Two competing tax plans are being considered by the Mississippi legislature. The House plan, published in January and voted through already as HB1, offers to eliminate the state income tax. The Senate this week published their rival proposal.
Which of the plans is more conservative?
Speaker White’s House tax plan is without question the more conservative proposal. It offers full elimination of the state income tax over the next decade, a net $1.1 billion reduction in the amount of money the state government takes from taxpayers, and a cut in the grocery tax.
White’s plan is the product of careful deliberation and public consultation. White organized a public Tax Day, open to everyone. Rep Trey Lamar, who authored a lot of the detail, fielded all sorts of suggestions. The plan they produced reflects that collaboration and candor.
Delbert Hosemann’s Senate plan only offers a $330 million cut in the tax take. The Senate plan would leave politicians in control of a far larger share of your money – which a cynic might say is its purpose. The Senate plan was produced behind closed doors, only being unveiled halfway through the session.
The Senate plan should be seen as a deliberate attempt by anti-tax cutting politicians to try to head off Governor Tate Reeves / Jason White’s conservative tax cutting agenda. Hosemann’s tax plan would still leave the income tax in place, albeit at a reduced rate of 2.9 percent. The Senate plan would be to cut the grocery tax to 5 percent, rather than the 4 percent the House wants.
I'm not wild about the idea of any increase in the sales tax. What I don’t like about either plan is that they won’t just raise the gas tax, but they frontload that gas tax increase before the tax reductions kick in elsewhere. The House suggests raising the gas tax by 15 cents a gallon, while the Senate suggests 9 cents. If revenue needs to be raised to improve our roads, a more conservative approach might be to have time-limited taxes, with revenues earmarked for specific infrastructure projects.
That said, it would be disingenuous for any supporters of the Senate plan to attack the House plan from the right, given that the Senate is also proposing to increase the gas tax while continuing to tax your paycheck every month.
I worry that the Senate plan is primarily an exercise in political positioning, rather than income tax elimination. “Read my lips” I imagine those that drafted it want to be able to say “We support tax cuts! Here’s a token cut in the grocery tax, and a slightly lower increase in the gas tax. We’re not RINOs! Really”.
That kind of distraction strategy might once have worked if no one paid attention and the local media only ever criticize you from the progressive left. I’m not sure it will work anymore. If you posture as a tax cutter but put all your energy into a tax plan designed to dilute actual tax cuts, you will be called out.
Delbert Hosemann is reported as saying he believes full elimination of the income tax would be over ambitious. Since when was it “over ambitious” for Republicans with a super majority to get on and do conservative things?
I don’t see President Trump and Elon Musk holding back from doing what needs to be done because it is “over ambitious”. Our legislature needs to recognize that Mississippi has a historic political and economic opportunity to eliminate the state income tax. Mississippi is starting to see real growth, thanks in large part to the tax cuts we have already implemented. It is not a coincidence that when Arkansas cut their income tax rate, they set it at 3.9 percent in order to be just below our current rate of 4 percent.
Implementing the Senate plan, which would retain the income tax rate at 2.9 percent, rather than abolishing it, would make Mississippi less competitive than our neighbors. If passed, the Senate plan would squander the chance to deliver bold reform, while institutionalizing our economic uncompetitiveness.
Conservatives should support the House plan, with some possible modifications.
Wow! What a start! Donald Trump began his Presidency with a blizzard of Executive Orders. He’s not holding back on advancing a conservative agenda. An emergency has been declared to secure the southern border. DEI hires in the federal government are being fired. The renewable energy boondoggle is over. Mass deportations have begun.
But what about Mississippi? Have our state lawmakers been using their time in office to deliver the change we need?
The good news is that two weeks into the 2025 legislative session there are some significant conservative bills at the Capitol under consideration.
SCHOOL CHOICE
HB1435 (Jansen Owen) offers public to public school choice. It would give every Mississippi family the choice options that last year the legislature extended to military families. HB1433 (Rob Roberson) would allow a limited form of public to private school choice in D and F rated districts. Shout out to Rep Owen and Rep Roberson! Both bills are vitally important, and we strongly support them. Also worth watching are bills to increase the number of Charter Schools and overhaul our phony district grading system.
