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What’s the difference between a tax cut and a tax rebate?  This question may feature prominently during the current legislative session in Jackson.

A tax cut means lowering the amount of tax taken from you by the government.  A tax rebate, on the other hand, means the government giving back some of what it has already taken from you.

A cut in taxes is recurring.  Unless and until our lawmakers vote otherwise, the amount you pay goes down.  With a tax rebate you get a one-off grant – given in an election year.

Mississippi currently has record cash reserves and a large state budget surplus.  Being an election year, you won’t be surprised to hear that all our state leaders support the idea of letting taxpayers have more of their own money. 

The question that divides them is should this be done as a one-off rebate or as a more permanent reduction in the cost of government?

I am not against a tax rebate.  Letting taxpayers keep more of their own money is always a good idea.  I just happen to think that the rebate needs to be recurring; in other words, a tax cut.

Why would anyone be skeptical about a one-off grant given by politicians in an election year?  You only need to ask the question to answer it. 

In 2022, Mississippi’s leaders introduced the largest tax cut in our recent history, reducing the personal income tax rate from about 7 percent to 4 percent.  This was a bold move and at a stroke, they made our state more competitive. 

For the past thirty years, much of the southern United States has flourished.  Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and Florida have prospered.  Even Alabama is doing pretty well.   Why? 

The fastest-growing southern states have low taxes and light regulations.  Far from having one-off tax rebates, Tennessee, Texas and Florida don’t have any income tax at all.

But what about our own state?  Mississippi has not grown nearly as fast.  If we want to be part of the southern success story, we need to cut our taxes to the low level that they are in some of the neighboring states.

In the 2023 legislative session, our lawmakers have the chance to put our state on the road to greater prosperity by giving us meaningful tax cuts, not just a one-off rebate.

Not a single conservative leader in Tennessee, Texas or Florida would run for office proposing the rate of personal income tax that we have in our state today, offset with a mere tax rebate.  It is time for our leaders to be just as bold.

“But will we be able to afford it?” I hear you ask.  Good conservatives should always make sure that the math adds up.

That is why the Mississippi Center for Public Policy published a Responsible Budget for our state at the start of this session.  Working with a former White House economist, Vance Ginn, we show how our lawmakers can keep spending under control and use the large surplus that we have to make tax cuts – not a mere rebate – that we can afford.

The 2023 Legislative Session has begun! It's been a little over a week since the state legislature gaveled in, and hundreds of bills have already been dropped in both chambers. 

As I oversee MCPP's legislative affairs, I will be giving weekly updates to keep you all informed on governmental news, policies we want to highlight - both good and bad - and the status of our agenda throughout the session. 

NEWS

Candidates began qualifying to run for the 2023 elections beginning last week. Candidates have until the end of the month to qualify, but many incumbents have already done so. 

Gov. Tate Reeves and Lt. Gov Delbert Hosemann will be seeking their respective positions for a second term. House Speaker Philip Gunn will not be running for reelection, but Speaker Pro Tem Jason White plans to run again, stating if elected as the new Speaker in 2024, he would gladly accept the role. 

POLICIES

While most bills that have been dropped have not yet been discussed in committee, here are a few that have been introduced so far that we would like to highlight. 

THE GOOD
- HB 31 from Rep. Timmy Ladner provides penalties for knowingly making false accusations of a person committing a crime. This could help prevent misguided harm that could negatively impact reputations of the accused. 
- HB 38 introduced by Rep. Henry Zuber requires new proposed agency rules to be approved by the state auditor. This would allow for more transparency in agency spending. 
- HB 370 from Rep. Shanda Yates allows for a municipal recall. If members of a municipality feel a mayor or local elected official is not performing to the best of their abilities, they can call for the removal of a said official with a petition of signatures. 

THE BAD
- HB 54 by Orlando Paden and both HB 80 and HB 99 by Oscar Denton infringe on our second amendment rights. These bills restrain certain Mississippians from purchasing firearms, an act that goes against our Constitution.
- HB 74 from Charles Young requires that all Mississippians ages 12 or older must carry photo identification with them at all times, and those found without an ID will be fined. While one must have a driver's license to operate a motor vehicle, simply existing does not constitute for means of providing identification. 

THE INTERESTING
- HB 45 from Gene Newman requires trash pickup if someone is found littering as a means of punishment. Along with easily paying a fine, offenders would have to learn from their mistakes by actually reversing their crime.
- HB 133 by Bryant Clark gives two or more municipalities the authority to create a joint police force amongst one another. While logistically I am not sure if this would be very successful, the concept is intriguing.

