As the Hemp Cultivation Task Force kicks off their work, Mississippi now finds itself on an island as the only state in the Southeast where the cultivation of hemp is illegal.

This year, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas joined the ranks of states legalizing industrial hemp. As states continue to move in that direction, Mississippi is sitting with just Idaho, Ohio, and South Dakota among the only states in the nation where hemp remains illegal.

The South Dakota legislature Ok’d hemp legalization earlier this year, but it was vetoed by Gov. Kristi Noem.    

Cultivation of hemp for commercial, research, or pilot programs

We have seen a massive move toward hemp legalization at the state level after the 2018 Farm Bill expanded the cultivation of hemp. Previously, federal law did not differentiate hemp from other cannabis plants, even though you can’t get high from hemp. Because of this, it was essentially made illegal. But we did have pilot programs or limited purpose small-scale program for hemp, largely for research. 

Now, hemp cultivation is much broader, with the Farm Bill allowing the transfer of hemp across state lines, with no restrictions on the sale, transport, or possession of hemp-derived products. There are still limitations, but most states have taken the opportunity to find new markets for those who would like to cultivate hemp. 

The message from Marshall Fisher, the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, at yesterday’s first meeting of the task force was that we can’t do this. It’s not regulated enough, there is a link between hemp and fentanyl, and we will see more people being buried if we move in this direction. And law enforcement can’t tell the difference between hemp and cannabis. 

We don’t know what the task force will recommend. It includes both supporters and opponents. And of course, the legislature – who will be tasked with acting on any recommendations – will be different next year. 

But, if we have questions on whether or not hemp leads to chaos in the streets, we can just look to 46 other states.

Revenue from sports betting continues to decline in Mississippi as the slow season for betting continues a couple months before football resumes.

Taxable revenue for the month of May totaled just under $1.2 million, down from around $2 million in April. In March, revenues were just under $4.9 million, a far outlier from recent trends, thanks to the college basketball tournament. January and February hovered between $2.7 and $2.8 million. 

The biggest win for Mississippi’s casino-only sports betting industry, however, was Louisiana’s inability to pass their own legislation which would have legalized sports betting in Pelican State casinos and race tracks. The proposed legislation would have required local referendums in each parish, but it died on the last day of the session.

Lawmakers will not meet again until next March.

Other neighboring states

In Arkansas, sports betting became legal last week. Last November, voters approved a ballot initiative legalizing sports betting and the Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, is the first to welcome betters. While the timeline is still to be determined, a casino closer to home, Southland Gaming & Racing in West Memphis, is expected to begin collecting wagers soon. Competition has swallowed a lot of the revenue Mississippi once experienced, and this would likely add further pains to Tunica area sports betting operations.

Tennessee could also add to those pains, but they have some work to do. The state passed an online-only sports betting bill earlier this year, but it has many issues – requiring sportsbooks to buy official league data to settle in-play wagers, a very expensive entry point and high taxes, and a ban on prop bets in NCAA games. Much work remains before the Volunteer State is taking bids. 

Legislation was introduced in Alabama this year, but it did not move and most consider sports betting a long-shot with our neighbors to the east.

Mississippi won’t have to repay a $570 million Community Development Block grant given to the state after Hurricane Katrina, but most of the jobs created at the Port of Gulfport were low income and employment actually shrunk at the port itself compared with pre-Katrina levels.

Gov. Phil Bryant’s office recently announced that the U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development had closed its review of the Mississippi Development Authority and jobs created at the Port of Gulfport after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

HUD provided a $570 million Community Development Block grant to the MDA for the port for repairs and upgrades such as wharf crane rail upgrades, ship channel dredging and delivery and installation of three ship to shore rail mounted container cranes, a project that wasn’t completed until 2018. 

Under the conditions of the grant, the port was supposed to maintain 1,300 jobs and add 1,300 more workers once renovations were complete in 2016, 11 years after the storm. Fifty one percent were to be made available for those with low or moderate incomes.

Of those jobs, 1,167 came from a casino hotel that leases land from the port authority. HUD allowed the MDA to count jobs added at the Island View as part of its requirements under the CDBG grant. The agency also assisted the MDA in recalculating hours worked by the employees so they could be counted as full time under the conditions of the grant. 

The state said that the port had 2,085 maritime employees prior to Hurricane Katrina and that number shrank to 1,286 by 2007. A study by the Stennis Institute that was attached to the governor’s news release said that the port and its tenants directly employed 1,121 personnel and generated $425 million for the local economy.

