Ag Commissioner: 2 bills could prevent State Fair, Dixie National Rodeo from being on fairgrounds if passed

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - A money grab — that’s what Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson is calling two bills that would put restrictions on the way money is spent for events at the fairgrounds.

“We’re stirred up about it, all of our sponsors are stirred up about it, they need to fix it,” said Gipson. “They’re just trying to do a big giant money grab and leave us with a big pan of biscuits and the people of Mississippi are not going to stand for that. I promise you I won’t.”

At the center of Gipson’s frustration are two bills.

First, you have House Bill 1357. It revises the powers and duties of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce regarding the State Fairgrounds.

Then there’s Senate Bill 2631. It amends the Department of Agriculture’s ability to expend funds provided for the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum.

Gipson said he spoke to the authors of both bills, letting them know he opposes the legislation.

“I said you’re going to take private sponsorship money, and you’re going to suck it into the state,” Gipson recalled. “He said, Yeah, those are state dollars because we appropriated them. I said, Hogwash. The moment you do that, those sponsors are leaving town. They’re going to spend their money somewhere else, give it to somebody else that won’t mess with them.”

If the bills become law, Gipson said it could prevent events like the State Fair and Dixie National Rodeo from happening at the fairgrounds.

“It is operated 100 percent off of private sponsorship donations,” Gipson expressed. “The moment that the legislature takes all of those funds away, all we’ll have left is an empty pan of biscuits. No more biscuit booths because we’ll have to wait for them to tell us how much we can spend down here to have these events, and the state taxpayers will be on the hook for it. That’s a horrible policy.”

Gipson is now offering to make amendments to the bills.

“We need to exempt every event that is funded in whole or in part by private sponsorship dollars, and when we do that, it’ll be ok,” said Gipson.

Senator Neil Whaley and Representative John Read are the authors of the two bills.

When asked why he thinks lawmakers are trying to pass them, Gipson said he thinks this is the state’s way of trying to micromanage state agencies.

So far, the bills have not come up for a vote in either chamber.

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