OUR AGENDA

We are currently working with various lawmakers to see our plans put into action. A full list of MCPP's goals for the legislative session can be found here. 

So far a few bills have already been introduced that support our agenda, with more to come: 
- HB 370 which constitutes a municipal recall, as mentioned above, is a topic MCPP has been a consistent advocate for. 
- HB 9 from Rep. Lee Yancey authorizes pharmacists to test and treat particular minor health conditions. MCPP believes in changing the state's healthcare system for the better, and we support giving pharmacists more jurisdiction. 
- HB 10, also from Rep. Yancey, removes regulations and Certificate of Need requirements for certain medical facilities. While we support the overall removal of CON laws in the state, this is a great first step in repealing an outdated federal mandate that negatively impacts the quality of healthcare. 

With a new year, comes new ideas, and MCPP is excited to promote conservative ideas over the next few months. We hope you'll follow us on this journey as we work toward creating positive change for our dear Mississippi.  

Conservatives in the Mississippi legislature will spend plenty of time considering cultural issues in the 2023 legislative session.  Let’s hope they don’t forget to address the economy, too.

When the Mississippi Center for Public Policy published a Conservative Platform for our state just before the start of the current session, we called for a Woman’s Bill of Rights to counter some of the more extreme ‘woke’ ideology that has started to infect sports.  We also suggested a Parents’ Bill of Rights and proposed a new law to tackle ‘woke’ corporatism.

It’s great to see that these ideas are being taken up and a strong swell of support for them among our lawmakers.  But conservatives also need ideas to improve the economy.  

Here are some things that conservatives in the legislature should look to do this session.

What a farce! Having won a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives back in November, last week the Republicans could not even agree on who should be Speaker.

For the first time in living memory, a Speaker was not elected on the first ballot as a handful of Republican Representatives refused to support Kevin McCarthy. Eventually, after 15 votes – and plenty of concessions to the Republican refuseniks – McCarthy scrapped together just enough votes to get the job.

Such shenanigans, some will scoff, are yet more evidence of America’s political dysfunction. A Trumpian faction, others insist, are so intent on waging war against the political establishment that they are making America ungovernable.

Hang on a second. That narrative is nonsense. What happened last week shows not dysfunction, but the first stirrings of a long overdue renewal within one of Washington’s most moribund institutions.

Lazy journalists might find it easy to portray the Republican refuseniks as Trumpian, but Trump does not explain why they withheld their support from Kevin McCarthy.

The 45th President supported McCarthy for Speaker unequivocally, as did many of his more strident supporters in the House. Indeed, Marjorie Taylor Greene was reported to have him on the end of her cell phone, as she tried to encourage the last few holdouts to fall into line.

What eventually brought the Republican rebels into line was neither Trump nor Greene, but a series of concessions that they wrung from McCarthy.

Sick and tired of watching Congress rubber stamp decisions, they sought a series of changes to the House procedures that would enable them, as the elected representatives of the people, to have a greater say.

Thanks to the concessions they won, in the 118th Congress, there will be a vote on a balanced budget amendment. Efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling must be paired with spending cuts. Appropriations bills will have to be moved individually.

Having served in the British House of Commons for 12 years, a legislature in which individual members have not had the ability to amend budget bills in over a generation, I cannot tell you how vital I believe it is for an effective legislature to have the power of the purse. If Congress were to give up the power to control federal spending, the socialization of America will become both inevitable and irreversible.

Anyone that believes in limited government should cheer the way in which the Republican holdouts secured a set of concessions that will mean Congress can now cap the ability of the administrative state to make discretionary spending decisions. The House will once again have the power to reduce the salary of government officials.

Alarmed at the way that the previous Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, re-wrote the House rule book to give her greater power, Republican refuseniks also insisted on restoring the power to members to trigger a motion of no confidence in the Speaker at any time. The key word here is ‘restore’. The Republican party’s awkward squad in the House successfully sought to give back to members of the House powers that are rightfully theirs.

Back in 2009 in Britain, I tabled a motion of confidence in the Speaker of the House of Commons. This led to the removal of the then Speaker for the first time in over 300 years. The biggest challenge I had in ousting a Speaker who was clearly not up to the job was not garnering support from within the legislature. It was figuring out a procedure to move the motion. It is vital that members of the US House of Representatives retain a clear process for removing a redundant Speaker.

