House Bill 229, authored by Rep. Hank Zuber, will update the state’s transparency laws to require counties and municipalities to maintain an easily accessible transparency website with financial information.
The bill applies to counties with a population of 20,000 or more and municipalities with a population of at least 10,000. The new website will provide access to existing financial audits, budgets, and other financial documents, as well as expenditure information. This will provide the public with a new opportunity to monitor their local government, in an easy-to-read fashion.
This is all existing information, meaning there is nothing new for local governments to create. It is just information that local governments may not be sharing online. Transparency in government is necessary, and this will increase that level of transparency for taxpayers.
MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it is aligned with our principles and therefore should be supported.
Read HB 229.
Track the status of this bill and all bills in our legislative tracker.
There is a very popular phrase used around capitals all across the country these days. Surely, you’ve heard your legislator or a statewide official utter the words, “workforce development.”
It may be the two most commonly used words in state government today, after “fundraising event.” But what does it mean to develop? And who is being developed and by whom? It sounds innocent enough, but how do we actually develop workers for the future with the precious resources we have from taxpayers today? More vitally, how do we know what the future looks like exactly?
If what we mean by this innocuous phrase is to fully develop the child from age 5 to 18 through a comprehensive education system that renders students who are capable to go out into the world with the knowledge, skills, and competencies required to be productive citizens, then count me in. If we can educate our children in a way that bestows upon them the freedom to choose a path after high school from a variety of options, then I’m all for that.
If, however, we mean that we want to transform taxpayer-funded schools into job-training sites, then count me out. This is not the purpose of education.
We’ve heard a lot lately about the need to make computer science or coding an essential element of high school curricula, for example. This would not be the first time we’ve heard the clamor from companies to influence schools to meet their specific, current needs. In the early 1900s, the federal government provided funding to states in order to train students for manufacturing jobs. Such vocational training necessarily restricts the amount of time we can dedicate to the fundamental subjects like reading, writing, arithmetic, science, history, and government. Do we really want to produce graduates of our high schools who know less about reading, math, or U.S. government?
While computer science and programming are valuable endeavors and the tech sector has played an important role in our economy, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that only 3 percent of the roughly 171 million workers in the U.S. economy will hold computer or information technology jobs in 2028. The projections predict roughly 500,000 new jobs in the next 20 years in these fields.
In other words, the average state should see somewhere around 500 jobs per year. In a state the size of Mississippi, it works out to maybe a couple of hundred jobs per year. Don’t get me wrong, we need technology and innovation in Mississippi, and we should do all we can to encourage students to pursue computer science with their elective classes, particularly if a student has an interest in pursuing the field after graduation.
Government schools, and private ones for that matter, are about more than job preparation. They are also about developing minds, nurturing a love for learning, making informed citizens, reinforcing American values, and ensuring a continued inheritance of liberty and justice that lives on beyond ourselves. We have a duty to protect that purpose in our society.
It’s a greater responsibility than ensuring we produce workers for large employers in our state.
If we provide our students with a proper education, they will make wonderful employees in whatever field they choose. They might even start their own companies, become tech entrepreneurs, and create the next big company in Mississippi. Perhaps they’ll become lawyers, doctors, engineers, or farmers. Our job is to maximize their career possibilities, not to steer them towards one or another.
The next time you hear a politician speak of “workforce development,” make sure you ask what they mean. I just hope they don’t mean two other commonly used words around Mississippi – “federal grants.”
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.
Gov. Tate Reeves delivered his first State of the State speech Monday and outlined his goals for improving education, the state’s foster care system, and rural hospitals while cutting regulations.
The first-term governor also announced that infamous Unit 29 at Parchman will close and that a nationwide search is being conducted for a new corrections commissioner.
Reeves said he supports a teacher pay increase and increasing the progress made by Mississippi students in the classroom. From 2017 to 2019, Mississippi students were first nationally in progress made on both the fourth grade math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.
Reeves has already signed into law a bill that provides a deficit appropriation to fully fund a $1,500 pay increase that was passed in the last session. There are also several bills in the Senate and the House that would increase teacher pay, including a $1,000 raise bill authored by state Sen. Dennis DeBar (R-Leakesville), who chairs the Senate Education Committee.
A raise passed by the legislature this year would mark the fourth pay hike for teachers since 2000.
