Senate Bill 2531, sponsored by Sen. Walter Michel, and House Bill 981, sponsored by Rep. Brent Powell, would allow the sale of wine in grocery stores in wet counties or municipalities.
Mississippi is one of a number of states that ban the sale of wine and/ or liquor in grocery stores. In fact, only 20 states allow the sale of beer, wine, and liquor in grocery stores. A handful even ban the sale of beer.
These laws, like all prohibition laws, don’t stop people from consuming alcohol. They just require you to take an extra, unnecessary step. Coupled with the legalization of selling alcohol on Sunday, wine in grocery stores would bring convenience for many busy Mississippians.
These are anti-competitive policies that create a monopoly for liquor stores, not just limiting convenience, but limiting choice for consumers.
MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it is aligned with our principles and therefore should be supported.
Track the status of this and all bills in our legislative tracker.
House Bill 951, sponsored by Rep. Dan Eubanks, would expand food freedom in Mississippi and allow for the sale of raw cow milk in the state.
Mississippi currently allows the limited sale of raw goat milk, and that is under fire, while raw cow milk is prohibited. This would expand the sale of raw milk, and also allow for the sale of the milk at farmers’ markets, not just on the farm as the current law states.
The bill would also allow for intrastate sales of agricultural products directly from the producer to consumers and would prevent local governments from restricting those sales.
Mississippi currently has a limited cottage food law, that restricts what you can sell, how you can advertise, and how much you can make. Every state in the country, save for New Jersey, has such a law. Food freedom laws – which are on the books in Wyoming, North Dakota, and Maine – are essentially beefed up cottage food laws that allow for greater access to food for consumers and a new market for entrepreneurs.
MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it is aligned with our principles and therefore should be supported.
Read HB 951.
Track the status of this bill and all bills in our legislative tracker.
Three bills in the Mississippi legislature could allow wagers to be made on sporting events on mobile devices outside a casino property.
Right now, sports betting is only allowed in a licensed casino itself or with mobile devices on casino property.
If one of these three bills —House Bills 172, 941 and 959— became law, it would make Mississippi the sixth state to have full mobile betting. Right now, Mississippi is one of five states that allow partial mobile betting with some restrictions.
The three bills differ only in language and little else. All three bills would have the state collect a fee of six percent of the gross revenue received through the mobile gaming platform and eight percent of all other gross revenues. A mobile gambling app operator would also have to receive a license from the state.
HB 172 is sponsored by state Rep. Cedric Burnett (D-Tunica), who has also authored a bill that would allow casinos in Tunica to relocate inland to reduce their vulnerability.
HB 941 is authored by state Rep. Jeffery Harness (D-Fayette), who has also sponsored a bill that would authorize collegiate student athletes to receive compensation and have legal representation.
HB 959 is sponsored by state Rep. Jay McKnight (R-Gulfport).
Twenty states, plus the District of Columbia allow wagers on sports, with seven of those state legislatures have only recently authorized the practice.
Passage of one of these bills could give Mississippi a competitive advantage in the Southeast. Among Mississippi’s neighbors, Arkansas has legalized sports betting, but only at casinos and not on mobile devices. Louisiana and Alabama have no legalized sports gambling, while a bill to authorize the practice in Tennessee became law in May 2019.
Sports gambling has yet to start in the Volunteer State since regulations are only in draft form.
The Tennessee Education Lottery’s board of directors is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to possibly approve regulations, which would have a $750,000 licensing fee for operators and a 20 percent tax on adjusted gross income.
Tennessee will be an exception nationally since the new law only authorizes online betting since the state doesn’t have casinos.
The legislature approved permanent legislation in 2017 that not only set guidelines for the Gaming Commission to regulate daily fantasy sports, but also struck language from state law that prohibited betting on sports.
The federal ban on sports gaming — except in Nevada — was struck down by a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Senate Bill 2286, sponsored by Sen. Brice Wiggins, would expand the state’s taxpayer-funded prekindergarten program to 25 percent of the state’s 4-year-old children by the 2022-2023 school year.
The bill would also increase the amount spent per student from $2,150 per student for a full-day program and $1,075 for a half-day one under present legislation to $2,500 and $1,125 respectively.
There have been countless studies that have shown that while prekindergarten programs can be effective in giving 4-year-olds a boost going into kindergarten and first grade, those positive effects tend to fade away by the time they enter the third grade. One example is a 2019 study of Tennessee’s prekindergarten program. It found that short-term, positive effects on early learners diminished by the time students reach the third grade.
Even the legislature’s own watchdog, the PEER Committee (Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review) is skeptical. In its second report on the state’s taxpayer-funded prekindergarten program since its inception in 2013, PEER said there isn’t enough evidence to conclude whether pre-K programs provide a positive impact. The report also questioned the curriculum used by the state program and whether it had been properly compared against other similar curricula.
One problem with the expansion taxpayer-funded prekindergarten is that it will crowd out private providers, who can’t compete with entities funded with tax dollars. Taxpayers also shouldn’t be footing a bigger bill for a program with questionable results when it comes to early learners.
MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it violates our principles and therefore should be opposed.