INCOME TAX ABOLITION
The House has already passed HB1 (Rep Lamar, Speaker Jason White), which offers to eliminate the state income tax over the next decade. It would be truly awesome if this were to pass. There is an issue with the fact that the bill frontloads some tax rises early on, but I am confident that good conservatives can make this work. Kudos to Rep Lamar and Speaker White….
ANTI DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
SB2223 (Sen Hill), HB1179 (Rep Currie) and HB1416 (Rep Currie) offer comprehensive legislative action to address DEI. This is timely given that President Trump has just repealed Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order mandating reverse discrimination. Also important is Sen England’s SB2182 bill, which would let sunlight in as an anti DEI disinfectant. Families would have a right to see what their kids are being taught in the classroom. Three cheers for Sen Hill, Rep Currie and Sen England!
BALLOT INNITIATIVE
There is also a bill in the Senate, SB2572, sponsored by Sen Boyd, to restore the ballot initiative. Well done, Sen Boyd. If you can make this happen, you will be a hero to many. Given that the Senate has been the place that efforts to restore the ballot initiative have usually gone to die, the fact that this has the sanction of some in the Senate might be significant. There is also a superb bill to reform Certificate of Need laws (HB922) by Rep Zuber and Rep Creekmore. A thousand cheers to both of them!
There are also some excellent proposals to allow Mississippians to buy wine online. It’s ridiculous we can’t already …
WILL ANY OF THIS HAPPEN?
These are all excellent conservative proposals, but we’ve been here before. Will our lawmakers make any of this happen? What has already happened to some of the anti DEI bills is instructive. Mississippi Lieutenant Governor, Delbert Hosemann, moved to kill Sen Hill’s anti DEI bill through a procedural sleight of hand. He did so by double referring the Hill bill, meaning that the chances of it progressing further are tiny.
Mr. Hosemann maneuvered to kill the anti DEI bill in Jackson the very week that President Trump issued Executive Orders to combat DEI in Washington.
Fortunately, lurking on the list of bills is a Senate bill (SB2515) called the REFOCUS bill (Sen Boyd). It proposes a long overdue review of our public universities, and it seems to include a section about tackling DEI. Or at least prevent public universities from maintaining a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion office.
We know that Ole Miss and others have already rebranded their Diversity departments, so the bill could just be symbolic. It might do nothing to counter leftist faculty, while allowing politicians to play word salad on SuperTalk. But depending on the language that Sen Boyd uses, her bill might actually be meaningful. This could be the kind of anti DEI bill we need.
Here at the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, we have built up a large audience across the state. Our weekly email goes out to over 80,000 people In Mississippi. Over the past week, more than ten million viewers across America and beyond saw our digital output.
As the House and Senate consider these conservative proposals in the weeks ahead, we will let you know who, like President Trump, has been actively on your side, and who continues to frustrate conservative reform.
How much do you imagine it costs to send a child to public school in Hinds County every year? $5,000 per year? Maybe $10,000? $15,000?
Actually, according to data from the Mississippi Department of Education, when you divide the number of students attending school by the total expenditure, in 2023-24 Hinds County spent $16,589 per student.
That is more than twice the average private school fees in our state. Indeed, $16,589 is not far off what it would cost to send your child to a top private school.
Now ask yourself if each child in Hinds County is getting a top education for that $16,589? Of course not. A large chunk of the kids can’t read or do basic math. One in three of them regularly skip school.
So, why not give families in Hinds County the right to take a portion of that $16,589 and allocate it to a school of their choice?
It’s not just Hinds County. The same question could be asked in Madison ($17,037 spent for every public school pupil per year) or Rankin ($15,198 per pupil per year), or Canton ($18,683) or De Soto ($13,820).
Even if you take the Department of Education’s own more conservative figure for per pupil spending (which includes all the ‘no-show’ students), Mississippi still spends an average of $14,676 per student.
Despite all that money, 4 in 10 fourth graders in Mississippi public schools cannot read properly. Eight in 10 eighth grade kids in Mississippi were not proficient in math in 2022. One in 4 kids routinely skips school.
Nor has $14,676 per student spending translated into better teacher pay. Notwithstanding recent pay increases, our teachers still earn significantly less than they did in 2010, when you adjust for inflation.
