AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEFRAYING THE EXPENSES OF THE STATE FIRE ACADEMY FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2027.
HB1910 is the Mississippi State Fire Academy appropriation bill for Fiscal Year 2027. It provides $7,847,433 from the State General Fund and $480,000 from special funds to support the academy’s operating expenses, including salaries, benefits, vacancy funding, and other agency costs. The bill also sets out detailed spending controls for personal services, headcount limits, salary administration, and compliance with the state’s variable compensation and personnel rules.
The bill further earmarks money for specific academy needs. It allocates $764,595 for the Instructional Pay Plan, $350,000 from the Capital Expense Fund for refurbishment of the campus water system used for instruction, and $130,000 for vehicle pool replacements. It also reappropriates $100,000 for the water system project and $75,000 for a specialty rescue truck from prior-year capital expense authorizations, subject to unspent balances and the original purposes of those funds. The act takes effect July 1, 2026.
HB1910 continues and refines the annual state funding structure for the Mississippi State Fire Academy, authorizing operating appropriations, capital-related spending, and carryforward of certain prior appropriations into FY2027. It does not create new regulatory programs, but it does direct how the academy may spend state funds, including limits on personal services, vacancy funding, transfers, escalations, and procurement preferences. The bill also reinforces existing state budget and personnel statutes, including compliance with the Mississippi Performance Budget and Strategic Planning Act, Section 27-104-25 on spending within appropriations, and Section 25-9-147 on the Variable Compensation Plan.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial. It passed the House 121-0, the Senate 51-0, and the House concurred in the Senate amendment 120-0, indicating unanimous or near-unanimous legislative approval at each stage. The absence of committee transcript material suggests there was little recorded public dispute or debate around the measure.
There is no evident substantive opposition in the available record, but the bill contains the kinds of budget controls that can sometimes draw attention in appropriations debates: limits on headcount growth, restrictions on how vacancy funding may be used, and requirements for approval before salary escalations. The only notable policy-specific allocations are the campus water system refurbishment and specialty rescue truck reappropriations, which are tied to prior authorizations and limited to unspent balances. Because the bill is an agency appropriation measure, any contention would likely have centered on funding levels, capital priorities, or personnel management rules rather than on broader policy disagreements.