New innovations continue to make our lives easier. If only the government would get out of our way and let consumers decide for themselves.

Because of new technology, getting around town can feel incredibly easy with companies like Uber and Lyft transforming the way we get from point A to point B. Users now have a choice in what was once controlled by a government-backed monopoly.

The new option is and was largely cheaper, easier, and more convenient. Though government tried, the city of Oxford in particular, ride sharing became so popular that there was little government could do to stop it. 

But while ride sharing has changed how we travel, massive progress has also been made in the field of micromobility where customers can use electric scooters and bikes to travel to their desired destinations. This has helped to solve the first-mile and last-mile gaps for many.  

In the past year dozens of scooter and bike companies have sprung up to meet the needs of consumers expanding to many major and midsized communities, along with college towns. 

Yet at the same time, scooters have hit some roadblocks with city governments opting to ban the service, often describing it as a nuisance. Essentially, the same treatment ridesharing services received from Mississippi governments not too long ago.  

Though scooters are generally designed for urban areas, of which Mississippi has few, residents of midsized communities, particularly college towns, could stand to benefit greatly from local deregulation.  

Oxford and Starkville stand out as the most logical destination for scooters. 

Students would no longer have to worry about parking or missing a bus to class as scooters or electric bikes could supplement their transportation needs. While scooters have never made it to Oxford, they lasted less than a month in Starkville. 

The city brought scooters in on a trial basis, while Mississippi State had a ban in place. Naturally, the confusing laws led many students, the biggest user of scooters, to bring the scooters on to campus, drawing the ire of university officials. Lime, the scooter operator, decided to leave the city as a result. And students were again left without this option. 

In larger cities like Jackson or tourist towns along the Coast, the introduction of scooters could radically transform how transportation is thought about.

The dangers of scooters are not different than the dangers of any other mode of transportation. There are people who are reckless, whether it's on a scooter or behind the wheel. We can control bad behavior without punishing everyone else. The government just needs to err on the side of individual liberty and personal responsibility.

Mississippi has some of the most consumer friendly laws in the country when it comes to buying and using fireworks.

You have probably noticed temporary firework stands set up near your house in the past couple weeks and that is because Mississippi has a defined selling period. Retailers can sell fireworks during the two busiest seasons; from June 15 through July 5 and from December 5 through January 2. And what retailers can sell and you can purchase is largely wide open. 

But while state law provides for much freedom, many municipalities limit the use of fireworks in their city limits. Though not exhaustive, here is the rundown of whether fireworks are legal or illegal in Mississippi cities. 

Fireworks are legal in the following cities:

Bay St. Louis, Horn Lake, Jackson (as of 2011), Natchez, Nettleton, Waveland.

The use of fireworks are banned in the following cities:

Aberdeen, Amory, Biloxi, Columbus, Corinth, D’Iberville, Diamondhead, Fulton, Hattiesburg, Hernando, Laurel, Long Beach, Meridian, Moss Point, Ocean Springs, Olive Branch, Oxford, Pascagoula, Pass Christian,  Petal, Poplarville, Ridgeland, Southaven, Starkville, Tupelo, Vicksburg, West Point.

Disclosure: These regulations are based on recent news stories. Check with local authorities for most updated ordinance. 

The default appears to be illegal, while it is largely legal in unincorporated portions of the counties. 

One of the most common refrains from limiting fireworks is safety concerns and injuries caused by fireworks. But a 2017 report from the U.S. Consumer Safety Commission says “there is not a statistically significant trend in estimated emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries from 2002 to 2017.”

Rest assured, you are more likely to get injured from children’s toys then from fireworks-related injuries. 

Noise is the other big complaint concerning fireworks, particularly after a certain time. Of course, municipal noise ordinances can and already do police that issue.  

So as you celebrate the day which marks our freedom from the tyranny and oppression of another country, make sure you don’t run afoul with our own government regulators that have taken it upon themselves to limit your freedoms.