Read SB 2286.
Track the status of this and all bills in our legislative tracker.
Senate Bill 2408, sponsored by Sen. Melanie Sojourner, would raise the cap on annual sales for those in the cottage food industry to $50,000 and expressly permit operators to advertise on social media. A bill to raise the salary cap to $35,000 already passed the House.
Currently, cottage food operators are capped at $20,000. This is the third lowest cap in the country, and only serves to discourage an individual from earning additional income. Neighboring Arkansas and Tennessee have no cap.
Also, the Department of Health had interpreted vague language in the current law that restricts internet sales to mean an individual could not share pictures on social media. Soon, cottage food operators began to receive notices from the department. They have since said they’ve stopped that practice, but the uncertainty remains. This will clarify for cottage food operators that they can, indeed, share images of food they make on social media.
An identical bill passed the House last year, but died in the Senate without a vote.
There has not been evidence to suggest that lightly regulated states pose a threat to public health as some like to indicate. The limitations really just serve to limit competition for established businesses. By eliminating restrictions in Mississippi, we can give consumers new options, grow the economy, and encourage entrepreneurship.
MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it is aligned with our principles and therefore should be supported.
Read SB 2408 here.
Track the status of this bill and all bills in our legislative tracker.
A bill banning the limited sale of goat milk that is moving through the state House is symbolic of the state’s larger resistance to food freedom.
Thirteen states allow the sale of raw milk in retail stores, ranging from states we generally associate with liberty like Arizona and Idaho, to states that are known for their regulatory burdens like California and Connecticut. Seventeen states allow sales of raw milk on the farm on which its produced. An additional eight states allow raw milk to be obtained through cow shares only.
Mississippi is part of the group of three states that only allow raw goat milk, but not raw cow milk. Bills to allow the sale of raw cow milk have regularly been introduced, but they've always been killed in committee without a vote.
This year, we appear headed in the opposite direction, with pending legislation restricting freedom, not expanding it.
Another bill pending in the legislature is a cottage food expansion. Currently, cottage food operators who have annual gross sales of less than $20,000 are given the freedom to sell goodies they bake in their own home, without the government inspecting their kitchen or providing a certificate. They are, however, prohibited from advertising those goodies online. The Department of Health has been known to send cease and desist letters to individuals posting pictures of their creations on Facebook and Instagram.
House Bill 326 will expand the cap to $35,000 and remove the internet prohibition. It has passed the House and is headed to the Senate. The same place it died last year. This would be a good start, but all a cap does is place a limitation on your ability to earn a living. Twenty-eight states, including neighboring Arkansas and Tennessee, have no cap.
Mississippi also maintains a prohibition on selling online to buyers within state limits and to selling through retail outlets like grocery stores.
Mississippi Department of Agriculture regulations prohibit all but direct farm-to-consumer sales by small-scale poultry producers. This is contrary to Mississippi law, which has adopted a federal exemption that allows small producers to sell to grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and other institutions.
In conformity with federal law, Mississippi law technically incorporates the federal 20,000 bird exemption, which allows poultry producers who raise fewer than 20,000 birds a calendar year to sell these birds without being subject to daily inspection and other facility requirements. MDAC regulations, however, do not recognize this mandated exemption in any meaningful way.
This means that Mississippi is forcing small poultry producers to follow federal requirements that were drafted with large-scale producers in mind. These requirements are onerous and expensive and address the unique problems created by large-scale poultry production. It is not appropriate to subject small producers to these requirements, which is why federal law has always allowed for a small producer (20,000 bird) exemption.
Unlike other states that recognize the federal 20,000 bird exemption, Mississippi prohibits all but direct farm-to-consumer sales for small farmers. This completely undermines the purpose of the exemption. Mississippi agricultural regulations ban small producers from selling to restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, schools and hospitals. As a result, small poultry producers are denied access to distribution channels currently open to large producers.
Mississippi has a regulatory problem that extends to various industries. All too often, the default response by lawmakers is to agree to protect the established interests rather than letting the market choose the winners and losers.
Perhaps 2020 will be different.
Mississippi needs to reform our regulatory and licensing burdens. Our current policies only serve to increase costs for business owners and consumers, while limiting choice for individuals and career opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs.
We have witnessed a push to make positive changes in states across the country, and even from Washington, D.C. In between dealing with the prison and Department of Human Services fallout and the normal fights over how to best spend taxpayer money, will we see regulatory reform come to Mississippi in 2020?
Gov. Tate Reeves has made red tape reduction a priority. During his State of the State, Reeves said, “We are assembling a team that is committed to ensuring that the people of Mississippi are never held back by cumbersome government. Regulations and processes that may have been well-intentioned, often serve only to slow our state down. We are going to fix that.”
That is welcomed news. Today, Mississippi has more than 117,000 regulations, which numerous empirical studies show to have a detrimental effect on economic growth. The state should begin to reign in these regulations by having each agency conduct an audit of their own administrative code. The truth is that many of these regulations are outdated, and the government doesn’t even know they exist. Thereafter, we should require two regulations be removed every time a new rule is authorized. Finally, we should implement a sunset provision, which would require the legislature to continuously monitor our administrative code and decide which regulations should stay and which should go.
