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Gov. Tate Reeves released his first budget recommendation and it largely resembles the legislature’s budget document released a few months ago.

In his fiscal year 2021 budget, Reeves wants to spend 0.2 percent more than last year, an increase of $10.7 million. The 2021 general fund budget would be $6.374 billion, up from $6.363 billion in fiscal 2020, which ends on June 30.

The legislature’s proposed budget would be $6.27 billion.

The Reeves administration wants to spend $100 million in one-time funds for workforce development, which would be spent on:

The latest revenue report from December show that tax revenues are $166 million over the estimates.

As for other appropriations, K-12 education would receive an $82.6 million increase (3.2 percent) to $2.656 billion from last year’s outlay of $2.573 billion. 

Higher education would be cut by $24 million (2.8 percent) from last year’s appropriation. The Institutes of Higher Learning would take a $15.2 million cut (2.4 percent reduction) from last year’s outlay while community colleges would be cut by $9.1 million or 3.6 percent from 2020. 

According to the budget’s executive summary, those cuts were in accordance with the recommendations of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and were the result of two circumstances of one-time money included in the last budget for specific projects or employee openings that haven’t been filled in 180 days. 

With Reeves’ last act as lieutenant governor signing off on the JLBC recommendation, it was no surprise that the two budgets are closely aligned.

Social welfare programs, such as Medicaid, would receive the same level of funding as last year’s appropriation. Corrections would also be level-funded from last year’s appropriation.

The biggest cuts, percentage wise, include:

Last year, lawmakers appropriated $6.36 billion for the state budget, a figure that balloons to $21.52 billion when federal funds are considered. 

In Mississippi, the budget process starts on August 1, when state agencies submit budget. 

The JLBC meets every September to hear agency heads make their pitches for their budget requests and to also receive estimates of the state’s tax revenues. The JLBC then meets in November to put together a budget and later releases the budget blueprint in December. The governor also submits a proposed budget as well.

Mississippi's general fund budget is one of the last tasks handled by the legislature before it leaves town in April. The budget is constructed as a series of funding bills for each state agency for the governor to sign into law. The new budget will go into effect on July 1.

For those that enjoyed a cold one during the Super Bowl last night, you paid among the highest taxes in the country for that beer. 

According to the Tax Foundation, Mississippians pay a beer excise tax of $0.43 per gallon. This is the 12th highest rate in the country. Mississippi just looks better than many other Southern states, who have the highest rates in the country. 

Tennessee has the highest tax rate at $1.29, Alabama is third at $1.05, Georgia is fourth at $1.01, and Kentucky is sixth at $0.87. Wyoming has the lowest rates in the country at just $0.02. 

In Mississippi, like most states, the excise tax is paid by wholesalers on shipments received in the state. That mean the person buying the beer doesn’t actually see it when they checkout. Rather, you will just see applicable sales taxes. But whether you can see it or not, the wholesaler just passes the costs on to the consumer.  Thereby, raising the cost for the person purchasing the beer.

But the high taxes are just another example of our modern laws governing the control of alcohol, and continue a long tradition of excess government control. 

We have over empowered individual counties to define their own laws, and in so doing have created a chaotic state of regulation, difficult to understand by the average residential citizen, let alone internal and external businesses hoping to sell.

Furthermore, the state has retained an egregious amount of control of the distribution process. Mississippi has decided that, rather than allow private businesses to control the market, it will run a large warehouse in the central part of the state which will have a complete monopoly over the distribution of all spirits and wines. 

As the Department of Revenue states on its own site, “the ABC imports, stores, and sells 2,850,000 cases of spirits and wines annually from its 211,000 square foot warehouse located in South Madison County Industrial Park.”

This warehouse consistently operates at capacity, and government leaders are considering a $35 million expansion. Perhaps our politicians ought to consider giving the free market a chance? 

There is no reason that our government should be so deeply involved in controlling the distribution for a product. They hike up prices by a tremendous rate, limit access to the product, and determine which brands are allowed to sell in the state, leaving businesses in the dark and unable to control their own wares.