“HUD’s $570-million investment after Hurricane Katrina was invaluable to Mississippi,” Bryant said in a news release. “I’m proud to say that we’ve met the low and moderate income national objective for CDBG funds. This would not be possible without the effort from our federal and local partners.”

The Stennis study also blamed the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill for the downturn in economic activity for having an effect on the Port of Gulfport’s operations after Katrina.

In August 2013, HUD issued a finding on the port reconstruction that criticized the state for inadequate recordkeeping in complying with the low- and moderate-income job requirements. 

A report issued in September 2013 by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER Committee) predicted that the port would be unable to meet its job creation requirements by the deadline.

In 2017, the MDA told HUD officials that additional jobs had been created in the expansion of the Island View Resort. HUD examined records and found that 18 percent of the 112 new hires sampled were duplicative or employees had been rehired and counted twice and 25 percent of them never worked full time.

HUD met with MDA and port officials in August 2018 to discuss progress with complying with the job creation requirements. HUD found that only 588 jobs had been created, far short of the 1,200 jobs that were supposed to be added according to the state’s plan.

MDA also used a new methodology for counting full-time jobs at Island View toward the goal, converting part-time positions using hours worked into full-time equivalent positions.

The port has added some new tenants, such as McDermott International, Sea One and Chemours, and brought back fruit company Chiquita in 2016, which relocated in 2014 to New Orleans.

Edison Chouest subsidiary Top Ship was supposed to receive $36 million in state funds to open a shipyard on property on the Industrial Canal owned by the port and employ 1,000 workers that would count toward the HUD total. The deal was scuttled in December after Top Ship wasn’t able to meet the investment or job creation requirements.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fireworks are legal in the following cities:

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

The use of fireworks are banned in the following cities:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In December, Andrea Falcetto attended Mississippi Host Club conference as an Airbnb host. There, she learned that between 2017 and 2018, Mississippi Airbnb hosts earned a combined income of $7.2 million dollars while $1 million dollars was earned in taxes which then went to state and local government.

But more than that, 1,800 guests were welcomed to the state of Mississippi by local Airbnb hosts alone.

Andrea experience as an Airbnb host started five years ago. In those five years, she has hosted over 500 people herself from various walks of life, including interns, doctors from Canada, people doing tours of the South, and some visiting from Chicago on spring break. 

Andrea’s own first stay at Airbnb was back in 2013 in Memphis when she was visiting from Kentucky. After numerous personal experiences like this, she realized how easy it would be to host her own Airbnb space. 

In her move to Louisiana from Kentucky, Andrea had Airbnb in mind and settled on a house with extra bedrooms. She found one and rented out through Airbnb for the two years she lived there. When she moved to Jackson in 2017, she did the same thing and found a three-bedroom house, two of which she currently rents out.

Now, thanks to the constant bookings, she rarely gets a single night in her own home to herself.  

But Andrea does not mind sharing her home. She sees it as an investment, putting the income made from renting back into the historic house in Fondren she lives in. Ultimately, the fact she is providing a spot to stay for someone who needs a place to stay, and in turn, she then has the ability to work on some projects for her home. provides a win for everyone involved.

Andrea believes Airbnb is important to Jackson but especially the Fondren area. Right now, though there are hotels being constructed now, there are currently no hotels in Fondren and those who come visit want to experience that local city feel.

The only way for them to do that right now is to stay in an Airbnb unit. Even after those hotels are built however, Airbnb will still be a more economical option for many.

As long as it has that appeal, Airbnb will continue to provide an additional form of income for local hosts in Jackson and bring to the area millions of dollars in tax revenue a year. 

One of the arguments against charter schools in the case before state Supreme Court is that they take away local property tax revenue from the Jackson Public School District.

The amount provided to the charter public schools in Jackson is minuscule when compared to both the amount of local property tax revenue (slightly more than 1 percent) and the annual expenditures by JPS (less than 0.5 percent).

Since 2015, the three charters located in Jackson have received $4.5 million from the district’s property tax revenue, or about 1.2 percent of the $373,917,333 in property tax revenue the district has received during the same span.

In 2018, JPS had expenses of $277,820,379, $298,256,286 in 2017, $282,231,492 in 2016 and $268,687,636 in 2015. 

That adds up to $1,126,995,793 in expenses from 2018 to 2015. The amount directed to charter schools represents only 0.4 percent of that spending. 

The arguments Tuesday before the state Supreme Court arose because of a 2016 lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center that questioned the validity of the state’s 2013 charter school law and whether local property tax revenues can be used to fund public charter schools.