“I do not want to aim for average,” Reeves said. “We have achieved incredible education gains that put Mississippi at the top of the charts for test scores. We should not just aim for passing grades. We can and should aim to excel.”
Reeves also wants Mississippi to be the nation’s leader in the number of certified teachers.
He also outlined his plans to expand the state’s training programs for trades while taking a few shots at the higher educational system nationally. He wants a $100 million workforce development program that would increase apprenticeships and provide more community college grants and assistance for workers.
“There has been a malicious myth spreading across our country for many years: That the only way to achieve the American dream is through a four-year university degree and a career behind a desk,” Reeves said. “That myth comes from the arrogance of an elite class that sees their comfortable life as the only ideal. They are the same metropolitan narcissists who look at our state and sneer. They have tricked millions of Americans into taking on mountains of debt and wasting precious years—all based on a conceited lie.
“We must break the cycle. In Mississippi, we can be at the tip of the spear. Because in Mississippi, we know that there is pride in a trade. We know that there is money to be made. We can let the east coast have their ivory towers. We can let the west coast have a generation of gender studies majors. We will take more jobs and higher pay.”
On the state’s embattled foster care system, Reeves said he wants to promote adoption and move children to permanent homes.
“But today, I ask that we would all take a moment to recognize our responsibility for these kids,” Reeves said. “I ask that you would join us in working to reform the system that is set up to protect them. There is much that we can and must do.”
Reeves said he supports a major expansion of the rural physician scholarship program and tax incentives for businesses that contribute to hospitals in rural areas. He also said he supports expanded telemedicine.
“I believe that we must create a reason for doctors to locate in underserved areas,” Reeves said. “We must put patients first and protect them from the higher costs.”
On regulation, Reeves went on the offensive. He said he wants improve customer service and make it easier for workers to receive occupational licenses.
“As governor, I plan to take a hard look at all of the regulations on the books that make it harder for people to live and work here,” Reeves said. “If you want to make a living in Mississippi, we want to make it easy for you to live in Mississippi. It will help us to keep young Mississippians here, and recruit even more to live and work in our great state.
“That will be a focus of our administration. And we will count on the people of Mississippi to let us know where red tape blocks their path to prosperity.”
The Republican-dominated Mississippi Senate announced its 41 committee chairs at the beginning of the session and one surprise is how many Democrats were named to lead committees.
The Senate has 36 Republicans and 16 Democrats, but 12 of the Democrats have committee chairmanships. This means that 75 percent of Democrats hold chairmanships in the Senate while only 80.5 percent of Republicans hold chairmanships.
By comparison, the 2019 Senate comprised 32 Republicans and 20 Democrats with 39 committees. Twelve Democrats held chairmanships (60 percent) compared to 29 Republicans (84.4 percent).
These numbers, of course, do not tell the entire story as some chairmanships are more powerful than others. In 2019, Democrats held important chairmanships in Corrections, Transportation, and Judiciary B. In 2020, Democrats will control Corrections, Gaming, and Public Health and Welfare.
Chairmen are important in the legislative process because they act as gatekeepers for legislation. If a chairman doesn’t support a bill, he or she can keep it off the committee’s agenda. Conversely, a chairman can push a bill to send 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 Senate, the overall average rating was 46 percent, with Republicans averaging 54 percent and Democrats 32 percent. For the new chairmen, the average Republican earned a 53.32 percent rating, while the average Democrat was a 29.42 percent.
Public Health and Welfare
State Sen. Hob Bryan (D-Amory) was appointed to chair this committee, which handled bills related to everything from physician and nurse licensure, child protective services, certificate of need, and even food service.
Bryan has been in the Senate since 1984 and was chairman of the Judiciary B Committee in the last cycle.
One piece of legislation that could be handled by his committee is a Medicaid expansion bill that would expand Medicaid eligibility to able-bodied, working-age adults who earn up to 138 percent of the poverty level. This Medicaid expansion is a key piece of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Bryan authored similar legislation last year and it died in the Medicaid Committee.
Bills are referred to committee by chamber leadership, in this case, the Lt. Governor. The committee assignment for any Medicaid expansion bill would be a critical indicator on whether it is supported by leadership.
