JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Latest on a special session of the Mississippi Legislature (all times local):
2:30 p.m.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed a law designed to put hundreds of millions of dollars into building and repairing highways and bridges.
Bryant signed the Mississippi Infrastructure Modernization Act on Wednesday as legislators finished a five-day special session. The measure would send aid to cities and county, and borrow $300 million.
He is expected to sign two more bills into law in the next several days. One would create a state lottery, with money from it reserved for transportation for the first 10 years. The other would divide the money that Mississippi is collecting after the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the money paid by BP PLC will go to the state’s six southernmost counties; the rest would be spread into counties further inland.
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11:20 a.m.
The Mississippi House is debating a plan to divide up nearly $700 million from an oil spill settlement, with most of it going to coastal counties.
Representatives on Wednesday are considering the same bill that senators passed Tuesday night. If the House passes it without changes, the bill will go to Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. He asked lawmakers to consider the plan and is expected to sign it into law.
BP PLC is paying Mississippi $750 million through 2033 to make up for lost tax revenue from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Lawmakers have already spent $52.4 million of the money, but nearly $100 million is sitting in the bank and 15 yearly payments of $40 million a year will begin in 2019.
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