Secretary of State Michael Watson says Attorney General Lynn Fitch ghosted him when he asked for help enforcing public tidelands leasing laws, and that her inaction is costing taxpayers and threatening a precious public resource as he hires a private firm to do the work.
Mississippi currently has 152 tidelands leases, and collects between $10 million and $12 million a year from them. Watson said the issues for which he is asking for help are not complex, but “basic contract and trespass law.”
Like his secretary of state predecessors since legalized casino gambling in the early 1990s sparked a development boom on the Coast, he has faced some blowback from trying to enforce state tidelands laws and leasing. Developers, business interests and some local government leaders claim it hampers development, while environmental groups decry the state for being too willing to lease tidelands and allowing development in environmentally fragile tidelands that could hampers public access to water.
Mississippi law says it’s the public policy of the state to preserve coastal wetlands and ecosystems.
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