Bryan scored a 40 percent in 2019 and has a lifetime rating of 36 percent from the ACU. The average Democrat score was 32 percent. He has authored bills in the past that would’ve require mandatory, comprehensive eye exams for students entering kindergarten or the first grade, would’ve forced financial institutions to adopt policies to detect transactions related to Iran or terrorism and would’ve ended the phaseout of franchise tax and one state income tax bracket passed in 2015. Most didn’t survive the committee process.
Finance
State Sen. Josh Harkins (R-Flowood) chairs this committee, which deals with bonds, taxes, incentives, exemptions, the minimum wage, and alcoholic beverage control issues. Along with the Transportation Committee, this committee would play a big role in any possible gas tax increase at the state level or a possible local option gas tax proposal.
In 2019, Harkins authored the Landowner Protection Act, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Phil Bryant and reduces the liability for property owners for injuries that occur on their property. He also previously authored Right to Try, which provides terminally ill patients with access to experimental therapies.
Harkins scored a 52 percent grade from the American Conservative Union, while the average Republican score was 54 percent.
Judiciary Committees
Like the House, the Senate has two judiciary committees named Division A and Division B. They deal with legal issues, including criminal justice reform and other issues facing the judiciary system. While there has been a division of workload where one committee handled strictly criminal issues and the other handled civil issues, it’s unknown if the new Senate leadership will continue this practice.
Division A is chaired by state Sen. Sally Doty (R-Brookhaven), who received a 52 percent score from the ACU. In 2018, she authored a bill that would’ve allowed public and private nonprofit hospitals to collect debts using the state Department of Revenue to garnish income tax refunds from debtors.
She has also worked on legislation that expanded SNAP (food stamp) benefits to drug dealers/users and that sought to create a comprehensive sex-ed program for children in public school.
State Sen. Brice Wiggins (R-Pascagoula) will chair the other judiciary committee. He received a 48 percent grade from the ACU.
Wiggins wrote a “red flag” bill that would’ve allowed judges to issue orders to restrain a person’s right to possess firearms. It died in committee.
He also authored a bill that would’ve expanded the definition of a gang member and increased fines for gang members convicted of a felony. Under Wiggins’ bill, they would’ve also been prohibited form parole or any early release program. It died in committee.
Education
State Sen. Dennis Debar (R-Leakesville) takes over the Education Committee. One of the biggest issues facing the committee will be the reauthorization of the state’s Education Scholarship Account program, which will end this year without legislative action.
Debar, who was in the House at the time, voted for both the Charter Schools Act of 2013 and the original ESA bill in 2015. He also voted to renew the ESA program last year. That passed the Senate, but died in the House Education Committee.
He earned a 48 percent grade from the ACU.
Gov. Tate Reeves was sworn in as Mississippi’s 65th governor today, succeeding Gov. Phil Bryant, who was term limited.
During a ceremony that was moved to the House chamber because of rain, Reeves, who previously served two terms as treasurer and lieutenant governor, delivered an inaugural address that struck a conciliatory tone in saying this will be an administration for all Mississippians.
Reeves said his priority was to grow the economy.
"A growing, vibrant economy solves more problems than any government giveaway ever could," Reeves said. "A government program helps for a month, but a good-paying career helps a family for generations. It is my mission to spend every single day creating a climate where good careers are plentiful — with every Mississippian prepared to pursue them."
Reeves said he wanted to make sure the state is not causing more problems than it solves and that it does not stand in the way of opportunity.
“We will lower barriers to innovation,” Reeves said. “We will do everything in our power to make sure this is the easiest place in America to start and grow a business…We must open doors of generational opportunity to more people in our state.”
Reeves highlighted workforce development, which has been top of the mind for seemingly every politician in the state.
“It must be our goal to compete for the very best jobs in all the world. It starts with workforce training,” Reeves added. He then called for a “history making” increase in workforce training.
Other issues Reeves outlined:
- He said we must clean up corrections “to provide for the safety of our citizens and human dignity of all in the system.”
- He called for a teacher pay raise and a new mission to have more national board certified teachers per capita than any state in the nation.
- He said we must “take care of foster kids” and help “special needs kids get the help they need.”
The American Conservative Union Foundation’s Center for Legislative Accountability has produced its 2019 report for every state’s legislature. The report, similar to the one ACU has produced annually for members of Congress for nearly a half century, is designed to reflect how state legislators feel about the role of government in the lives of individual citizens.
Spoiler alert, the Mississippi legislature did not fare well.