Civil asset forfeiture allows the government to confiscate property on the grounds that it is connected to a crime — without ever convicting someone of the crime. In court, a lower burden of proof applies in these civil cases than in criminal cases, even when valuable property such as the vehicle you drive to work is at stake.

Proponents of civil asset forfeiture will argue that such a practice is needed to keep illegal drugs out of Mississippi. That this is the best tool to stop drug mules from crossing Interstates 10 and 20 and reaching your neighborhood. But that argument quickly falls apart when you look at the latest data about the reality of how the practice is used both here in Mississippi and in the nation’s largest civil forfeiture program.

A review of the first 18 months of the state’s civil forfeiture database shows Mississippi law enforcement isn’t necessarily busting drug kingpins, but more likely collecting cash, an iPhone, or a vehicle if a person is in possession of an illegal substance. 

The value of the 315 seizures in the database averaged $7,490 per seizure. When a single high-dollar forfeiture is removed from consideration, that average value drops to $5,422. Less than 10 seizures statewide amounted to more than $60,000. 

The vast majority of seizures were for $5,000 or less and fully one-third were for less than $1,000. In two instances, law enforcement seized just $50 in cash. Since attorneys’ fees and court costs quickly add up to more than those amounts, many people don’t even try to contest a low-dollar forfeiture. 

A newly released nationwide study also reveals that civil forfeiture fails to fight crime. The non-profit Institute for Justice published a study looking at the nation’s largest forfeiture program: the federal equitable sharing program. This is the Department of Justice program that allows local law enforcement to cooperate on forfeiture with DOJ agencies and receive up to 80 percent of the proceeds.

The study combines more than a decade’s worth of data from the equitable sharing program, with local crime, drug use and economic data from a variety of federal sources. It found that increased forfeiture proceeds did not help police solve crimes or reduce drug abuse. However, increases in forfeiture proceeds were strongly related to economic hardship. When local unemployment rose by 1 percentage point, forfeiture increased by 9 percentage points. 

Many on the right and left have seen how this practice is unfair, and not in line with our principles. That is why there has been push back at the state level, and even from the U.S. Supreme Court in limiting this practice. 

Since 2014, 31 states, including Mississippi, have reformed their civil forfeiture laws. In 2017, the state brought a transparency requirement to civil forfeiture and last year the legislature let the provision of administrative forfeiture die. 

Other states have gone further. Seventeen states require a criminal conviction to forfeit most or all types of property. And three states – North Carolina, New Mexico, and Nebraska – have abolished civil forfeiture entirely. What does this look like?

New Mexico enacted sweeping reforms in 2015 abolishing civil forfeiture and replacing it with criminal forfeiture. To forfeit property, the government must convict the owner of a crime and tie that property to the crime with clear and convincing evidence in criminal court. This shifts the burden from the individual to the government, by requiring evidence that the person had knowledge of the crime giving rise to the forfeiture. And finally, all forfeiture proceeds must be deposited into the state’s general fund, eliminating the profit incentive that can distort law enforcement priorities.

Civil asset forfeiture violates fundamental property and due-process rights. If someone has been found guilty of selling or trafficking drugs, their property should be forfeited. But it should take a criminal conviction. That is the national mood, and movement.

States like North Carolina, New Mexico, and Nebraska have not become havens for drug dealers or seen spikes in crime. And again, the latest evidence shows that there is not a relationship between increasing forfeiture and decreasing crime and drug abuse. The choice between civil asset forfeiture and fighting crime is a false dichotomy. We know we can support law enforcement, safeguard our communities, and also protect the constitutional rights of all Mississippians. 

This column appeared in the Clarion Ledger on June 30, 2019.

The Rankin County School Board has proposed a budget that calls for a tax increase from property owners.

The fiscal year 2020 budget, which was presented during a board meeting on Wednesday morning, includes a local increase of about $3.5 million from county taxpayers. The final budget will be adopted this fall by the Rankin County Board of Supervisors. 