Last, but not least, the rebels won a concession which means that they will have at least 72 hours to review bills before they come to the floor. Stop and ask yourself why this has not been happening in the first place?

Those elected to the House of Representatives are sent to Washington DC to make laws. How are they able to do that if they do not even have time to study and consider the bills they are expected to vote on?

As for the idea that what happened in Washington last week was unprecedented, there have been 14 previous occasions when there were multiple votes to choose a Speaker. Back in the mid-19th century, the 34th Congress took 133 ballots before deciding.

The House might have had to take a couple of extra days to choose a Speaker, but it will be time well spent if it means that our elected lawmakers rediscover how to do their jobs.

Over the past half-century or so, the law in America has ceased to be a set of clearly defined statutes given effect by those that we elect. ‘The law’ has instead come to mean a set of rules generated by various branches of the administrative state to whom Congress has delegated too much decision-making. The power to allocate public money has been given to those that are not directly answerable to the public.

Last week saw a concerted effort to restore to the House of Representatives the role and responsibilities Congress should never have conceded. That is not evidence that American democracy is dysfunctional. It might just show us how American democracy can be renewed.

Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. He was previously a Member of the British Parliament.

Mississippi recently made some significant tax cuts. Thanks to the 2022 Mississippi Tax Freedom Act, over a million Mississippi workers will be better off as the state income tax rate is reduced from around 7 percent to a flat 4 percent.

In the coming legislative session, Mississippi lawmakers have to set a budget for 2024. Some will call for further tax cuts. Others will insist that we cannot afford tax cuts.

What should conservative lawmakers do? To help authentic conservatives in our state, the Mississippi Center for Public Policy has published a responsible budget for our state.

The key to setting a responsible budget, as every householder knows, is to get control of what we spend. We believe that Mississippi’s government spending (general fund appropriations) for 2024 should not exceed $6.75 billion.

To increase spending over and above that amount would mean raising spending per person in our state faster than inflation. That would be un-conservative.

When setting a budget, conservatives that are serious about limiting the size of government ought to follow a simple fiscal rule; any increase in government spending should not exceed the rate of population growth plus inflation.

Before drafting our budget, we took a look at Mississippi government spending over the past decade or so. Unfortunately over the past decade state government spending (the general fund appropriations) has tended to grow rather rapidly. Between 2014 and 2019, state government spending grew faster than population change plus inflation, meaning that the relative size of the state government in Mississippi increased.

The good news, however, is that since 2020 the expansion of the state government in Mississippi has slowed. Spending growth over the past three years has not exceeded changes in population plus inflation.

Genuinely conservative lawmakers should aim to keep things that way in 2024, and not exceed $6.75 billion in spending.

If lawmakers set a responsible budget that keeps control of spending, we estimate that there will be a budget surplus of around 800 million in 2024 – a portion of which could be used to reduce the tax burden yet further.

During the last legislative session, a number of lawmakers argued that we could not afford to cut taxes. If we were not careful, they claimed, we could end up like Kansas.

Kansas did indeed once cut taxes, before having to raise them again when the money ran out. But the money only ran out in Kansas because they failed to get control of spending first.

Here in Mississippi, provided we limit the general fund appropriation to $6.75 billion, there will be not just a surplus, but a sustainable surplus that can be used to cut taxes.

We believe that Mississippi’s budget surplus is both cyclical and structural. That is to say the surplus will not simply disappear as and when the economy slows. Provided Mississippi lawmakers keep spending under control there will be money left over to reduce taxes.

Over the past few decades, the southern United States has flourished. Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and Florida have enjoyed rapid growth. Dallas and Nashville have become go-to places for ambitious young people right across America.

Why are these southern states doing so well? Because they tend to be run by people who appreciate the importance of low taxes and light regulation.

While those that run New York, Chicago and California have raised taxes and red tape, driving businesses away, the south has gone in a very different direction.

Mississippi could be part of this southern success story too – provided we continue to cut taxes. A responsible budget for 2024 that carefully controls spending would be another big step in the right direction.

Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. The Responsible Budget for Mississippi can be read HERE. 

Mississippi’s government spending (general fund appropriations) for the fiscal year 2024 should be no higher than $6.75 billion, according to a new budget report published today.

Any spending increased over and above $6.75 billion would expand the size of government in our state and reduce the scope of future tax cuts.

The Responsible Budget for Mississippi, authored by former White House economist, Vance Ginn Ph.D., applies a simple fiscal rule to determine how much spending should increase:
      a) The level of spending (general fund appropriations) in 2023, plus
      b) The rate of population growth and inflation.