Conservatism, at its core, is a political philosophy based on the inherent rights of the individual and his/her natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It flows from the Lockean ideas enshrined in our founding documents that the role of government is to defend and protect our Life, Liberty, and Property. Thus, the votes of a conservative member of the legislature should reflect a commitment to limited government, free markets, and personal responsibility. On the whole, a conservative should be voting against bills that would expand the size, scope, or cost of government and for bills that would reduce taxes, regulations, and burdens on small and mid-sized businesses.
The ACU Foundation report reviewed each piece of legislation voted on in both chambers of the legislature to produce average scores of each chamber as well as individual scores for each sitting member. In the previous session, Mississippi trailed only South Carolina as the most liberal legislature controlled by Republicans, according to ACUF’s Year in Review.
The Mississippi legislature’s overall conservative score continued to fall in the 2019 session (from 49.94 percent to 47.52 percent).
“In the 2019 session, numerous Mississippi lawmakers fell trap to crony government spending programs, and unnecessary interference in the marketplace,”said Center for Legislative Accountability Director, Fred McGrath.
The share of lawmakers earning awards varied by chamber, with just four Republican representatives and zero Republican senators earning awards. Democrat representatives earned an average score of 33 percent, slightly besting Democrat senators who earned an average of 32 percent.
The top scores in the House belonged to Reps. Joel Bomgar (R-Madison), Dana Criswell (R-Olive Branch), Ashley Henley (R-Southaven), and Steve Hopkins (R-Southaven). The top score in the Senate belonged to Sen. Michael Watson (R-Pascagoula), the incoming secretary of state.
ACU Foundation researched and selected a range of bills before the Mississippi legislature that determined a member’s adherence to conservative principles. They selected bills that focused on Ronald Reagan’s philosophy of the “three-legged stool”: 1) fiscal and economic: taxes, budgets, regulation, spending, healthcare, and property; 2) social and cultural: 2nd amendment, religion, life, welfare, and education; and 3) government integrity: voting, individual liberty, privacy, and transparency. This wide range of issues gives citizens an accurate assessment that conveys which of Mississippi’s elected leaders best defend the principles of a free society: Life, Liberty, and Property.
Frankly, I’m not surprised by the results. I have to come to understand that too many members of the Mississippi legislature and too many citizens on the Magnolia State equate “Conservatism” with “Republicanism.” It’s simply not so. Conservatism is a philosophy and Republicanism is a party. It’s not enough to be a supporter of our Second Amendment, traditional family values, and Judeo Christian beliefs. Most members of the Mississippi legislature, and certainly virtually all Republicans, fit that description. In addition to those ideas, we also need representatives who will vote to preserve the proper role of government.
As citizens, we need to hold our elected representatives accountable to self-governance and insist that they each learn to say “nay.” A conservative will say “nay” to increasing spending, expanding government dependency, adding taxes, and increasing regulatory capture.
In 2019, the Mississippi Center for Public Policy decided to read every bill that made it out of committee from either chamber and to score each bill based on a simple “green, yellow, red” system. On our website, you can find a summary of every bill, which we do in real time as the bills comes out. Then, you’ll see what we think of the bill. If we think the bill expands the size, scope, or cost of government or weakens individual liberty, we’ll mark it “red.” If the bill improves competition and consumer choice or preserves liberty, we’ll mark it “green.” If we need more information or don’t consider the bill to be a meaningful action, we’ll make it “yellow.” We do this not only to aid members of the legislature, but also do give the public a chance to see if their own representative votes like a conservative, or only talks like one.
This year, citizens will be able to compare how often their own representative votes for Life, Liberty, and Property directly on the site. It’s a new feature for this session. We’ll be watching…and so will the ACU.
When people leave Mississippi, they don’t go empty handed. They take their jobs, financial assets, and tax revenue with them.
Mississippi has lost $1.09 billion in wealth transfers to other states dating back to 2010. This is a change of negative 2 percent, ranking 30th nationwide, according to analysis of IRS data from the Illinois Policy Institute. Arkansas had a small decline of $287 million, while Louisiana lost $2.49 billion.
Alabama ($471 million) and Tennessee ($7.14 billion) both had positive transfers of wealth. Florida had the highest wealth transfer, both in terms of actual dollars ($88.95 billion) and percentage gain (20%).
Wealth transfers and population shifts go hand-in-hand.