If the tax increase is adopted, taxpayers will be paying about $20 more per year on a $100,000 house with a 2 mill increase. Homeowners of a $200,000 house will be paying an additional $40. 

Over the past decade, the millage rate in Rankin county has increased from 48.89 to 56.55. The increase would bump it up to 58.55 and represent an increase of almost 20 percent during this time period. 

A look at the school district

The Rankin County School District is the third largest school district in the state, behind just Desoto County and Jackson Public Schools. And while the county continues to grow, the school district does not.

Enrollment in 2013 stood at 19,284. It hasn’t been that high since and the district estimates enrollment to be 19,150 for the upcoming year. School officials regularly use the word “stabilized” to describe the district’s enrollment. Essentially, the district is educating the same number of children eight years later, or even experiencing a slight decline.

These numbers are most noticeable in the early grades. While there were 1,509 students in kindergarten and 1,621 in first grade in RCSD in 2013, this past year there were just 1,365 and 1,438, respectively. 

At the same time, the county’s population has increased from just under 146,000 to 154,000 today. So, people are moving to the county, and/ or having children, they just aren’t going to the district schools in the same proportion. And the district benefits from the revenue they receive for the children they don’t have to pay to educate. 

This has helped the assessed property valuation to only increase. In 2013, it was $1.25 billion. It is now $1.47 billion. 

The tax increase is intended to fund an increase to the local supplement for teachers and other personnel as well as additional safety and security expenditures. Both are important and worthwhile proposals that make very good sense and most would support. In fact, they should be near the top of any budget, rather than asking more of taxpayers. 

Over the past decade, property value has increased by 17.6 percent while enrollment is slightly down. Rankin county taxpayers were hit with a tax hike just a couple years ago. Each time we are told “it’s only a few dollars.”

Perhaps another tax hike would be more tolerable if priority items – such as a teacher pay raise – were prioritized in the budget, rather than being the item the county uses to sell another hike. 

Because when the county takes more money out of my pocket, my options are to either prioritize and cut expenses or earn more income through work. I can’t just propose an unbalanced budget (with more uses than sources) and expect someone else to pick up the tab. 

Ole Miss trash cans have gone high tech. The university is home to new solar-powered, network-connected trash cans that communicate with one another and will let you know when they are full. But they come at a cost. 

According to The Daily Mississippian, the BigBelly garbage cans cost $4,560 per unit. The school is renting them through a five-year lease. They are currently paying $1,900 per month for 25 trash cans. If the university purchased them individually, they would cost $4,000 per unit, about $500 less than the current costs. 

A 36-gallon Global Industrial garbage can, similar to most found on campus, retails for under $500. Supporters say the benefits outweigh the cost. 

Because the new garbage cans communicate with each other, work crews can spend less time on collections by avoiding bins that are not yet full. According to a BigBelly rep, this will reduce collections by about 80 percent. 

This would lead to a reduction in the amount of motorized golf carts used on campus, and by extension, a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. At least according to a study by graduate students at the University of Washington. 

For now, Ole Miss is in a five-year trial period. If the university sees a benefit, it can continue with the lease program or purchase the cans. 

Of course purchasing the cans after the lease would more than double the original cost. Seems like a steep price to introduce “techie trash cans” to Ole Miss so that the air quality can be improved. We’ve never seen any studies warning of us of the poor air quality in Oxford. Then again, it’s hard to put a value on virtue signaling. 

Beware of a future “improved air quality” student fee.

According to an analysis of data, the nation’s second-most popular vacation destination state receives a slim majority of its gasoline tax revenue from tourists.

Florida received about 50.42 percent (more than $822 million) of its 2018 gasoline tax revenue ($1.631 billion) from out of state visitors. Last year, 126.1 million tourists visited the Sunshine State.

In comparison, Mississippi receives about 10 percent of its gasoline tax revenue (more than $423 million in 2018) from its 19,152,000 visitors. 