Private businesses are barred from distributing alcohol in Mississippi. While UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub have created thousands of jobs in other states through their delivery systems, our legislative leaders have shut down this opportunity for individuals to order alcohol with their delivery.

And while a variety of companies sell and ship wine, whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages around the country, our legislative leaders have determined that we shouldn’t have this freedom of access. 

If you were shopping for a gift online, you might find yourself looking at a wine basket, such as those at Wine & Country. However, upon checkout you will be met with the embarrassing notification that your state is one of only three in the entire nation that completely bars the shipment of any wines.

The excess regulation has made Mississippi last in the nation for craft beer development. For comparison, craft brewers currently produce $150 per capita in Mississippi, while they produce $650 per capita in Vermont. Imagine the difference such an industry could make in our state. This is thousands of tangible new jobs which are being discouraged from coming into existence by our government.

Existing policies have led Mississippi to have the largest shadow economy in the nation (referring to the exchange of products that are not taxed or recorded) at 9.54 percent of GDP. Moonshine is either produced or is available in every single county, which many link to the strict regulation of the alcohol industry. Our egregious taxation of alcohol products displayed here by the Department of Revenue has encouraged many companies such as Costco and Trader Joes to avoid opening locations in the state due to the lack of revenue potential on alcoholic products.

Prohibition is alive and well in Mississippi. Our government has decided we apparently can’t be trusted to make basic purchasing decisions for ourselves, so they must control what alcoholic drinks we’re allowed to have access to, how we’re allowed to receive these drinks, and from whom we’re allowed to purchase these drinks.

Be not fooled by the government “do gooders” who proclaim that they carry out policies like this for our own protection. Too many of our political leaders refuse to give freedom a chance, and instead have decided that they know better than we do when it comes to running our lives.

The fact is that while Mississippi prides itself on having a relatively low income tax, it finds dozens of other ways to tax and control its citizens. 

Companies are discouraged from entering into business in the state because we have established covert taxes which discourage entrepreneurial risk taking. 

Mississippi controls, regulates, and taxes alcohol worse than New York or California, so imagine what other discrete ways it is shutting down job opportunities and discouraging new business.

By action of the Board of Supervisors on Thursday, Rankin county has made youth vaping illegal-er. 

The Board voted to prohibit the possession and use of vaping or e-cigarette products for people under the age of 21, according to the Clarion Ledger. Three Rankin county municipalities, Pearl, Flowood, and Brandon, had all recently passed similar ordinances, though the age limit was 21 just for students, but 18 for all others. Similar bills have been introduced in the House and Senate this year. 

One of the comments made by proponents was that the sheriff’s department had confiscated more than 100 vaping products on school grounds. Yet, state law already makes the possession and use of tobacco products on school property illegal, and you have to be 21 to purchase tobacco products thanks to a recent change from the federal government. Even the previous age requirement of 18 was still older than most students. 

The choices of minors won’t change because of government actions. They are doing something that is already illegal. Rather, we are just pushing more people to the black market. And that is where vaping related illnesses generally originate. 

According to a new report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), those with illnesses were linked to marijuana vapes – not nicotine – and, at least 85 percent of those were purchased somewhere other than commercial sources. Still, even that number may be lower than the actual statistics. 

Regardless, the CDC has now removed language from their website suggesting people refrain from all vaping products. Instead, they suggest you avoid purchasing products from “informal sources,” more commonly referred to as the black market. 

Yet, proposals to limit vaping products would do just that. 

We’ve played the prohibition game before. It doesn’t end well. During alcohol prohibition, individuals made their own liquor that was often much more dangerous than what you could legally buy prior to prohibition. Today, many people roll their own cigarettes in locales that have absurdly high taxes. Again, these are often more dangerous as you can get more nicotine by leaving out a filter. 

And when it comes to vaping, teens can turn to YouTube for do-it-yourself videos on raising nicotine levels. This won’t change as we pass more laws. 

The bans won’t provide an alternative to current cigarette smokers hoping to kick the habit, nor will they stop teens from vaping. Instead, they will only increase lawlessness. 