A February 2018 ruling in Hinds County Chancery Court was a victory for charter school supporters, but the SPLC immediately appealed to the state’s highest court.

The reason for the location of charters in Jackson is because the district is a failing one according to the Mississippi Department of Education’s annual accountability scores. The district has received an F grade for the past three years.

Since 2011 when the MDE switched to a letter grade system for its accountability scores, JPS has scored no higher than a D. 

The accountability grades are partially based on the performance of students and the annual progress made on the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program tests for English language arts and mathematics, which are administered annually to students in the third through eighth grades and in high school.

Also figured into the accountability grades are the four-year graduation rate, student performance on biology, U.S. history and ACT tests, and student participation and performance in advanced coursework such as Advanced Placement.

A finalized rule unveiled last week by the Trump Administration could help make coverage both more portable and affordable and increase choices for consumers.

The new rule deals with Health Reimbursement Arrangements or HRAs, which are employer-funded accounts that workers use to pay for health insurance premiums or medical expenses.

This rule will allow employers to offer HRAs to their employees in lieu of a company sponsored plan. These plans would allow an employee to take their coverage with them rather than the plan being owned by their employer and leftover funds would roll over from year to year.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the expansion of HRAs would benefit approximately 800,000 employers and 11 million employees and family members, including an estimated 800,000 who were previously uninsured.

It would also free small businesses from the complexity of having to manage a company-provided plan for its employees.

“Too many Americans today have little say in how their healthcare is financed,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar in a statement. “President Trump has promised Americans that he will put them in control of their healthcare, and this expansion of health reimbursement arrangements will help deliver on that promise by providing Americans with more options that better meet their needs. 

“This rule and other administration efforts are projected to provide almost 2 million more Americans with health insurance.”

White House economist Brian Blase told reporters on a conference call that the vast majority of expansion under the new rule will be on plans that are not part of the Affordable Care Act’s plan exchanges. He also said that the new rule will require employers to either offer a sponsored plan or migrate to the HRA model.

Under the new rule which takes effect on January 2020, companies can replace their sponsored plans with the HRAs to allow their employees to purchase in the individual market. Employee and employer contributions to HRAs are without tax penalties when it comes to both income and payroll taxes, like employer-sponsored health plans. 

According to the HHS, 80 percent of employers that provide coverage only offer one plan.

In 2017, President Trump issued an executive order that says the administration will prioritize three areas for improvement: Association Health Plans, short-term, limited duration insurance and HRAs. 

Short-term insurance plans are ones that aren’t compliant with the massive tome of rules and regulations that made Affordable Care Act plans unaffordable to many consumers and the Trump administration’s rule allowed more customers to 

The other rule allowed small businesses to join Association Health plans and receive savings through economies of scale once only limited to large companies.

Technology, creative disruption, and capitalism continue to work together to make our lives better and easier. Though there is often a desire by government to limit the full potential of new technology. 

Having a personal shopper or getting fine dining delivered straight to your doorstep aren’t just luxuries for the ultra-rich these days. Now they’re available in a single click as mobile delivery apps continue to expand in their creativity and their delivery. 

While these services may feel common in today’s society, they would have seemed otherworldly just 10 years ago. Instead of spending hours grocery shopping, you can have your groceries delivered to your front door, fine dining with the convenience of take out, and cheap rides on demand around the clock - leaving those who commute to work a less expensive alternative and those who drink and drive no excuse. 

If you felt so inclined to take advantage of these conveniences, all you would have to do is place an order with any one of the dozens of delivery services available on the App Store,. Yet in Mississippi there may be something missing from your order – an adult beverage of your choosing.  

That is because Mississippi has a prohibition on the delivery of alcohol with your meal. You can order that adult beverage if you sit down at the restaurant and eat. But when you order that same meal from the same restaurant via an app, that same drink cannot be included. 

Mississippi is part of an ever-shrinking pool of states with such a policy. Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill  legalizing home delivery of alcohol with your meal. And in doing away with outdated regulations, Texas sets a good example for Mississippi to follow.  

Home delivery is about more than just drinking, it’s about the completion of an experience created by the free market. Customers benefit from being able to enjoy a drink with dinner or by saving another trip to the grocery store. Employees and employers benefit by an expanded consumer base, thus creating higher wages as well as new jobs. And the state benefits by introducing new revenue without the increase of taxes. 

While they say everything’s always bigger in Texas, these benefits would make a pretty big impact right here in Mississippi, for the state and for the individual. 

The technology is available. Convenience could be just a click away. If the government would let consumers choose.