“Conservatives serious about limiting the growth of government in Mississippi should not raise spending faster than inflation and population growth,” said Douglas Carswell, President & CEO. “To do so would be to expand the size of government and to limit the freedom for further tax cuts”.

When preparing the Responsible Budget, Ginn looked at how Mississippi government spending had grown over the past decade. He found that between 2014 and 2019, state government spending grew faster than population change plus inflation, meaning that the relative size of the state government in Mississippi increased. More encouragingly, however, since 2020 the expansion of the state government in Mississippi has slowed relative to inflation and population changes.

With projected general fund revenue collections of $7.5 billion for the FY 2024, a Responsible Mississippi Budget would result in an estimated surplus of $0.8 billion.

"Our Responsible Budget suggests that much of Mississippi’s budget surplus is structural, rather than cyclical. That means that provided we keep control of spending, the surplus will not simply disappear as and when the economy slows," Carswell said. "That means that there is room for tax cuts if we keep spending under control."

With a potential $0.8 billion surplus, Mississippi can afford to further reduce the state’s personal income tax rate as much as possible (e.g., from 4 percent as expected over time from recent tax cuts to 3 percent). The state could also reduce corporate income taxes.

A link to the Responsible Budget can be found here.

The AFP state director writes that the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act are the two most sweeping, dangerous antitrust bills introduced in Congress.

Our mission at Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Mississippi is to help everyday citizens realize their full potential and contribute to society in a meaningful and unique way. We push for all Mississippians to gain the tools, skills, and freedoms necessary to achieve their goals on their own terms without the burden of heavy regulations and government interference. The recent efforts by some lawmakers to dismantle America’s most successful tech firms is one example of unwanted government intrusion that threatens AFP’s mission and the prosperity of Mississippi and its people.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) and the Open App Markets Act (OAMA) are the two most sweeping and dangerous antitrust bills introduced in Congress to date. Both the AICOA and the OAMA are a response to unfounded concerns that certain companies, like Meta, Amazon, and Google, have become monopolies that dominate all avenues of the tech market. The AICOA seeks to eliminate “unfair” practices, such as self-preferencing – a company utilizing its own service or product on its own platform – while the OAMA aims to do away with the convenience of pre-installed apps and app stores on smart devices, among other restrictions. 

In a capitalist economy, antitrust law is essential because it ensures competition among businesses and industries, benefiting consumers by providing more choices and keeping costs low. This is known as the consumer welfare standard – the guiding principle of antitrust law in the United States for decades. The consumer welfare standard states that the ultimate goal of antitrust law is “economic efficiency” and that the consumer’s well-being should come before all other agendas. The primary issue with the AICOA and the OAMA is that the consumer welfare standard is being completely discarded and used as a pawn in the political power games of Washington. 

Many of America’s most well-known and successful tech companies have created easy-to-use digital tools and services on which countless consumers depend. Most importantly, these tools and services are affordable. After an unprecedented, global pandemic that halted our economy and left consumers and entrepreneurs reeling with uncertainty, access to low- or no-cost tools or services is critical for small business owners. In fact, AFP’s True Cost of Washington Tour has shed a light on how “Bidenomics” has negatively impacted American families across the country, and if the AICOA and OAMA are allowed to move forward, it will only add insult to injury for America’s struggling consumers and their loved ones.

It would be difficult to overstate the impact technology has had on small businesses and startups. In Mississippi, Google alone has helped over 150,000 small businesses get off the ground and grow their business with their readily available, affordable, and user-friendly digital tools. Tech companies have also partnered with many state and local chambers of commerce in Mississippi to teach free classes on how to use their digital tools. Many of these companies have also invested billions in the Magnolia State, making Mississippi a new hub for innovation and bringing hundreds of jobs and new revenue streams to the state. If the proponents of these tech antitrust bills get their way, this progress will come to a screeching stop.

Fortunately, the AICOA and the OAMA have thus far failed to advance past the floor in either chamber, but antitrust legislation could find itself on the docket again in the lame-duck session. We cannot let up; we must make it known to our Mississippi elected officials and others in Congress that the AICOA and the OAMA must be defeated once and for all. To all who call the Magnolia State home and rely on tech, rest assured that AFP Mississippi has your back in this fight.

Submitted by Starla Brown. She is the State Director of Americans for Prosperity, an allied organization of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

The Mississippi State Legislature recommends dissolving the Mississippi Board of Barber Examiners. 

