MCPP CEO & President Douglas Carswell was featured in an article discussing the Jackson water crisis. The story appeared in The Epoch Times.

MCPP President & CEO Douglas Carswell went to Washington D.C. this past week.

While people may have different opinions on some of the people there, DC is an impressive capital city. The Capitol Dome and the Washington monument are proud symbols of an America that believes in herself.

Douglas got to meet lots of fascinating folks at key conservative think tanks and foundations to learn more about what they are doing to fight for freedom at a federal level.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy has also attracted a lot of interest given our success in delivering a conservative agenda in our state.

Mississippi might be one of the smaller states in the Union, but there is a lot of interest in how our state managed to cut the state income tax. Conservatives in the capital also wanted to hear about our occupational licensing law, the bill enacted to combat Critical Race theory and how MCPP helped defeat the Biden vaccine mandate.

Our policy wins are important because almost all of the great policy innovations in America come from the states, not from the federal government in Washington. For example, it was midwest states, not DC that came up with the notion of Charter Schools. It was cities that pioneered zero-tolerance policing. Today, it is states like Mississippi that show the way with tax cuts and deregulation.

Many conservatives in Washington are upbeat. Some seem to think that conservatives will do well in the mid-terms next month. Several say they were more optimistic than they were just a couple of months ago.

We at MCPP are optimistic, too. Not just because of what the conservatives might achieve in the mid-terms, but because what we are doing to move the dial in Mississippi is part of a conservative revival underway across America.

Mississippi’s economy suffered the least during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to Governor Tate Reeves’ light-touch lockdown, according to new data released by the Center for American Experiment.

Gross Domestic Product is the total value of goods and services produced and while Mississippi’s GDP took a dip during the pandemic, the impact was less in our state than pretty much any place else in America.

The new study shows how lockdowns harmed each state's economy, but where lockdowns were less stringent and relied on individuals exercising common sense, the economic impact was less severe.

The report shows that New York, for example, which imposed an extreme lockdown at the insistence of its Governor, had a dramatic fall in economic output. In New York, the economic hit was the second highest in the United States.

While Mississippi participated in shutdowns for the first few weeks of the pandemic, many New York businesses were prohibited from opening their doors until June 2021, well into a year after the state’s initial lockdown in March 2020.

Lockdowns across the country tanked the economy in many states. But states like Mississippi, which tended to give individuals and organizations far greater autonomy to assess the risks and figure out how best to mitigate them, fared best.

In stark contrast to state leaders elsewhere, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves defended the rights of businesses to remain open and for Mississippians to work. Local governments and school boards had the opportunity to continue lockdowns if they so chose to, but Reeves said the state would not create a state-wide order. The data in this report shows what a positive impact that approach had.

In consequence, Mississippi’s GDP has bounced back rapidly. In 2021, the total value of goods and services produced in the state was $104 billion, surpassing the pre-pandemic level. The GDP for 2019 was only $101 billion.

Last week a group of Los Angeles council members hit the headlines when they were secretly recorded discussing redistricting. Some of the language that they used was shocking, and their conversation was littered with casual racism. 

The recording is revealing in another way. It draws back the curtain as a group of politicians try to cut deals. In a properly functioning democracy, voters are supposed to choose their politicians. In the recording, we hear politicians scheming to choose their voters.
 
"So what?" you might say. "This is gerrymandering, and it has happened for decades."

This was not just a conversation about how to achieve favorable redistricting, however. It sounded as if these Los Angeles councilors do not think of voters as individuals, but rather as ethnic groups that almost belonged to politicians. 
 
As they discussed carving up Los Angeles between them, it was all about what is in it for "us" and our ethnic group, versus "them" and their ethnic group.   
 
For most of human history, people were defined in terms of caste, race, class or birth. Then along came the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, and a radically better sort of society emerged.
 
In America, everyone was supposed to be an individual in possession of inalienable rights. Yet, here we are listening to progressive politicians in 2022 (the recording was actually made in 2021) talking as if none of that any longer applied.

The left’s relentless obsession with race is taking America to a profoundly dangerous place. Far from creating a more equitable society in which everyone has more opportunity, the Progressives will produce an American dystopia in which different groups compete with one another to carve up resources. 
 
