod of approval to MDA’s recommendations is big, though, considering the capitol is Republican-heavy. Lawmakers will gavel in for the 2026 session on Jan. 6.