If you happen to be one of the fortunate families happy with the public education options available, great. No need to change and no one is proposing any changes that will affect you. But why not allow those families unhappy how things are the freedom to take their tax dollars to a school that best meets their needs?
Suggesting this provokes outrage not from parents, but from various vested interests who like things the way they are. They like a system that puts the $14,676 they get for your child into their administration budget, rather than the classroom. School superintendents making more than the Governor want to keep control of their multimillion dollar budgets for a reason. It’s a boondoggle for bureaucrats.
School Choice will not impoverish public schools. The legislation that Speaker Jason White is proposing would allow families control over the state portion of funding, not locally raised revenues or federal dollars.
In Hinds County, for example, that would mean families being able to allocate no more than $6,700 of the $16,589 overall per pupil funding. (Rather than depleting Hinds County public schools’ budget, actually it would make Hinds County better off in terms of per pupil spend.)
Giving families control over $6,700 of the state funds will not mean a flood of kids coming into your well run school district. Why not? Because the legislation proposed specifically gives school boards the final say on capacity.
What anti School Choice campaigners really fear is not the “wrong” kids coming to your school. What they fear is that you start wondering what the heck they’ve been doing with the $14,676 they get for your child or grandchild every year.
All of the arguments we are now hearing against School Choice in Mississippi have been heard in each of the surrounding states that have since adopted School Choice.
Alabama’s new Educations Savings Account program, which has just opened for applications, has been wildly oversubscribed. The program provides $7,000 funding per student attending a participating private school, while those enrolled in home education programs are eligible for $2,000 per student.
Arkansas allows all K-12 students access to an Education Savings Account from 2025, into which the state government pays the state portion of per pupil funding ($6,600 per year). Families will be able to use this $6,600 money they are given to pay for their child education, including private school tuition. Arkansas also allows public to public school transfers, allowing districts to define capacity.
Louisiana’s GATOR program starts in 2025-26 and establishes an Education Savings Account for those on low incomes, with the details are still being finalized as the law only recently passed. Louisiana already has public to public School Choice.
Texas and Tennessee, too, are at this very moment debating legislation that would create a universal Education Savings Account for families in those states, too.
None of the scare stories we now hear in Mississippi materialised in any of these neighboring states. None of these states has been bankrupted like the critics claimed by letting mom and dad have parent power. Instead, all the evidence suggests School Choice has started to improve education outcomes.
Did you know that Mississippi is now one of the fastest growing states in America? Only two states saw real GDP rise faster than it did here in the third quarter of 2024.
Were you aware that personal income in our state rose more here than almost anywhere in the US this past year?
New data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that Mississippi is on the up.
For as long as anyone can remember, Mississippi has ranked 50th out of 50. Not for much longer, perhaps. According to this new data, ours’s was one of the top performing states in 2024. If we keep growing for the next few years the way we did in 2024, we won’t be bottom of the class for much longer.
Mississippi’s success is not an accident. It’s a consequence of a number of key free market reforms:
- Labor market deregulation, with an Occupational Licensing law in 2021.
- Tax cuts with legislation to cut the state income tax to a flat 4 percent in 2022.
- Further tax reform to make it more tax efficient for businesses in 2023.
- Education funding reform as a step towards school choice in 2024.
These reforms have begun to energize our state. They make it easier for people to get ahead, for businesses to invest, and for families to spend their income on their priorities. They draw in inward investment, which is changing our state for the better.
If Mississippi is not to lose this momentum, we need to go even further. That is why MCPP has just published a Blueprint for Mississippi – a list of the ten key reforms that would lift our state to the top of the economic table.
The number one reform we need to prosper is school choice. Why? School choice is the only way to be certain of raising standards. The better job we do of educating young people, the greater their chances of leading a prosperous, fulfilling life.
Our Blueprint sets out how we can accomplish school choice, giving every family in our state the choices that today only the very rich enjoy.
To prosper, our state needs less regulation and less government. Our Blueprint sets out proposals to cut taxes further and dismantle the costly, leftist bureaucracy that seems to be in control no matter who you vote for.