Do we really want to live in an America in which politicians, in the manner of mafia bosses, meet to cut backroom deals for "their" group over anyone else? Do we want a system in which mediocre political figures are given a free pass for their failings because they represent "us" against "them?"  
 
There is nothing progressive about Progressives. To progress is to advance. Progressive politicians risk taking America back to a premodern past.

To help fight back, we are launching the Mississippi Leadership Academy. We will take a cohort of bright young Mississippians from different backgrounds each year and introduce them to the ideas that have made America great.
 
Those that take part will look at some of the public policy challenges we face in our state and hear from some of our state leaders. But participants will also consider how free markets and America’s Founding principles have helped forge the most successful country on earth.
 
As a conservative think tank, we have had plenty of recent wins helping cut the state income tax and defeating the Biden vaccine mandate. But our most important task is to make certain that the next generation of Mississippians understands and appreciates the principles that have made this country such a success.

Joe Biden recently declared that he was “sick and tired of trickle-down economics”. It is an approach, said the President on social media, that “has never worked”. But when was trickle-down economics ever tried?

Having spent much of my adult life in conservative circles on either side of the Atlantic, I have yet to meet anyone seriously proposing to make poor people prosperous by enriching the rich.

That is because trickle-down economics is a myth. It no more exists than the Loch Ness monster.

Why, then, does the President feel compelled to attack something that doesn’t exist? In common with every progressive leader since Bill Clinton, Biden uses attacks on a non-existent economic policy in order to misrepresent conservative tax policy.

Biden feels the need to attack conservative tax cuts as ‘trickle-down’ because the success of conservative tax cuts is a threat to Washington DC’s agenda.

When Mississippi passed the Tax Freedom Act earlier this year, we implemented one of the largest tax cuts in our state’s history. Cutting the state income tax in Mississippi meant that we joined forces with Texas, Tennessee and Florida in lowering the tax burden.

Progressive politicians in Washington DC cannot afford to allow the idea of tax cuts as a way of producing prosperity to take hold. If other states join Mississippi’s example in cutting taxes – as Missouri did this week - it will undermine the progressive claim that we need higher taxes and more government.

The federal government has only introduced substantial tax cuts on three or four occasions in recent US history; under Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1986, under George Bush the younger in 2001-03, and then under Donald Trump in 2017.

On every one of those occasions, the left condemned them as ‘trickle-down economics!’. In retrospect, the biggest beneficiaries of the Reagan, Bush and Trump tax cuts were middle-income Americans.

If, as the left suggests, the conservatives introduced tax cuts as part of a diabolical scheme to benefit only the rich, they failed. The Reagan, Bush and Trump tax cuts helped all of America prosper.

Ironically, perhaps, the Reagan tax cuts even benefited progressives. The tax cuts of the 1980s produced such a tsunami of prosperity into the 1990s, the additional tax revenues that they generated allowed President Clinton to run a small budget surplus.

Tax cuts clearly work. There’s nothing ‘trickle-down’ about them.

Mississippi is on the front line in the fight for America’s future by showing that tax cuts offer an alternative to Biden’s tax-and-spend approach. No wonder the President is so keen to attack.

Amid the ongoing water crisis in Jackson leaving some people still without clean running water, Hinds County has opted out of trying to receive federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars. 

Is this a principled refusal to tackle the DC dollar? Or just incompetence? 

The federal government created ARPA in 2021 as a way to help local governments recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its uses include improvements to water, sewer and infrastructure, along with compensating the public sector for lost money. 

Mississippi received $1.8 billion in ARPA. Of that amount, the state legislature allocated $750,000 million to help support local governments to match some of the funds local entities have already received from the federal government – $450,000 specifically will be designated for water. To ensure this money was properly spent, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality created the Mississippi Municipality & County Water Infrastructure Grant Program for local governments to apply for matching funds with a September 30 deadline. 

Hinds County, the county with a failed water system, missed its deadline – intentionally, some suggest. 

Hinds County received $45 million in federal ARPA dollars and could have been awarded up to $17 million if the Hinds County Supervisors attempted to apply for these funds. The county’s reasoning for missing the deadline? The hope that sitting out this round could result in more money in the state’s second allocation round in the spring. 