In this episode of Unlicensed, Brett and Hunter talk about Gov. Reeves’ State of the State call to reduce regulations, some good early bills that will do just that, National School Choice Week, and wine in grocery stores. We also talk about Penn National purchasing a minority share in Bartstool Sports for more than $160 million. 

In the Mississippi House of Representatives, the Republicans will hold the chairmanships of all the important committees, with one independent taking an important spot and the Democrats largely left on the sidelines.

One Democrat and two independents (both former Democrats) will receive one of 46 committee chairmanships in the House after House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) announced them last week. 

With the Republicans adding to their advantage in the chamber, there will be plenty of continuity in several important committees.

Four critical committees will retain their previous leaders. State Rep. John Read (R-Gautier) remains Appropriations Committee chairman. State Rep. Richard Bennett (R-Long Beach) will return as chairman of the Education Committee, while state Rep. Charles Busby (R-Pascagoula) remains at the helm of the Transportation Committee. State Rep. Sam Mims (R-McComb) returns to the chairmanship of the Public Health and Welfare Committee

Last year, the House was 74 Republicans and 48 Democrats and Democrats had two chairmanships. This year, the Democrats have lost five seats — three of which have gone independent — and still have two committee chairs. Compared with the Senate, where 60 percent of Democrats have committee chairmanships, only four percent of House Democrats have chairmanships.

Chairmen are key in the legislative process because they have an important gate-keeping function. If a chairman doesn’t support a bill, he or she can omit it from the committee’s agenda. A chairman’s support, on the other hand, means a bill is very likely to make it to the floor for a vote by the full chamber.

Using legislation authored by the new chairmen in past sessions and utilizing an annual rating of legislatures by the American Conservative Union (ACU), one can make an educated guess on what measures are likely to make it out of committees for a floor vote. 

The ACU graded Mississippi legislators on their votes on 21 measures, which included: landowner protection, the Heartbeat bill, funding for the Board of Cosmetology and funding for public television, among other issues. 

In the House, the overall average rating was 49 percent, with Republicans averaging 59 percent and Democrats 33 percent. Out of the 46 committees, 26 chairmen received a score of 57. 

The highest-scoring chairman was state Rep. Chris Brown (R-Amory), who will direct the Conservation and Water Resources Committee and received a 79 percent score.

Judiciary committees

The Judiciary committees in the House will have a new look, as state Rep. Angela Cockerham (I-Magnolia) switches chairmanships to Judiciary A and new Republican state Rep. Nick Bain (R-Corinth) takes over Judiciary B.

Bain, who’s been in the Legislature since 2012 and switched parties in March before the qualifying deadline, filed several unsuccessful bills that would mandated a $5 fee on traffic citations to pay for electronic filing, another that would’ve banned texting while driving, and another that would’ve created the crime of indecent assault. None of these became law.

He received a 55 percent grade from the ACU.

Cockerham’s big issue was campus sexual assault and she’s tried in the last three sessions to get something passed. Her first attempt at a bill in 2017 would’ve made a now-superseded controversial “dear colleague” letter sent to federally-funded universities and colleges by the Obama administration in 2011 concerning Title IX and sexual harassment and assault law.

The U.S. Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights instructed higher education institutions in the letter to use a lower evidence standard to determine guilt and also mandated that accusers would also have the right to appeal a verdict, which meant even baseless allegations could result in a retrial.

She earned a score of 33 percent from the ACU. A new version of her campus sexual assault bill has been submitted this year and will likely make it onto the House floor as it’s been assigned to her committee as it has in past years.

Corrections

With the problems with Mississippi prisons, state Rep. Kevin Horan (I-Grenada) will have an unenviable task of finding a solution as chair of the Corrections Committee. He earned a grade of 38 percent from the ACU.

 In 2012, the former Democrat proposed a bill that would’ve suspended a student’s driver’s license if they dropped out of school. He also proposed a bill that would’ve created a civil offense for open containers of alcohol in vehicles. 

Medicaid

State Rep. Joey Hood (R-Ackerman) will take over the Medicaid Committee. Hood received a 57 percent grade from the ACU.

