I hope all is well!

The Legislature continues to move at full speed. It is critical that Mississippi citizens stay informed so that they can remain knowledgeable about how their legislators are representing them and whether those legislators are working to safeguard our fundamental rights and liberties.

Here’s your update on The Good, The Bad, and The Interesting. I hope you find it helpful!

The Good:
- Gov. Reeves announced a new program to support Mississippi military families. The initiative will highlight ways that schools can be more flexible and supportive of students who move districts due to military requirements.

- HB 917 by Rep. Jansen Owen would remove burdensome obstacles from those seeking to participate in home-based work. With thousands of businesses being started from Mississippians’ homes during the pandemic, it makes tremendous sense that we would reward these folks with continued opportunity rather than punishing their innovative efforts.

- HB 512 by Rep. Trey Lamar would remove the Department of Revenue from being the distributor of alcohol for the state and would allow for the creation of a free-market-oriented system. It is about time the state eliminated the final remnants of prohibition. Controlling the sale of alcohol is not an essential task of the government.

The Bad:
- SB 2164 would create a Department of Tourism. I am all for encouraging people to come and enjoy the beauties of Mississippi, but we don’t need to continue the government’s vast expansion to accomplish this. Too often, these new departments replicate existing efforts but through a consolidated format that ultimately ends up costing the taxpayers more money.

- A range of Mississippi news outlets are pushing for the state to expand Medicaid. The facts are clear – Medicaid expansion has consistently failed to deliver the desired results. The care that is given often fails to be better than that received without coverage and, in some cases, is actually worse.
Furthermore, up to 50% of payments that the system makes in other states are improper and fraudulent. Altogether, there is no reason to put further trust in a ship that is already sinking. Pushing folks into a broken welfare trap that is spiraling out of control while failing to offer basic care is not compassionate, it’s reckless.

The Interesting:
- Many of y’all were interested in HB 1487, which makes One Mississippi by Steve Azar the official song of Mississippi. This bill passed the House and will soon be considered by the Senate. What do you think some potential alternatives to this could be?

Let me know what you think about these policy issues and others moving being considered by the legislature. As always, if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to reach out!

All the Best,

Hunter Estes
Senior Director, Policy & Communications

A tremendous amount has happened under the dome of our Capitol building in the past week. The House and Senate had deadlines to move bills from their own respective chambers. So now they will begin considering legislation from each other.

All the Best,

Hunter Estes
Senior Director, Policy & Communications

My apologies for not getting you a legislative update these past few weeks. I have been out of the office for two weeks of Army National Guard training. It feels good to be back, and I’m very glad to be spending more time walking through the Capitol than walking through the woods.

Without further delay, here’s a quick catch up on some of the good, the bad, and the interesting from this week:

The Good:
- HCR 39 from Speaker Philip Gunn would create a new initiative process that would allow Mississippians to make their voices heard. This is a major win for all those who wanted to see a revival of the initiative process in some capacity.
- HB 599 from Rep. Dana Criswell and Rep. Brady Williamson extends important accountability and transparency measures to counties and municipalities. This will guarantee that citizens have more clear access to how their local governments are run.
- HB 917 from Rep. Jansen Owen ensures the freedom to operate for home-based businesses. A record number of new businesses were created during the pandemic, many of these, home-based. These entrepreneurs should be applauded, and we support all efforts to guarantee their continued freedom to operate.
- SB 2797 from Sen. John Polk would require state agencies to report potential deficits and necessitate that they work with the state auditor’s office to reduce expenses. This is a positive way to tighten budgets and eliminate government waste of taxpayer money.

The Bad:
- SB 2731 reduces the income reporting requirements for food stamp recipients and increases the potential for welfare waste and abuse. With the massive amount of fraud that already exists within our welfare systems, there is no reason to loosen existing accountability measures. We need to ensure these programs are helping those they’re meant to, not those that want to cheat the system.

The Interesting:
- The Legislature is considering a vast range of pay raises for government employees across the state. Those individuals may very well deserve a pay raise, but I just wish the average Mississippian would see their pay increase as consistently as our public servants’ salaries do.
- HB 1487establishes the song “One Mississippi” by Steve Azar as our official state song. Personally, I think I prefer the Kane Brown version.

There’s a lot moving at the Capitol right now, I’ll do my best to keep you updated as we continue to fight for liberty here!