But nothing is ever guaranteed, especially when it comes to public money.

The determination of how much matching funds a local entity receives is based upon a point system administered by MDEQ. Hinds County Administrator Kenneth Wayne Jones said the points Hinds County received were not enough to justify even applying for ARPA dollars from the state, and he believes going through the application again and looking for items the county might have initially missed will produce a greater outcome. 

In its application, MDEQ states that the process among cities and counties will be very competitive, and some entities may have to apply multiple times before they receive any matching dollars. So even though Hinds County believes it could be allocated more money in the next round, the county is not guaranteed to actually receive these funds. 

From soon-to-be college students applying for college tuition assistance to charities looking to fund their mission, any time individuals or organizations request federal dollars, there is always a vigorous and competitive process to receive such aid. The amount of money Hinds County could receive when – or if – it actually applies in the spring may be even less than what the county thought it would secure this go-round, or worse, even none at all. 

Based on preliminary data from WLBT Jackson, 429 cities and counties across the state applied for matching dollars, amounting to $435 million in requests. If all desired wants are met, hypothetically, only $15 million remains in the state’s ARPA water improvement fund. 

The city of Jackson requested $35 million for work to improve the O. B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, the facility that oversees Jackson’s water system. Jackson also plans to spend $27 to $35 million of its ARPA received on water upgrades. While the city of Jackson could potentially end up with nearly $70 million to spend on the water crisis, Hinds County will only be contributing a mere $17.5 million to the project, due to not even an attempt to obtain matching funds. 

Administrator Jones said he is sure the county’s “strategy” will work in its favor though, eventually resulting in more money later than what could have been offered now. For the betterment of Jackson and Hinds County residents and the need for actually clean water one day, we sure hope so. 

Amid the water crisis in Mississippi’s capital city, Jackson has denied its residents once again another basic public service – trash pickup. 

Come Saturday, residents will not have garbage collection and will be forced to find other means of disposal. Instead of identifying a sensible solution for residents, Jackson leadership announced Thursday that people should reduce the amount of waste within each household and store seafood waste inside freezers. Residents do have the option to take their garbage to the city’s hazardous waste site, that is if they have the spare time or means necessary to do so. 

Over 150,000 people will be affected by this – the same 150,000 who just endured an almost two-month water boil notice and several days without running water. 

Jackson began contracting with Richard’s Disposal in April after the contract with the city’s previous disposal group, Waste Management, expired. After much dispute between Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and the city council, Lumumba issued an emergency contract to Richard’s Disposal, despite it not being approved by the council. The majority of the council wanted to reinstate Waste Management as the city’s service provider, but Lumumba was persistent on contracting with Richard’s due to the lower rates the company offered. 

After six months of work, Richard’s Disposal has seen no compensation, and the company, rightly said they have had enough of Jackson’s incompetency. The company also is suing the city for the $5 million it should have received since work began. 

Why does a capital city continue to see public needs stripped like this? That would be from poor leadership and elected officials who do not know the meaning of collaboration. 

While Lumumba blames the city council for this fiasco, and vice versa, without a legal contract and funds for reimbursement, nothing will be solved for this garbage dilemma. Even though Richard’s has not been paid for its services, Jackson has still been collecting funds from residents for trash pickup, therefore even though the city has the means necessary to pay the company, it just has not done so. 

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said that it will fine the city up to $25,000 per day if trash begins to pile up on the side of the road, which could lead to even more debt and problems for Jackson. 

So where do we go from here? 

The only logical solution is for Lumumba and the city council to attempt to work together. One entity will have to swallow its pride and abandon its stance on who should cover the city’s sanitation and agree to contract with the alternative. 

And this can be done. Just recently, Congress found bipartisanship with several legislative measures such as the Violence Against Women Act and a financial reform act for the United States Postal Service. If Congress can find ways to agree, so can a local government.

Councilman Kenneth Stokes, who had previously been against working with Richard’s Disposal, said Thursday he wants the residents to have their trash to be picked up however it needs to be done, so a solution could come sooner, rather than later for Jackson. We just need to hope for a municipal compromise. 