Mississippi also licenses 66 low-and-middle income occupations. According to a recent report from the Institute for Justice, Mississippi has lost 13,000 jobs because of occupational licensing and the state has suffered an economic value loss of $37 million.
While they are a long way from becoming law, we have seen several bills introduced that would move the state in the direction toward economic freedom.
Last year, Arizona became the first state in the country to provide universal recognition for an occupational license an individual received in a different state. The idea was simple. Just because you cross state lines doesn’t mean you have forgotten how to practice your trade. House Bill 261, sponsored by Rep. Becky Currie (R-Brookhaven), would do the same thing, making Mississippi more welcoming to military families and new residents moving here, something the state sorely needs.
We’ve also seen steps to make it easier to work in various fields. The debate over expanded authority for nurse practitioners has been a longstanding fight in the legislature. House Bill 613, sponsored by Rep. Donnie Scoggin (R-Ellisville), would expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, exempting APRNs from the physician collaboration requirement after working for 3,600 hours. We need more healthcare professionals working in Mississippi, providing access in more parts of the state. This would help alleviate some of our doctor shortages.
Bills have also been introduced in the House and Senate to exempt eyebrow threaders from Board of Cosmetology regulations. Senate Bill 2127, sponsored by Sen. Angela Hill (R-Picayune), and House Bill 527, sponsored by Rep. Steve Hopkins (R-Southaven), would allow eyebrow threaders to practice their skill without having to spend 600 hours on an education that does not spend one hour on eyebrow threading. This is a small field and even though it’s growing, it won’t impact many people. Still, the current laws are symbolic of our reliance on government regulations that don’t serve a public benefit.
Regulations concerning those who use their kitchen to make and sell goodies may also be eased. House Bill 326, sponsored by Rep. Casey Eure (R-Saucier), would expand the sales cap for those in the cottage food industry to $35,000 and expressly permit operators to advertise on social media. The current limit is just $20,000, and the Department of Health had previously sent cease and desist letters to those who posted pictures of the food they are selling on Facebook or Instagram.
And Senate Bill 2196, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R-Southaven), would clarify that minors can run occasional businesses – such as lemonade stands – without a permit or license. This is a response to numerous localities across the country shutting down lemonade stands due to lack of permit. In a year when much of our focus is on workforce development, I can’t think of anything better for the future than teaching kids how to run a business and become an entrepreneur.
The legislature has much on their plate this year, as they do every session. These bills, and others like them, won’t generate a ton of headlines and will probably receive blowback from government regulators and those who have already played the regulatory game. But they represent the mentality the state needs to move toward for a stronger economy and less dependency on government.
This column appeared in the Madison County Journal on February 13, 2020.
House Bill 609, sponsored by Rep. Bill Pigott, would outlaw the sale of goat’s milk in the state. Those who violate the law could be sentenced to 60 days in jail and pay fines up to $500.
According to state law, the state allows the sale of goat’s milk if:
- The milk is sold directly to the consumer on the production premises.
- Nine or fewer producing goats are located at the farm where the milk is sold.
- The seller can’t advertise the milk for sale.
The law also has cleanliness requirements for the milking area, including sterile containers enforced by the state Department of Health. This bill would strike the sections governing the sale of goat’s milk from the law. The current law has a repealer on it, meaning it expires at the end of the fiscal year on June 30 if action is not taken first.
Mississippi provides limited access to raw milk for consumers. The state does not allow raw milk to be sold in stores, nor can raw cow’s milk be sold for human consumption. The state currently allows on-farm sales of goat’s milk only.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture, dairy goat herds expanded faster than any major livestock group from 2007 to 2017.
Individuals should have the freedom to purchase the milk they choose, free of government intrusion. We should be expanding access of raw milk to those who choose it, not outlawing it altogether.
MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it violates our principles and therefore should be opposed.
Read HB 609.
Track the status of this and all bills in our legislative tracker.
House Bill 188, sponsored by Rep. John Hines, would mandate curriculum that homeschoolers in the state must teach.
Currently, homeschoolers have a great deal of education freedom with respect to curriculum, schedule, school hours, and reporting requirements. This bill would change that.
Under this proposal, the same Mississippi History and U.S. Government courses that government schools must teach would also be required of homeschool families and private schools.
Specifically, the proposal says, “The Mississippi History course must provide students with an examination of the history of the State of Mississippi from the age of discovery and colonization to the present with particular emphasis on the significant political, social, economic and cultural issues of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which have impacted the diverse ethnic and racial populations of the state. All private, parochial and home-based school programs shall provide the same curriculum requirements to students enrolled in Grades 9 though 12.”
This would give the state authority to dictate what parents teach their children and how they teach it. Those rights belong with the parents who choose to homeschool, who generally make that choice because they want to set the curriculum that’s appropriate for their children free of state mandates.
Whether or not homeschool families in Mississippi teach Mississippi history or government – and we know most do – that is the choice of the parents, not the state.
MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it violates our principles and therefore must be opposed.
Read HB 188.
Track the status of this and all bills in our legislative tracker.