Mississippi’s population declined by 4,871 last year. Mississippi and neighboring Louisiana, which saw a decrease of 10,896 residents, are the only states in the south to lose population over the past year. This is a continuing trend. Mississippi lost more than 3,000 residents the year prior.
But every other southern state south of Virginia (not named Louisiana), had positive domestic migration numbers last year. Some smaller, like 0.8 in Arkansas, some larger, like 10.3 in South Carolina. This is the difference between a positive and negative wealth transfer for a state.
Mississippi is in a dangerous cycle, but it is one that can be corrected. There are policies the state can adopt that would put Mississippi ahead of the curve when it comes to national policy and positioning the state to be competitive nationwide.
For starters, Mississippi needs to move away from a desire to overregulate commerce and embolden government bureaucrats. Mississippi has more than 117,000 regulations that cut across every sector of the economy. A successful model to stem this growing tide would be a one-in, two-out policy where for every new regulation that is adopted, two have to be removed. If a regulatory policy is so important, let’s make the government prove it.
The Trump administration adopted a similar executive order in 2017, and the numbers show we are actually seeing decreases greater than two-to-one, and these are not insignificant regulatory reductions.
This could be particularly beneficial in healthcare and tech policy. No department regulates more than the Department of Health, but our goal should be a push toward free market healthcare reforms that encourage choice and competition. In tech policy, the state has the opportunity to be one of the first states to essentially open the door for innovation, rather than one where entrepreneurs need to seek permission from the state. If Mississippi wants to get in the technology world, and we are convinced this is essential, a permissionless innovation policy in healthcare would be a big step in the right direction.
We should also not require people to receive permission from the state to work when they do move here. Open the door to productive citizens by allowing for universal recognition of licensing, following the path paved by Arizona. If you have been licensed in one state, that license should be good in Mississippi. Again, we could be ahead of the curve.
At the same time, our occupational licensing regime should be reviewed. Today, 19 percent of Mississippians need a license to work. It was 5 percent in the 1950s. While there are some occupations where a license is obviously prudent, we’ve expanded into far too many occupations.
This serves to lower competition and increase costs for consumers, while not providing those consumers with a better product. Occupational licensing is an example of how Mississippi misses the opportunity to grow her economy by acting in defensive ways to protect the slices of our economic pie for the well-connected when the reality is we could create a much bigger economic pie if we encouraged more creative disruption, competition, and risk-taking.
Finally, Mississippi needs to shed its abundant reliance on government and the public sector. Whether for public assistance, grants, contracts, jobs, or specific tax breaks, the citizens and companies in Mississippi are too dependent on state government. And the state is too dependent on the federal government. We have the third highest level of economic dependence on federal grants-in-aid in the nation (43%) and the fourth highest level of our economy driven by the public sector in the country (55%). Politicians, state agency directors, and government bureaucrats cannot create the economic growth we need. They can, however, work together with our various representatives and create an environment that allows and encourages private economic activities. Ultimately, with such an environment, it will be the entrepreneurs, business owners, productive workers, creative disruptors, capitalists, managers, and consumers who deliver the economic growth we all seek.
Mississippi can share the success of our neighbors. It will just take work.
Medicaid expansion, campus free speech, regulatory reform, teacher pay raises, and infrastructure spending are some of the issues that the Mississippi legislature will likely tackle in the session that starts today.
Since this session follows an election year, legislators will be in town until May 10, about a month longer than usual.
Last year’s session ended on March 29, nine days before legislators were supposed to leave town.
With a longer session, the deadlines will be pushed back. February 24 is the deadline for bills to be introduced and March 10 is the first deadline for bills to be passed out of committee in the originating chamber.
Medicaid expansion
One of the biggest issues facing the legislature is the possible expansion of Medicaid for able-bodied, working adults up to 138 percent of the poverty level under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
Thirty-six states have expanded Medicaid, which has the federal government cover 90 percent of the costs. The other 10 percent.
Any attempt to expand Medicaid will likely face the veto pen of incoming Gov. Tate Reeves, who made stopping expansion one of the primary issues of his campaign.
Incoming Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is open to the idea, but House Speaker Philip Gunn is less supportive.