Until then, Jackson residents will have to deal with the pungent odors, filthy streetscapes and old shrimp peelings stored in their freezers.

With charter-school applications repeatedly being denied, it’s time to overhaul the approval process.

Last week, Mississippi’s Charter School Authorizer Board was doing what it does best: saying “no” to people applying to set up new charter schools. In the most recent batch, four out of five applications were rejected. This included, bizarrely, a request from an already successful school in Clarksdale, in the Mississippi Delta, to expand by opening a high school.

You might think that a Charter School Authorizer Board would be in the business of approving at least some new applications. Not, it seems, in our state, where the board has been cheerfully rejecting new applications for years.

It is now over a decade since the Mississippi Center for Public Policy helped pass legislation to allow more charter schools. After all that time, we have only eight charter schools in the entire state. Georgia has more than ten times that number. South Carolina has more than 70. Neighboring Arkansas (whose population is about the same as Mississippi’s) has 50, and Louisiana has 143.

Is the quality of applications in our state that much worse than in those other states, or is the political self-interest of the public-education establishment more entrenched here?

In its own defense, the Charter School Authorizer Board might say that it has a duty to reject any suboptimal applications since that might mean allowing suboptimal charter schools to exist. To this one might reply by asking whether the board is aware of how suboptimal some existing non-charter schools are. To reject charter-school start-ups because they are not perfect is absurd.

Thanks to public-education protectionism in Mississippi, the board will not even consider applications for new schools unless they are from districts given a grade of F by the state department of education (which makes assessments based on such factors as test scores and graduation rates). Saying no to charter-school applications in districts consistently given low grades means consigning those children to poorly performing schools. Besides, shouldn’t it be up to parents to decide if a charter school is good enough? Right now, Mississippi’s eight charter schools are heavily oversubscribed, suggesting that parents vastly prefer charter schools to the existing public-school alternatives.

It has also become clear that the old education order in Mississippi is unwilling to allow more than a token number of charter schools in our state, and certainly not enough so that they might compete against the self-serving education bureaucracy.

What is to be done?

Changes around the edges won’t be enough. The role of the Authorizer Board needs to change.  First, the process for approving or rejecting needs to be done transparently, on the basis of objective, clearly stated criteria. Second, the Authorizer Board should be redirected to focus on granting broad approval to organizations wanting to set up and run charter schools; its approval should not be required for each individual proposal. And third, although it certainly should not be necessary to obtain the Authorizer Board’s approval for changes in the way existing charter schools are being run, as is currently the case, once the board gives would-be charter-school operators broad approval to set up and run the schools, those providers ought to be free to get on with doing so as, in effect, licensed charter-school operators in the state.

Perhaps even more radically, the Charter School Authorizer Board needs to lose its monopoly on approving applications. As has happened in other states, alternative institutions — such as public universities — ought to be granted the authority to approve them. Having multiple authorizers would prevent a public-sector monopoly from stifling innovation.

Charter schools in states that allow far more of them come in all shapes and sizes. Some are stand-alone schools; others are part of what is in effect a chain. The providers of charter-school education gain invaluable experience from running the schools. The Mississippi Authorizer Board, on the other hand, has none.

Charter Authorization Board failing Mississippi Children 

Today’s announcement that the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board has rejected all but one application to open new Charter Schools in our state is deeply disappointing, said Douglas Carswell, President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

"It is over a decade since the law was changed to allow Charter Schools in Mississippi," Carswell said. "So far we have eight Charter Schools in the entire state. At this rate, it would take a century or so before we get a critical mass of new Charter Schools."

"The Charter School Authorizer Board seems almost determined to reject new applications. Any application that is not deemed perfect gets a thumbs down."

"The fact that not every application is deemed perfect is not an acceptable excuse. The job of the Authorizer Board should be to work with applicants to ensure they are acceptable."

"Rejecting any application that is not 100 percent perfect is absurd. It means that children that might be able to go to a Charter School are forced to remain in their very far from perfect school board run school."

"If the Authorizer Board is not up to approving new Charter Schools, responsibility to overseeing the process needs to be shared with other organizations and agencies that are."