The state of Florida’s gasoline tax varies by area and is indexed to the general rate of inflation computed by the Consumer Price Index every January. Municipalities and counties can add their own tax, up to 12 additional cents per gallon, for local infrastructure. 

According to the American Petroleum Institute, a weighted average for Florida would be about 41.99 cents per gallon, which is ranked ninth highest by the non-partisan Tax Foundation.

Alabama, which had more than 27 million visitors in 2018, receives about 16.2 percent of its gasoline tax revenue from out of state visitors. In 2018, the state received more than $477 million from its 21.21 cent per gallon gasoline tax, with more than $77 million coming from tourists visiting the state.

The Alabama legislature passed and Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a 10 cent per gallon tax increase that will bump the Yellowhammer State’s ranking from 41st to 21st, which is where Georgia sits (31.59 cents per gallon) at present. The tax hike will be phased in over the next three years.

Running the numbers for Alabama results in a same proportion of fuel tax paid by tourists (16.2 percent), but adds more than $36 million to the state’s gas tax revenues, which could increase by more than $224 million annually.

Louisiana, which had more than 51 million visitors in 2018, received about 16.5 percent of its gasoline tax revenue (more than $459 million in 2018) from out of state visitors, which adds up to more than $75 million. Louisiana’s gasoline tax is 20.01 cents per gallon.

The way we calculated the amount of gasoline tax paid by out of state visitors was based on tourism numbers from each state’s tourism agency. For overnight visitors, we used the occupancy rates at state hotels and multiplied by 365 and subtracted it from the total number of visitors.

We used an average of 24.7 miles per gallon for the average U.S. vehicle and an average round-trip distance (1,240 miles) for out-of-state travelers. We also assumed that any visitor, be they an overnight or day tripper, would buy about 35 percent of their gasoline in their destination state.

The nation’s largest civil asset forfeiture program does not help police fight crime nor does it reduce drug use, two of the most common refrains from proponents of civil forfeiture. 

That is according to a new study from the non-profit Institute for Justice. While each state may have their own civil forfeiture law, the federal equitable sharing program is administered by the Department of Justice. It allows local law enforcement to cooperate on forfeiture with DOJ agencies and receive up to 80 percent of the proceeds.

This study asked the question, how is this program working and is it reaching its goals? Which is to “remove the tools of crime from criminal organizations, deprive wrongdoers of the proceeds of their crimes, recover property that may be used to compensate victims, and deter crime,” according to DOJ. 

It combined data from the program, along with local crime, drug use, and economic data from various federal sources. 

The study found: 

• More forfeiture proceeds do not translate into more crimes solved;
• More forfeiture proceeds also do not mean less drug use;
• When local economies suffer, forfeiture activity increases, suggesting police make greater use of forfeiture when local budgets are tight. A 1 percentage point increase in local unemployment—a standard proxy for fiscal stress—is associated with a statistically significant 9 percentage point increase in seizures of property for forfeiture.

Mississippi has begun to make a move to scale back civil forfeiture. In 2017, the legislature let administrative forfeiture die when the law authorizing the program was not renewed. 

Previously, administrative forfeiture allowed agents of the state to take property valued under $20,000 and forfeit it by merely obtaining a warrant and providing the individual with a notice. In order to get the property back, an individual was required to file a petition in court within 30 days and incur legal fees in order to contest the forfeiture and recover such assets.

The state is still allowed to seize and keep property through civil forfeiture, a process that requires the state to go before a judge for an adjudication of whether the property should be forfeited, even if the owner does not file suit. 

And much like the federal program has not translated into less crime or drug use, the program in Mississippi has generally not led to big drug busts. In fact, if you remove one large bust from the equation, the average value of forfeited property is only $5,422 over the past 18 months. Less than 10 seizures statewide amounted to more than $60,000. One-third were for less than $1,000. 

Rather than busting drug kingpins, law enforcement is more likely seizing iPhones, guns, or small amounts of cash. 

A non-profit organization in Mississippi that was founded in partnership with five of the state’s universities has given more than $2.5 million since 2008 to out-of-state entities for consulting and research.