All the Best,

Hunter Estes
Senior Director, Policy & Communications

Ps. Be sure to follow our Facebook and Twitter pages for detailed updates about the legislative session. Check out our Legislative Tracker, too.

We are now over a week into this year’s legislative session. Hundreds of bills have already been dropped in the House and Senate on a vast range of topics.

Let’s jump right into the update on The Good, The Bad, and The Interesting…

The Good:

• HB 464, the College Sticker Price Act of 2022, from Rep. Donnie Bell, would have Mississippi higher education institutions create a public calculator that would allow prospective students to better understand the costs of college and the availability of technical and vocational programs. This bill would be a big win for transparency within higher education and would help to strengthen the Mississippi workforce and give prospective students the capacity for greater reflection before deciding on career paths.

• HB 415 and SB 2089, from Rep. Nick Bain and Sen. Angela Hill respectively, would both place limitations on the salary of the Mississippi State Superintendent. MCPP’s Fat Cat Report, released over the summer, revealed the largesse that exists in the salaries of many public officials. We currently have one of the highest-paid superintendents in the nation. We applaud these attempts to reel in the administrative state.

• HB 231, from Rep. Lee Yancey, would authorize public and private employee exemptions from Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Government vaccine mandates, especially those concerning private businesses, are a massive overstep of governmental authority. This is a good bill that defends the freedom of Mississippians from encroachment.

• HB 493, from Rep. Steve Hopkins and Rep. Dana Criswell, would give greater freedom to licensed physical therapists to help patients. With skyrocketing healthcare costs, we need to take substantive steps like this to reduce barriers to access and drive down costs.

The Bad:

• HB 54 would automatically register voters. Clean voter rolls have become a major issue for Mississippi and states across the nation. Areas that have instituted similar policies have often had tremendous difficulty with messy voter rolls with a range of folks becoming or remaining registered who should not.

The Interesting:

• Speaker Philip Gunn released the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act of 2022. The legislation seeks to get rid of the income tax, which would have a profound impact on the Mississippi economy and would allow hardworking Mississippians to keep more of their own money. We’ll be reviewing the legislation and providing further details on the impact of the bill.

• HB 444 would create a committee to produce an official state song of Mississippi. We can only hope that if this happens then Gov. Reeves, Speaker Gunn, and Lt. Gov. Hosemann will offer the first rendition of the new tune.

As bills move through the legislative process, you can stay updated on them, learn about what they do, and find out how your legislators are voting through our Legislative Tracker.

If you have questions about upcoming legislative issues, please feel free to send me a question.

All the Best,

Hunter Estes, Senior Director of Policy & Communications

Mississippi Center for Public Policy CEO Douglas Carswell appeared on Fox News’ The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton to discuss our major new investigative report.

You can watch the full interview and discussion of the report here:

The report has a range of interesting findings, including:

• Dozens of public officials in Mississippi are paid more than the State Governor ($122,160 per year), who does not even rank in the top fifty highest paid officials.
• Mississippi’s State Superintendent for Public Education earns $300,000 per year, making them one of the highest paid State Superintendents in America.
• Almost half the highest paid public officials listed are education bureaucrats.
• 61 State District Superintendents make more that the State Governor.  
• Of the 24 School District Superintendents that feature on our list of the top highest paid public officials in Mississippi, the average salary is $175,000 – more than the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court earns.  The average annual salary of these 24 Superintendents is the approximate equivalent to:
• 5 teachers 
• 4 registered nurses
• 4 State Troopers
• 4 – 5 average Mississippian workers incomes

You can read the full report here: https://mspolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Fat-Cat-Report-2021-Final.pdf

Protesters around the world seem to know what too many Americans have forgotten: that the American flag is the greatest symbol of independence and liberty that has ever been known. 

That is exactly why a number of Cubans continue to wave and march with American flags in their hands as they protest the failing communist regime on the island.

Thousands of protesters in over 40 cities have now taken to the streets in Cuba to declare their desire for freedom and voice their frustrations with their communist authoritarian government. This is no small thing. Never before have we seen in Cuba protests of this scale.

These are people who know the potential cost of their actions. Their public opposition to the regime could mean their death. Already, over 100 people have gone missing. Dozens have been arrested. Protesters have been beaten by security forces. Cuba’s president has labeled protesters “counter-revolutionaries” and has called for force against them.