If Louisiana is any indication, participation and thus costs will far exceed estimates. According to a report by the Louisiana-based Pelican Institute, the state expected 306,000 new enrollees when it expanded Medicaid eligibility, but that number has ballooned to 456,361 according to recent data from the Louisiana Department of Health. That’s an increase of 49.1 percent.
A study by Institutes for Higher Education in 2015 said that it’d cost taxpayers $159.1 million per year by 2025 if 95 percent of the eligible population participated in the expansion (310,039 enrollees).
Campus free speech
As evidenced by events over the past year, work remains on ensuring that the state’s universities and community colleges don’t restrict the free speech rights of students and faculty.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in September on behalf of a former Jones County Junior College student who was stopped several times by campus police and administrators from exercising his free speech rights. Attorneys for the college are seeking dismissal of the case in a filing on December 5.
One of the ways that the legislature could protect the free speech rights of students is enacting legislation that would prevent the creation of restrictive speech codes, keep administrators from disinviting speakers (especially controversial ones), create a series of disciplinary sanctions for students and anyone else who infringes the free speech rights of others, and allow people whose First Amendment rights were curtailed on campus to be compensated for court costs and attorney fees.
Regulatory reform
A study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University found that the state’s administrative code has 9.3 million words and 117,558 restrictions. To read all of it would take 13 weeks of 40-hour work weeks and some breaks.
This regulatory morass places a heavy burden on businesses to stay in compliance and could be reduced with some common-sense reforms.
One of those would be a law that’d require the state’s regulatory bodies to strike two regulations for every new one that the board or commission seeks to enact.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump’s administration has enacted similar policies starting in 2017 that eliminated $13.5 billion in regulatory costs in fiscal 2019. In fiscal 2020, this could generate savings of $51.6 billion according to government estimates.
Gasoline tax hike
There is also a push for a gasoline tax hike for Mississippi drivers. Right now, they pay 37.19 cents in state and federal taxes on every gallon of gasoline, about 11 cents a gallon less than the national average. The state’s gas tax was last increased in 1987.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation requested $1.1 billion for fiscal 2021. Of that budget request, $559 million is from federal funds, $305 million from the state’s gasoline tax, $161 million from other state taxes and $75 million from state truck and bus taxes and fees.
The Office of State Aid Roads has requested $195,463,799 in from special and federal funds, which helps maintain 25,857.04 miles of county roads that are considered “feeder” routes between the state highways. This money also goes to maintaining 5,368 bridges on these routes
Also possible is a local option gasoline tax that is similar to Florida’s that would allow counties and municipalities to hold referendums on increasing local excise taxes on gasoline by a few cents. This would require a constitutional amendment and is probably unlikely.
Seemingly forgotten is the Mississippi Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2018 that was passed in a special session. The law diverts 35 percent of the state’s use tax revenues by next year to cities and counties to help with infrastructure. It also authorized $300 million in borrowing, with $250 million for the Mississippi Department of Transportation and $50 million for local infrastructure not administered by MDOT.
The infrastructure bill also increased registration fees for owners of hybrid and electric vehicles and is redirecting gaming tax revenue from sports wagering to roads and bridges.
The legislature also created a lottery, the first $80 million in tax revenue annually going to the state highway fund until 2028 and the rest put into the Education Enhancement Fund.
In the first week of sales, the lottery earned of $8,932,200, with $1.9 million going to roads and bridges statewide.
Teacher pay raise
One of the first things that legislators will have to tackle is a deficit appropriation of $18.5 million to cover the $1,500 pay increase for the state’s teachers passed in last year’s session.
Due to problems with an antiquated computer system, the Mississippi Department of Education reported a smaller number of eligible teaching positions than actually existed.
The $1,500 pay hike likely won’t be the only raise teachers receive from the legislature. During the campaign, both Reeves and Hosemann supported increasing teacher pay to the “southeastern average.”
With $100 million in additional revenue available to appropriators, Mississippi teachers could see more in their wallets. Teachers have enjoyed three pay hikes since 2000, beyond their annual step increases.
Mississippi teachers are the lowest paid nationally (average of $44,926 before the increase took effect in July), but when the state’s low cost of living is factored in, their pay ranks 35th, according to analysis of data by North Carolina’s John Locke Foundation.
Using the new raise as a guide, every $1,500 in raises will add up to about $76.9 million annually. An 11.29 percent increase that would bring the average Mississippi teacher’s salary to about $50,000 would cost about $263 million annually.