The Delta Health Alliance is a non-profit organization that receives most of its revenues from government grants and manages 52 education and healthcare programs in the impoverished Delta region in Mississippi.

In 2016, the DHA gave to $443,946 to the Urban Child Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Memphis, for what it termed on its IRS tax forms as evaluations. In 2015, the organization gave the Institute $351,091 and $380,200 in 2014 for what it termed “evaluation management.”

The Urban Child Institute says it’s dedicated to promoting the health of children in Memphis and Shelby County (Tennessee). It receives grants from both the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee, plus the Lebonheur Children’s Hospital Foundation. 

Delta Health Alliance CEO Karen Matthews worked 19 years at the University Of Tennessee Health Science Center.

The University of Illinois received money for four years of consulting services. In 2013, the DHA gave the university $108,008, with $114,636 provided in 2012, $246,672 in 2011 and $137,804 in 2010.

Mathematica Policy Research Inc. received three grants from DHA, with the first in 2008 ($160,000) for external evaluations, the second in 2010 ($313,108) and the third in 2011 ($244,618) for program research.

Princeton, New Jersey-based Mathematica describes itself as a pioneer behind research and policy advancements in health, education, child welfare, criminal justice and other areas, partnering with federal agencies, state and local governments, foundations and universities.

The DHA administers two Promise Neighborhoods (an Obama era U.S. Department of Education program), a medical clinic, headstart programs, anti-obesity and anti-smoking programs among others. 

The organization receives grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. 

DHA’s CEO Matthews has averaged more than $350,000 in pay, bonuses and benefits annually over the last seven years.

The majority of state’s gasoline tax was paid for by Mississippi residents from 2012 to 2018, according to an analysis of tourism data from the Mississippi Development Authority and the Department of Revenue.

Out-of-state visitors accounted for only 10.02 percent of the state’s gasoline tax revenues, on average, from 2012 to 2018. 

According to data from the DOR, the state averaged more than $419 million per year from 2012 to 2018 in gasoline tax revenue and an average of more than $42 million per year originated from out-of-state visitors.

According to the MDA’s tourism economic impact report from 2018, 24 million visitors participated in the state’s economy. Of those, 20.2 percent came from Mississippi, leaving 19,152,000 from out of state.

Of the remainder, 11,874,240 booked a stay overnight in the state, while 7,277,760 just did a day trip.

We used an average of 24.7 miles per gallon for the average U.S. vehicle and an average round-trip distance (1,240 miles) for out-of-state travelers.

Assuming that the out-of-state traveler purchased 35 percent of their gasoline in Mississippi on their trip, that adds up to about 17.57 gallons bought at Magnolia State gas stations. That would add up to about $3.30 in gasoline tax paid per out-of-state, overnight vacationer.

As for day trip enthusiasts, they would likely purchase (assuming that they bought 35 percent of their fuel in this state and 24.7 miles per gallon) about 3.4 gallons per trip into Mississippi.  That adds up to about 64 cents of gasoline tax.

All tourism-related gasoline tax revenues in 2018 would add up to $52,460,176 and removing 20.2 percent of them to account for in-state residents leaves a total of $43,644,073.

Taxpayers will spend $1,105,236,550 on the Mississippi Department of Transportation, with $559 million coming from federal funds and the rest from the state’s petroleum tax. 

The Office of State Aid Roads will have an appropriation of $225,410,848 from special and federal funds, which will help maintain 25,857.04 miles of county roads that are considered “feeder” routes between the state highways. This money also goes to maintaining 5,368 bridges on these routes.

Right now, drivers in Mississippi pay 37.19 cents in state and federal taxes on every gallon of gasoline, about 11 cents a gallon less than the national average. The state’s gas tax was last increased in 1987. 

The federal gas tax has been 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. For every one cent increase, the state’s gasoline tax revenue ($423,642,449 in fiscal 2018) would increase by about $23 million.