For over 60 years, dictators have run Cuba, oppressing the people and stifling growth and prosperity. While the people starve, party elites have sucked up power and wealth. While housing crumbles, new hotels and resorts are built to bring money to the government. While the communists declare liberation, they silence and crush the freedoms of the people.

In order to stifle the protests and the transmission of videos highlighting government violence, the Cuban government shut down internet on the island. This was a blatant attempt to block communications amongst the grassroots organizers of this tremendous display of opposition.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis even called on Florida-based companies to attempt to provide internet access to the people of Cuba during this time. He noted in a press conference that communist regime leaders “don’t want the truth to be out, they don’t want people to be able to communicate.”

Just 90 miles away from American shores, many of the Cuban people look to our nation for hope. Thousands of Americans themselves have experienced the horrors of the Cuban regime or have relatives that are still there, which makes this moment all the more important.

Every American should seek to support the Cuban people and denounce the communist government. After 60 years, a nation stands stuck in the past, clinging to a broken economic and political system that has left far too many in poverty. Our political leaders should be held to account and we ought to demand the utmost clarity in their condemnations of the Cuban regime.

The failures of the Cuban government are a stark reminder to those who call for socialism and communism to be implemented in the United States. Those political ideologies have failed in both a spectacular and consistent manner. They have failed systematically across cultures and continents. The loud cries of the Cuban people should be a chilling wake-up call to all those who advocate for or tolerate these vicious ideologies in Mississippi and the rest of the United States.

US Senators have blocked the passage of a bill that would have fundamentally overhauled America’s election process.

As I noted in a video a few days ago, the bill, dubbed the “For the People Act,” is anything but for the people. This radical legislation would have dramatically altered how elections are run in our country. Frankly, it boils down to a federal takeover of the election system that we’ve preserved in this nation for the last 200 years.

The bill lost by only one vote, showcasing the intense divide that currently exists in the US Senate.

Here are some of the worst parts of this (now dead) bill:

- It authorizes the IRS to investigate and consider the political and policy positions of nonprofits when these groups apply for tax-exempt status. This would make room for political targeting via taxation. Imagine the chilling effect on speech that would occur if the IRS was constantly staring down non-profits and threatening punishment if the wrong thing is said or the wrong idea is advanced.

-It would eliminate state voter ID laws that verify the identity of voters and strengthen election security. The vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum continue to support voter ID laws.

-It pushes a one-size fits all redistricting model on every state. The bill would strip voters of their ability to decide how districts are drawn. 

-It would force the public to fund candidates running for Congress. Nobody should be forced to fund political campaigns involuntarily.

-It would limit the capacity for states to clean their voter rolls. This bill would have made it even harder to clean up these lists. This makes it more likely that folks who have died, moved away, are ineligible, are noncitizens, or are registered multiple times will be left on voter lists. Why would any official want to make it more difficult for states to have accurate voter lists?

-The bill would have automatically registered any individual who has an interaction with a state agency such as the DMV. To be clear, this does not refer just to eligible citizens. It would have registered every individual no matter if they’re simply a resident or even if they should not be voting. There is absolutely no sensible reason to register those who should not be voting.

-It would require that all states allow for absentee ballots on demand. Furthermore, it allows for ballot harvesting, a process by which campaign officials and other political actors can work to collect absentee ballots. This practice has been widely criticized by folks across the political aisle.

-It would force states to allow for online registration and unaccountable same day registration without oversight.

-Finally, it dramatically restricts the free speech rights of candidates, citizens, and nonprofits by enacting a range of new regulations.

Thankfully, the bill is dead. This is thanks, in part, to the “No” votes of both Senator Roger Wicker and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.

The bill will undoubtedly be reintroduced again. However, its death strikes a major blow at efforts to centralize election control and remake Mississippi’s election laws in the vein of New York or California’s systems.

***For Immediate Release***

(Baton Rouge, LA/Jackson, MS): The Pelican Center for Technology and Innovation, a division of the Pelican Institute, and the Mississippi Technology Institute, a division of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, have released a comprehensive joint report on the status of broadband internet access in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The report can be read in its entirety here.

The state-based technology centers seek to provide information to policymakers and the general public on removing barriers to broadband deployment and being proactive to get the two states more digitally connected.

In a day of telework, remote learning, telemedicine, and increasing digital connectivity, there is a growing need for fast and reliable internet service. As policymakers work to address the questions surrounding broadband coverage, speed, cost, and infrastructure development, the report aims to provide a comprehensive point of reference.

