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Mississippi wildlife, parks ask for $21M in general funds and $18.8M in capital projects
Summary
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks asked the appropriations subcommittee for roughly $21 million in general funds and $18.8 million in capital expense funding to complete state-park improvements, shore up law‑enforcement pay and fund museum and fisheries projects.
Commissioner (speaker 2) told the Appropriations Subcommittee the department has seen improvements in conservation-officer retention after an average roughly 8% salary increase and credited recent appropriations for upgrades to state parks, hatchery stocking and museum offerings. "That support has made a difference in what we're able to get done," he said.
Kathy Roberts, the department's budget lead, laid out the FY27 request: $7.4 million for state-park salaries, $3.7 million for the Museum of Natural Science, $10.1 million for law-enforcement salaries and a continuing $400,000 request for chronic wasting disease testing. Roberts said the general-fund total is about $21 million. The capital expense request is $18.8 million targeted to upgrades at six parks, listing projects such as JP Coleman ($4.5 million), Lake Lincoln ($5 million) and Waldoxie ($5.5 million). She also sought $2 million for Lake Lamar Bruce site renovations and $1,000,001.25 for mobile teaching vans for statewide outreach.
Committee members pressed for more detail on how salary increases would be distributed and asked for a breakdown of where additional general dollars would go. The chair requested a later submission showing exactly which positions received the raises. Senator Barnett and others raised concerns about park-selection priorities and how leased "core" parks are handled; the department said it is negotiating swaps and will not spend capital funds on parks it does not own. On chronic wasting disease, the commissioner said the department has taken about 6,200 samples this season and logged 117 positives, and that live-testing remains imperfect: "It's got about a 60 percent rate of . . . detection probability," he said.
The department said tiny homes have been popular in parks and could be expanded, and noted it can draw matching funds (roughly $7.8 million) on the $18.8 million request to increase the total investment in park work.
What happens next: lawmakers asked the department to supply more granular payroll and capital details before final appropriations decisions.