Decades of crony cartel politics has stifled innovation in our state. Years of lobbyists cutting cozy deals in the Capitol that commercially advantage their clients has held Mississippi back. A lot of the intentionally restrictive laws that limit health care provision simply need to go. Our Blueprint sets out how to make this happen.
MCPP has been a driving force behind many of the key free market reforms that have helped energize our state. But at every opportunity, crony cartel politics has tried to prevent change.
The crony cartel will try again. It’s what self-serving cartels do. Already they are mobilizing half-baked arguments against school choice. They are lobbying to maintain intentionally restrictive laws that hold back the healthcare economy. Brace yourself for politicians explaining why we can’t afford tax cuts despite a healthy surplus.
In politics, nothing moves unless it is pushed. MCPP won’t just publish our Blueprint. We will push and push hard. Mississippi’s future is too important to let bad politics get in the way.
Mississippi could be on the cusp of transformative changes. If we keep going, we will not only no longer be 50th, but we could become – like Tennessee or Alabama – a state that young people want to move to, not leave.
Download a copy of our blueprint here!
Parental choice is the only certain way to raise standards and counter left- wing values in the classroom. MCPP has a plan to make this happen in Mississippi.
Mississippi is already surrounded on three sides by states that have school choice. Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana have all now passed legislation to give families control over their child’s share of the education budget. However, perennial efforts to achieve something similar in Mississippi through Education Savings Accounts, or ESA's, have failed. Each time a universal ESA proposal has been attempted the legislation dies. We would love to see a universal program of publicly funded ESA's in Mississippi, which families could use to pay for school, but I believe the chances of such legislation passing anytime soon are slim.
That’s why MCPP is pursuing a different three step strategy to achieve universal school choice in our state:
- Step One – An individual budget for every student: During the last legislative session, MCPP spearheaded efforts to secure a school-funding formula in order that every public school student now has a personalized education budget.
We did so knowing that once each student has a personalized budget, it becomes much easier to argue that they should then be allowed to take their budget to a school of their choice. We have achieved this.
- Step Two – Public-to-public school choice: Thanks to a bill (HB 1341) passed in the last legislative session, military families, including those in the National Guard, are able to send their children to a traditional public school of their choice—if it has capacity.
We are openly pushing for legislation in the 2025 session to allow each student to take their personal budget to a public school of their choice, giving every family in Mississippi the right that military families enjoy. Responsible conservative policy means allowing school boards to have the final say over capacity and giving strong safeguards to school so that they do not have to take students with a history of disciplinary problems.
- Step 3 – Parental Choice Tax Credit: Tens of thousands of families in our state choose not to send their children to public school, either because they homeschool or they send their children to private school. We believe they should be able to claim a refundable income tax credit to help them with expenses, like tuition and fees.
We have a carefully costed plan for a Parental Choice Tax Credit that would achieve this, building on the tax credit system we already have. Interestingly, the Republicans in Washington, D.C., have indicated that they might pass a similar tax credit federally. These three steps would ensure universal school choice in our state—and give families in Mississippi the choices that families now have in neighboring states. The good news is that Mississippi is already halfway to making this happen!
Morton Blackwell, the great conservative activist, likes to say that “In politics nothing moves unless it’s pushed”. MCPP is happy to push – and to push hard …. even if it upsets one or two anti-school choice activists. It’s what we exist to do.
We are open about our goal and our strategy for achieving school choice because we know that sunlight is the best disinfectant. There’s no need for mystery and opaque maneuverings. Nor will we shy away from engaging directly those that might like to stop parental choice by stealth. If school choice is opposed by lawmakers that sent their own kids to private school, we won’t hesitate to ensure that Mississippi knows.
Over the course of the coming months as we head into the 2025 legislative session, I will be sure to update you on progress – and I’ll be sure to inform you who supports and who opposes parental choice! This is a fight we can win!
Donald Trump is the most pro-school choice President in history. “As president”, he has said, “I will establish the national goal of providing school choice to every American child”. “If we can put a man on the moon and win two world wars, then I have no doubt that we as a nation can provide school choice to every disadvantaged child in America”.
