MS Today: “The Senate, minutes before a final vote on a $3 billion K-12 education budget Friday, realized it included paying $300,000 to a company the state has filed charges against and is suing to recoup $795,000 in the long-running Mississippi welfare scandal.
The budget proposal would have ordered the state education department to pay $300,000 to Lobaki Inc. for a pilot virtual reality program for schools. Senate leaders said House negotiators put the measure in. A House leader said that’s not true, but he’s unsure who put it in the proposed budget.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services in December added the Jackson-based company to its lawsuit aiming to claw back $77 million in misspent or stolen federal welfare dollars sent to Mississippi. The civil lawsuit is ancillary to state and federal criminal prosecution and continuing investigations into misuse of money meant to help the poor.
The state welfare agency accuses Lobaki of accepting $795,000 in federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds from two private nonprofits to deploy and operate a virtual reality academy in Jackson.
Senate leaders on Friday said the line item was put in by House budget negotiators — they wouldn’t say whom — and they didn’t know anything about it. House leaders did not immediately respond to questions about the line item, other than a spokeswoman for Speaker Philip Gunn said she did not think it was in the budget proposal.”