Eric Peterson, Director of the Pelican Center for Technology and Innovation, noted: "In order to close the digital divide, lawmakers must be armed with the information necessary to overcome the challenges of broadband implementation. Lawmakers need to be informed on what areas lack access and what issues cause lower adoption rates. By understanding the causes of problems in broadband deployment, lawmakers will be able to make great strides in closing the digital divide."

The report emphasizes data-driven public policy as a driving force behind successful broadband deployment. Matthew Nicaud, Tech Policy Specialist for the Mississippi Technology Institute, noted: “Broadband deployment has extensive implications on the state infrastructure, economy, budget, education, tech innovation, and business growth. By providing data about the current status of broadband deployment, we hope to provide policy recommendations that are fiscally responsible and economically successful.”

The report was produced as a joint initiative by the technology divisions of the Pelican Institute and the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

For more information on the report or to request an interview, please reach out to Hunter Estes, [email protected], at the Mississippi Center for Public Policy or Ryan Roberts, [email protected] at the Pelican Institute.

***End***

Prohibition was ended decades ago, yet it continues to leave a lasting legacy on the state of Mississippi.

Whether you prefer beer, liquor, wine, or no alcohol at all, most folks can agree that Mississippi retains a range of laws that unfairly hamper the free market when it comes to the alcohol industry.

A range of bills seeking to open the market and expand consumer options were introduced in the legislature this year. Here is a recap of what passed and what failed:

Delivery of Alcohol from Local Liquor Stores: (Success) One can now successfully order alcohol from local liquor stores. Using Drizzly, PostMates, UberEats, or any other delivery app that provides options for the purchase of alcohol, a new permit allows for individuals to bring alcohol right to your front door.

Direct Shipment of Alcohol from Out-of-State: (Failure) While you can successfully order alcohol and have it sent to your door via an app, don’t try to order wine or liquor from out of state. Mississippi continues to bar its citizens from enjoying alcoholic beverages from other parts of the country. If you think it’s a bit unreasonable that you can have alcohol sent to your door through an app but can’t have it delivered from another state, then we’re on the same page.

Distillery Sales Expansion: (Failure) This bill would have expanded the ability of distilleries to sell drinks on their premises. The adjusted permit would have empowered distilleries to more effectively compete by selling their products on site for consumption.

Ending State Prohibition: (Failure) Mississippi is technically still a “dry” state. However, policy allows for counties to have a vote and opt to become “wet” and allow for the sale of alcohol. This process is extremely burdensome and restrictive. This legislation would have switched the procedure and made Mississippi open to the sale of alcohol unless a county otherwise voted to be “dry.”

Removal of State Monopoly on Distribution: (Failure) An attempt was made to remove the state entirely from its monopoly over the distribution of alcohol. Unfortunately, this bill failed. You may have noticed chronic shortages and limited supplies at your local liquor store. This problem largely rests with the consistently delayed, backed up, and slow distribution system. 

All of Mississippi’s liquor runs through one warehouse. The warehouse represents central planning at its finest. Local stores have difficulty getting more niche drinks and orders are constantly delayed. Why our state continues its failed attempt to compete with the market by crowding out all other potential distributors continues to astound me.

The bill would have ended the state’s monopoly over distribution and created a range of permits for private businesses to step into the gap and take advantage of the new economic opportunities which are currently being stifled by the government.

This would be a win, not only for the free market and those who oppose government centralized planning but also for small businesses and consumers. Liquor stores should face less delays and back-ups and also have a wider array of options as to what they would like to stock. Consumers are more likely to see their preferred drink on the shelves and also gain access to the larger variety of drinks that could be available.

Sale of Wine at Grocery Stores: (Failure) Unfortunately a bill that would have expanded the ability for grocery stores to sell wine failed. It is likely that this continued prohibition on the sale of wine is incentivizing some businesses from entering the state market entirely.

Authorization of Microbreweries: (Success) This newly passed legislation changes the state code to allow for the authorization of microbreweries. This is a win for the free market, especially since recent statistics show that Mississippi is last in the nation for microbreweries per capita.

When it comes to alcohol, Mississippi has a long way to go in order to end its command-and-control system and establish truly free market policies. While this year’s legislative session has brought about some success regarding microbreweries and alcohol delivery, true alcohol freedom remains elusive. Hopefully, next year, we will be able to raise a glass and cheer a wider set of policy successes.