Unfortunately, Mississippi has made little progress towards school choice due to a tiny handful of anti-school choice Republicans. Even though three of our surrounding states, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana, now have school choice, we still don’t. The biggest obstacle to the education reforms we need is the current Senate Leader, Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann. He has taken every opportunity to thwart efforts to achieve more parent power.
Initially, Mr. Hosemann took to claiming that school choice would be unconstitutional. This is an erroneous argument, as a carefully prepared legal briefing note we circulated shows. Having conceded that there is, indeed, no constitutional barrier to school choice, our Lieutenant Governor began to search for alternative excuses. Schools might not have the capacity, seems to be his latest one.
That is why the draft bill we worked on ensures school boards get the final say as to their capacity. No one is forcing them to take more kids. Another excuse crumbles….. One by one the arguments invoked by anti-school choice Republicans to justify their inertia have been dismantled. But it still appears that the will to give Mississippi families the parent power they have in our neighboring states just isn’t there.
Why is a Republican Lieutenant Governor in a conservative state teaming up with progressive activist groups, like the Parents’ Campaign, and briefing leftist media outlets like Mississippi Today to thwart reform? Mr. Hosemann, I gather, has indicated he is flat out opposed to a tax credit. This means Mr. Hosemann is very likely to be on a collision course with the next President, whose team, I understand, is literally finalizing plans for a federal tax credit right now. Will Mr. Hosemann continue to oppose a tax credit?
Mr. Trump has made it clear he will abolish the federal Department of Education. Trump does not intend to dismantle power in DC only to see it handed over to local bureaucrats in Jackson. He would like to see parents have control over their child’s education. If a handful of local Republicans continue to kill off school choice (“It died in committee”, is likely to be their next excuse), I suspect that the conspicuous absence of invitations to Mar-a-Lago may become the least of their worries.
In a fight between anti school choice Republicans and Team Trump, I imagine Trump will win. He’d certainly have support from the local conservative base who have voted conservative for years but not always got a great deal to show for it. Perhaps part of the problem is that one or two of our anti school choice Republicans have an unfortunate habit of never wanting to engage with anyone with different ideas to their own. That can become a problem if you don’t actually have very many ideas of your own. I’m not sure that a policy on four semesters a year, or cell phone usage in schools, quite cuts it ….
Those that get endorsed by Trump to run in 2027 will, I imagine, be Republicans that actually support the new President’s agenda in the coming months, particularly the 2025 session. There’s still time to get on board with school choice in Mississippi.
What a result! Trump has bounced back to win the White House, gaining a majority of the popular vote for the Republicans for the first time in 20 years. The Republicans also won the Senate and held the House, meaning that they have a mandate, and the means to deliver it, in a way they have not had for a generation.
If the incoming administration is going to turn America around, they urgently need to get to grips with the three existential challenges the US faces, namely soaring debt, mass immigration and a debilitating lack of & self-belief.
Every hundred days the US national debt is rising by $1,000,000,000,000. US national debt is already relatively higher than it was at the end of the Second World War – and this year, we will pay more on the interest to service the national debt than we do on defense. As Elon Musk, now one of Trump’s inner circle, says, unless this changes, debt will destroy America the way it did other great powers.
Trump needs to take an axe, the way Argentina’s President Milei has, and close many of the 400 federal agencies, starting with the Departments of Education. Certain welfare programs need to go, too.
When Musk bought Twitter / X, he fired 80 percent of the staff, and output rose. Let’s hope he is allowed to do something similar to the federal bureaucracy. Musk, who recently complained that it takes him longer to get permission to launch a rocket than it takes his team to build it, understands how red tape is stifling America. Dramatically removing red tape, and legally sanctioning federal agencies that overreach their actual mandates, would raise economic growth.
Faster growth and reduced federal spending would, in time, close the deficit. Over the past four years, 10 million immigrants have entered America – me being one of them. But the number entering illegally has soared. Set aside the unfairness of allowing in people that don’t abide by the rules the rest of us are required to follow, it is not a good idea for America to accept large numbers of people from culturally incompatible countries. See Europe for details.
As a new arrival, I constantly marvel at how fortunate I am to live in America. But it bothers me that many Americans don’t see how awesome their country is.
