HB 994 Mississippi House · 2025 Regular Session

Fairgrounds; authorize Dept. of Archives to acquire city-owned cell tower and provide for construction of new tower located at.

HB 994 authorizes Mississippi's Department of Archives to acquire Jackson City's existing cell tower and construct a new tower on state fairgrounds property. The city would lease the new tower for 50 years at $1, with the option to sublease space to mobile phone companies. This directly affects Jackson's mobile service infrastructure and creates a revenue stream for the city through tower leasing. The bill updates state law to include this tower arrangement within fairgrounds management rules.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
House Passage
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 12, 2025 Last action Mar 4, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced Current version · 6 edits
MODERATE
The bill was amended from its original introduction to its current version, primarily adding new provisions about naming rights and fundraising for the State Fairgrounds. The House version includes expanded authority for the Department of Agriculture and Commerce to lease naming rights to buildings and property, establish a private foundation for fundraising, and create a special fund for fairground improvements. These additions provide more flexibility for revenue generation and financial management of the fairgrounds while maintaining the original cellular tower authorization provisions.
Scope change
The bill's scope was expanded to include additional fundraising mechanisms and naming rights provisions for the State Fairgrounds, while the cellular tower authorization provisions remained substantially unchanged.
FISCAL

Added authority for the Department of Agriculture and Commerce to lease naming rights to buildings and property for up to 20 years, with proceeds used for fairground improvements and operating costs.

Added authority to establish a private foundation or nonprofit corporation to receive and disburse private funds for supporting the fairgrounds through fundraising efforts.

Added provision that funds from naming rights and fundraising must be deposited in a special fund and subject to legislative appropriation.

REQUIREMENT

Added requirement that the private foundation or nonprofit corporation be subject to annual financial audits by the State Auditor and auditors of donors.

TECHNICAL

Changed the bill title from 'As Introduced' to 'As Passed the House' and updated formatting throughout the document.

SCOPE

Added new subsections (7) through (10) to Section 2 of the Mississippi Code amendments, covering foundation establishment, special fund management, rule adoption authority, and financial reporting requirements.

Floor votes · House Feb 11, 2025

How they voted

1112
Passed · 6 other
Total votes 119
Feb 11, 2025
D Democratic39
38 Yea 1
97% Yea
I Independent2
2 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican78
71 Yea 2 Nay 5
91% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
8
Key actions
2
Committee
3
Feb 14, 2025
Committee
Referred To Public Property
upper
Feb 12, 2025
Introduced
Transmitted To Senate
lower
Feb 11, 2025
Lower · Passed
Passed
lower
Feb 4, 2025
Lower · Passed
Title Suff Do Pass
lower
Jan 17, 2025
Committee
Referred To State Affairs
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Missy McGee
Missy McGee
RRepublican
MS
102