Mississippi should abolish the Board of Barber Examiners, says a new report from the state legislature. Mississippi’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee – or PEER committee – has proposed that both the Barber Board and the Cosmetology Board be dissolved.

This is great news. It is absurd that Mississippi has more restrictive practices in place limiting the number of barbers than most other states. As the PEER report says, the Barber board is not very good at what it does; "the Board examination practices are not very effective at evaluating a candidate’s effectiveness."

Nor, suggests the report, is the Board particularly well run.

With fewer than four out of 10 applicants approved for a license last year, some might suggest that the barber board exists to limit the number of people able to operate as barbers. This is just to sort of restrictive practice Mississippi needs to do away with.

"But what about the dangers of unlicensed barbers?!" some will shriek. "How will Mississippi manage without a Board of Barber Examiners?"

Curiously, the Barber Examiner Board doesn’t seem to have been that into examining. In 2022, the Board’s inspectors only conducted 191 inspections of the 2,134 barber shops and schools licensed by the Board. If the vast majority of barbers could cope without an inspection, why have an inspection board at all?

Why does this new report matter? Actually, this is about much more than barbers. It is about a new Mississippi mindset.

For years, economic and business activity in our state has been regulated by vested interests entrenched in the local bureaucracy. This latest report is based on a realization that things do not have to be that way.

If we can cope without a Barber board, we might not need dozens of other regulators and boards, such as the Charter School Authorizer board, whose main activity seems to be to say ‘no’.

Interestingly, the report cites Mississippi’s new universal licensing law as a reason for reform. With it now much easier for those that have obtained certification out of state to get permission to practice in Mississippi, our homegrown restrictive practices are all the more evident.

Change is coming, and hopefully, it will sweep away more than just the Barber Board.

Mississippi has some excellent local newspapers.  But there also seem to be a number of Mississippi media outlets that love to talk our state down.

Take the recent example of the Jackson water crisis.  What ought to have been a straightforward news story about incompetent city officials failing to provide clean water was twisted by the left-wing media into a narrative about inequality and race. 

National media outlets were always going to want to jump at the chance to misrepresent what was really happening in our state.  They cheerfully ignored the actual causes of Jackson’s water crisis and wrote a narrative that read to me like fiction.  But what I struggle to understand is why Mississippi’s own media outlets would – with a few notable exceptions - rush to join in? 

Armed with their local knowledge, Mississippi’s home-grown media ought to have helped set the record straight, as several writers in this newspaper did.  But many others chose not to.

We need to have a discussion as to why much of Mississippi’s progressive media seems to delight in portraying our state in a negative light.  Perhaps those that fund Mississippi’s anti-Mississippi media don’t understand the damage this does to our state? 

Maybe they don’t care, provided they are able to bolster their progressive credentials?   Part of me suspects that Mississippi’s media and those that fund them feel the need to put Mississippi down as a way of signaling their supposed moral superiority relative to the rest of us. 

A recent arrival from England, I love Mississippi.  I find being upbeat about this state is remarkably easy, and I take every opportunity to explain to outsiders why this is such a wonderful place. 

But don’t just take my word for it.  Look at how folks are voting with their feet; Mississippi’s population had been falling for as long as anyone can remember – until now.  For the first time in decades, Mississippi’s population is starting to grow. 

Part of this is down to the fact that our state leaders have begun to make Mississippi much more business-friendly.  Earlier this year, Mississippi implemented the largest tax cut in the state’s history, reducing the state income tax was cut from an average of 7 percent to a flat 4 percent. 

Mississippi has begun a far-reaching red tape reduction strategy, giving people with professional qualifications issued in other US states a near automatic right to practice in Mississippi. 

Mississippi might have pockets of poverty, but please don’t let any media organizations tell you that this state is poor and backward.  In the past 20 years, our state’s income per person income has more than doubled. 

Growth has been so strong, in fact, that over the next 12 months, the per capita income of Mississippi ($45,881 in 2021) is expected to overtake that of my own country, the United Kingdom ($47,202 in 2021). A generation ago, Britain was roughly twice as wealthy per person as Mississippi.  Never let the left-wing media tell you that tax cuts and deregulation don’t work.

The really interesting news story about our state is that we are on the up.  Mississippi is on a similar trajectory to that taken by other southern states, like Tennessee, Texas and Florida.   Thanks to conservative leadership, those states are thriving, and help explain why the south has become the fastest-growing part of the US.

I cannot imagine why the progressive media don’t want to write about why free markets work.  Perhaps that tells us more about them than it does about our state. 

Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

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