He authored a bill in 2015 that exempted health care facilities from the certificate of need law for repair or rebuilding when significantly damaged in a natural disaster. The bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Phil Bryant.

Senate Bill 2196, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, allows minors to operate an occasional business without a permit or license from the government. 

Other states, starting with Utah, have begun to pass similar laws. This bill is a response to local governments across the country taking aim at occasional businesses run by young kids, usually lemonade stands.

In California, the family a five-year-old girl received a letter from their city’s Finance Department saying that she needed a business license for her lemonade stand after a neighbor complained to the city. The girl received the letter four months after the sale, after she had already purchased a new bike with her lemonade stand money. The young girl wanted the bike to ride around her new neighborhood as her family had just moved.

In Colorado, three young boys, ages two to six, had their lemonade stand shut down by Denver police for operating without a proper permit. The boys were selling lemonade in hopes of raising money for Compassion International, an international child-advocacy ministry. But local vendors at a nearby festival didn’t like the competition and called the police to complain. When word of this interaction made news, the local Chick-Fil-A stepped up as you would expect from Chick-Fil-A. They allowed the boys to sell lemonade inside their restaurant, plus they donated 10 percent of their own lemonade profits that day to Compassion International.

In New York, the state Health Department shut down a lemonade stand run by a seven-year-old after vendors from a nearby county fair complained. Once again, they were threatened by a little boy undercutting their profits. A state senator in New York has since filed legislation to legalize lemonade stands. That is correct, we need new laws to clarify that a seven-year-old can run a lemonade stand with the government’s blessing.

For those who may read this and believe the world has gone crazy, we do have a story in Missouri that ended on a good note – though there is plenty of crazy in this story. An eight-year-old boy was being heckled by neighbors inquiring about his permit. If those potential customers got sick, they wanted to know “who we should go to.” The neighbors then proceeded to yell at the boy’s mom after the boy went inside. Fortunately for the boy, the local police department heard about the incident and came by the boy’s lemonade stand to show their support, and to provide their stamp of approval.

As parents and as a society, we should be encouraging entrepreneurship. We should celebrate young boys and girls who want to make money, whether it’s for a new bike or to give to a ministry. When children have the right heart and the right ideas and are willing to take actions, we shouldn’t discourage it. The lessons are valuable. They learn that money comes from work, that you have to plan, and then produce a stand, signs, and lemonade. Introducing kids to the concepts of marketing, costs, customer service, and the profit motive is a good thing.

MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it is aligned with our principles and therefore should be supported. 

Read the bill here.

Track the status of this bill and all bills in our legislative tracker. 

House Bill 261, sponsored by Rep. Becky Currie, would allow those holding an occupational license from another state to receive one in Mississippi.

The bill would also allow the spouse of a member of the military who is stationed in Mississippi to receive a license if they hold one from another state. 

As of now, a new state resident who is part of a licensed occupation often has to go through the same process as someone receiving their license for the first time with the resultant fees and tests. Also, if the educational requirements for the license in their former state aren’t as stringent, a new resident will have to pay for additional training to make up the difference. 

Mississippi does have limited reciprocity agreements with some states with some occupations to honor their licenses, but HB 261 would end this practice and allow most new residents to trade in their former state’s license with a new Mississippi one with little hassle.

A licensee would have to be in good standing with their former state’s regulators and would need to be licensed for a year to be eligible. The new worker would also have to pass a test to determine their knowledge of Mississippi laws and regulations concerning their occupation.

This bill would require the state’s occupational licensing boards would have to adopt rules to implement the new law by January 1, 2021.

In 2019, Arizona became the first state to pass such legislation that allowed new residents in the Grand Canyon State to bring their licenses with them rather than start the process of licensure again.

Mississippi is in need of occupational licensing reform. According to a report by the Institute for Justice, the Magnolia State is ranked 19thworst in the number of lower-income occupations that require a license. The report found that Mississippi licenses 66 out of 102 lower-income occupations studied.

MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it is aligned with our principles and therefore should be supported. 

