Mississippi Today launches ‘Follow the Money’ project tracking state’s federal spending

As elected officials at every level of the Mississippi government decide how to spend more than $10 billion (and counting) in federal funds, Mississippi Today has launched “Follow the Money,” a newsroom-wide project that will closely track that spending and hold leaders accountable.

This historic influx of cash, most of it from coronavirus stimulus packages and the new infrastructure package, will provide Mississippi leaders a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address generational problems like:

• The absence of employment opportunities across much of our state, which leaves so many Mississippians stuck in a cycle of poverty and lacking the resources to get out.

• Public schools that have been starved for resources and dependent upon an inequitable funding formula that’s gone underfunded by billions of dollars since its inception….(Excerpts from Mississippi Today)