House Bill 1344

AN ACT TO CREATE THE MISSISSIPPI MUNICIPALITY AND COUNTY FIRE STATION BUILDING FUND; TO PROVIDE THAT SUCH FUND SHALL BE ADMINISTERED THE MISSISSIPPI EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY; TO PROVIDE THAT SUCH FUNDS SHALL BE USED TO RENOVATE, UPGRADE AND MODIFY LOCAL FIRE STATIONS; TO PROVIDE CERTAIN FUNDING FOR THE FUND; TO AMEND SECTION 45-2-1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING SECTION; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. (1) This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Mississippi Municipality and County Fire Station Building Fund."

(2) There is hereby established within the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency the Mississippi Municipality and County Water Fire Station Grant Program under which municipalities and counties may apply for reimbursable grants with a fifty percent (50%) match from the municipality or county, to make necessary investments to renovate, upgrade and modify local fire stations.

(3) (a) On or before July 1, 2026, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to administer the program prescribed under this act, including application procedures and deadlines. MEMA is exempt from compliance with the Mississippi Administrative Procedures Law in fulfilling the requirements of this section.

(4) An application for a grant under this act shall be submitted at such time, be in such form, and contain such information as MEMA prescribes. Each application for grant funds shall include the following at a minimum: (a) applicant contact information; (b) project description and type of project; (c) project map; (d) estimate of population affected by the project; (e) disadvantaged community criteria (population, median household income, unemployment); (f) estimated project cost; (h) estimated project schedule and readiness to proceed; (i) engineering or architectural services agreement; (j) engineering or architectural reports; and (k) information about status of obtaining any required permits.

(5) MEMA must apply a system for use in ranking the grant applications received. When applying the ranking system, the agency shall apply a greater weight to projects that have approved engineering or architectural design, plans and permits if MEMA has deemed the project is ready to begin construction within six (6) months. The ranking system shall include the following factors, at a minimum: (a) the environmental impact of the proposed project; (b) the proposed project's ability to address noncompliance with state/federal requirements; (c) the extent to which the project promotes economic development; (d) the number of people served by the project and the number of communities the project serves; (e) impacts of the proposed project on disadvantaged/overburdened communities; (f) the grant applicant's prior efforts to secure funding to address the proposed project's objectives; (g) the grant applicant's proposed contribution of other funds or in-kind cost-sharing to the proposed project; (h) the grant applicant's long-term plans for the financial and physical operation and maintenance of the project; (i) the grant applicant's capacity to initiate construction in a timely manner; (j) the extent to which the project benefits multiple political subdivisions in a regional manner; (k) the project's ability to enhance public service infrastructure, including transportation and emergency access; and (l) any other factors as determined by the agency.

(6) Applications shall be reviewed and scored as they are received. Grant agreements shall be executed between the recipient and MEMA. All final awards shall be determined at the discretion of the executive director of MEMA.

(7) The use of funds allocated under this program shall be subject to audit by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor. Each person receiving funds under these programs found to be fully or partially noncompliant with the requirements in this act shall return to the state all or a portion of the funds received.

(8) MEMA shall submit to the Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House, House and Senate Appropriations Chairmen, and the Legislative Budget Office quarterly reports. The reports shall contain the applications received, the score of the applications, the amount of grant funds awarded to each applicant, the amount of grant funds expended by each applicant, and status of each applicant's project.

(9) MEMA may retain an amount not to exceed five percent (5%) of the total funds allocated to the program to defray administrative costs.

(10) There is established in the State Treasury a special fund to be known as the Mississippi Municipality and County Fire Station Building Fund. The fund shall be funded by an initial transfer of funds from the Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters Death Benefits Trust Fund, which is established under Section 45-2-1. The initial transfer from the Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters Death Benefits Trust Fund to the Mississippi Municipality and County Fire Station Building Fund shall be in the amount of Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000.00) for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act. The fund may be also comprised of any additional funds made available by the Legislature or by donation, contribution, gift of any other source.

SECTION 2. Section 45-2-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

45-2-1. (1) Whenever used in this section, the term:

(a) "Covered individual" means a law enforcement officer or firefighter, including volunteer firefighters, as defined in this section when employed by an employer as defined in this section; it does not include employees of independent contractors.

(b) "Employer" means a state board, commission, department, division, bureau or agency, or a county, municipality or other political subdivision of the state, which employs, appoints or otherwise engages the services of covered individuals.

(c) "Firefighter" means an individual who is trained for the prevention and control of loss of life and property from fire or other emergencies, who is assigned to firefighting activity, and is required to respond to alarms and perform emergency actions at the location of a fire, hazardous materials or other emergency incident.

(d) "Law enforcement officer" means any lawfully sworn officer or employee of the state or any political subdivision of the state whose duties require the officer or employee to investigate, pursue, apprehend, arrest, transport or maintain custody of persons who are charged with, suspected of committing, or convicted of a crime, whether the officer is on regular duty on full-time status, an auxiliary or reserve officer, or is serving on a temporary or part-time status.

(e) "Cause of death" means any cause of death that would be covered under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act of 1976, the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003, generally codified at 42 USCS Chapter 46, or the Safeguarding America's First Responders Act of 2020.

(2) (a) The Department of Public Safety shall make a payment, as provided in this section, in the amount of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00) when a covered individual, while engaged in the performance of the person's official duties, dies or receives accidental or intentional bodily injury that results in the loss of the covered individual's life and such death is the result of a covered cause of death, provided that the death is not the result of suicide and that the bodily injury is not intentionally self-inflicted.

(b) The payment provided for in this subsection shall be made to the beneficiary who was designated in writing by the covered individual, signed by the covered individual and delivered to the employer during the covered individual's lifetime. If no such designation is made, then the payment shall be made to the surviving child or children and spouse in equal portions, and if there is no surviving child or spouse, then to the parent or parents. If a beneficiary is not designated and there is no surviving child, spouse or parent, then the payment shall be made to the covered individual's estate.

(c) The payment made in this subsection is in addition to any workers' compensation or pension benefits and is exempt from the claims and demands of creditors of the covered individual.

(3) (a) There is established in the State Treasury a special fund to be known as the Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters Death Benefits Trust Fund. The trust fund shall be funded by an initial appropriation of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000.00), and shall be comprised of any additional funds made available by the Legislature or by donation, contribution, gift or any other source.

(b) The State Treasurer shall invest the monies of the trust fund in any of the investments authorized for the funds of the Public Employees' Retirement System under Section 25-11-121, and those investments shall be subject to the limitations prescribed by Section 25-11-121.

(c) Unexpended amounts remaining in the trust fund at the end of the state fiscal year shall not lapse into the State General Fund, and any income earned on amounts in the trust fund shall be deposited to the credit of the trust fund. However, any unexpended amounts transferred in accordance with Section 2 of Chapter 315, Laws of 2022, and remaining in the trust fund at the end of the state fiscal year shall lapse into the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund.

(d) A portion of the fund shall be transferred to the Mississippi Municipality and County Fire Station Building Fund as set out under Section 1 of this act.

(4) The Department of Public Safety shall be responsible for the management of the trust fund and the disbursement of death benefits authorized under this section. The Department of Public Safety shall adopt rules and regulations necessary to implement and standardize the payment of death benefits under this section, to administer the trust fund created by this section and to carry out the purposes of this section.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2025.