Read the bill here.

Track the status of this bill and all bills in our legislative tracker. 

Students, parents, and educators visited the state Capitol on Tuesday to celebrate National School Choice week.

The biggest issue for school choice in Mississippi is the re-authorization of the state’s Education Scholarship Account program, which is set to expire on July 1 without legislative action. A bill to renew the program passed the Senate last year, but died in the House Education Committee without a vote.

John Wells, whose 11-year-old daughter Jalyn is receiving assistance through the ESA program, said she had gone from being non-verbal as a 5-year-old to being an A and B student. The ESA allowed the Wells family to get their daughter a speech therapist and a tutor.

“Parents, we know who knows our children best and that’s us,” Wells said. “We know what they can handle and what they can’t. We’re so thankful for the legislators that voted this through and supplied this and I’m sure there are hundreds of parents throughout the state that are thankful for all of the help they get to educate their children. We really want you to encourage you to speak to your leaders and keep it going and even expand it. 

“There’s so much we can do with it. It’s an amazing thing to be able to choose where your children go to school, choose how you live your life with your children because there are so many people who don’t get to have this choice.”

Tamala Boyd Shaw is the founder and executive director of the second charter school, Leflore Legacy Academy, to be opened in the Delta region. She told the crowd that an equitable education is the civil right of the 21stcentury.

The Greenwood school’s application was rejected on the first attempt by the Mississippi Charter Authorizer Board and she thought about giving up before deciding after prayer to redouble her efforts.

Now the school is set to open in time for the next school year. Boyd Shaw said that she’s now interviewing support staff and will hire the teachers next. She also said they’ve found a turnkey building for the school and will start with sixth grade and add a grade every school year until they can start a high school.

“Understanding charter schools and school choice is really more than understanding the differences than traditional public schools,” Boyd Shaw said. “It’s about understanding the needs of students and the desires of parents. I would encourage legislators and others in decision-making seats to dig deeply when thinking about whether they are for or against school choice and think about the children.”

Mobile, Alabama’s City Council will delay its decision on whether to spend $3.04 million in taxpayer funds on bringing passenger rail service to the city.

The council voted unanimously to postpone the resolution until the next meeting on February 4 on whether to authorize the matching funds for Amtrak over the next three years starting in 2023. This twice-daily service would connect the Port City with New Orleans via CSX trackage that runs along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mississippi has already committed about $15 million in state taxpayer money to the project, with Louisiana adding $10 million. The decision will be one day before a federal deadline to receive the matching funds from the federal government.

Stephen McNair from the Southern Railroad Commission told the council that if the city couldn’t find the funds to pay for the rail service, the train’s terminus would be in Pascagoula.

“I believe this is a train whose time has come and I’m hopeful that we can move forward positively,” Council vice president Levon Manzie said. Manzie sponsored the resolution on the council’s agenda for the rail funding, which was rejected by the council’s finance committee last week.

Gary Knoblock, a councilman at-large in Bay St. Louis, told Al.com that the Mississippi Gulf Coast is all behind bringing rail back to the area.

“I know Alabama has been concerned with the costs and whether it will bring tourists,” Knoblock said. “No one really knows until you do something. Unfortunately, you have to spend money to find out. It’s hard to make decision on something like that without knowing for sure something will happen.

The Federal Rail Administration — under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program (CRISI) — is providing up to $32,995,516 in taxpayer funds for improving crossings, bridges, sidings and other infrastructure along the route. 

The federal grants that would be provided to enact Amtrak service are meant to get the service online. The first year, the grants would provide 80 percent of the operating costs, declining to 60 percent in the second year and 40 percent in the third.

A 2015 Amtrak study says that a twice-daily train between Mobile and New Orleans would draw 38,400 riders annually and likely cost about $7 million annually to operate. Similar routes have existed from 1984 to 1985 and 1996 to 1997, but both ended because state taxpayer funds were no longer appropriated for that purpose. 

The Southern Rail Commission is an Interstate Rail Compact created in 1982 by Congress and consists of commissioners appointed by governors from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. 

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