Too many Americans – especially young Americans – have been taught to despise their own country by smart-stupid liberals in the education system who think that self-loathing is a mark of sophistication, when in reality it betrays a lack of it. The ‘woke’ insanity in the classroom needs to stop.
Trump has already indicated he will abolish federal Diversity, Equity & Inclusion programs on day one. He will be President as America celebrates her 250th birthday on July 4th, 2026. Trump needs to ensure it becomes a celebration of all that is good and admirable about this country, and not a woke-fest.
The only certain way to take back control of the education system from smart-stupid liberals is through school choice.
In many states like our own Mississippi, a coalition of liberal activists, like the so-called Parents’ Campaign, and anti-school choice Republicans, such as Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann, have come together to block school choice.
Trump has made it clear he intends to address this, and Trump has indicated he will push for a federal law to give families school choice through a tax credit.
Trump is the most pro school choice President in the history of America, and I doubt Team Trump will take kindly to any anti school choice Republicans who carry on opposing public to public school choice and tax credits. State legislation on school choice in the 2025 session is likely to be closely watched by Team Trump.
Any anti school choice Republicans from Mississippi going to Mar-a-Lago to try to solicit Trump endorsements are likely to be disappointed. Their future trips are as likely to be as unsuccessful in that regard as their previous ones. Like last time, I very much doubt President Trump will offer anti school choice wannabes so much as a photo opportunity if they continue to oppose public to public school choice.
If you live in Mississippi, you will shortly have a Republican President in the White House, and a Republican Congress and Supreme Court in Washington DC. You, of course, already live in a state run by a Republican Governor, under a Republican-run legislature. If we can’t deliver conservative policy now, then when?
Now is the time for Mississippi – and America – to use this opportunity and place the country on an authentically conservative path.
Trump or Kamala? We’ll know who’s won in just a few days.
Whoever is elected the next President, we can count on the fact that supporters of the losing candidate won’t take it well. So polarized is our politics, supporters of the defeated candidate may despair. Trump or Kamala, there’s going to be an outbreak of doomerism in the days that follow. Many may wallow in pessimism. Some might even sound like they are willing Bad Things on America merely to vindicate their own political preferences. Don’t.
Whatever happens, Americans should avoid catastrophizing about the outcome. Life in this country has been getting better over the past few decades, despite rather than because of some of the politicians America has had.
Steve Pinker, the cognitive scientist, reminds us of this with a series of graphs he produced, showing how life has improved in America since the early 1970s. Output has shot up 321% since 1970, and the population increased by 63%. America’s industrial output today is approximately twice what it was in 1980. It's nearly three times what it was when Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. So much for the myth of American “de-industrialization”. Life expectancy is also up. Homicide, too, is down.
Over the past five decades, poverty in America has plummeted. Among those officially classified as “poor”, 99 percent live now in homes that have electricity, water and a fridge. 95 percent have a television. 88 percent have a phone. 71 percent own a car. And 70 percent have air conditioning.
In the early 1970s, many Americans simply didn’t have many of these things. In the late 1970s, to buy a 14-inch television, the average American earning the average wage would have needed to work 70 hours to earn enough. Today, a vastly better TV can be purchased for the equivalent of 4 hours of work.
The first cell phones in the early 1980s retailed for almost $4,000 - or over $10,000 in today’s prices. They needed re-charging after 30 minutes. Today, almost every American can afford a far better cell phone for a fraction of the cost.
America has 50 states, and thanks to Article 10 of the Constitution, those powers not “specifically given to the federal government, nor withheld from the states, are reserved to those respective states, or to the people at large”. Perhaps it is time to abide by that Amendment?
Stay true to America’s Founding Principles, and America will, I hope, continue to prosper whoever lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If the question of who lives in the White House for the next four years is overshadowing everything across the country, maybe it’s time to listen to the former Texas Governor, Rick Perry, who once suggested that we ought to make Washington as inconsequential as possible.
“All political lives end in failure” observed the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. His did. So, too, will Joe Biden’s.
Forced out after four years, it is difficult to think of a single significant achievement by the Biden administration. Biden’s legacy will be higher national debt and a more divided America. But is it really the case that political lives always end in failure?
Watching the recent movie about Ronald Reagan, it was obvious that after two terms in office, the Gipper’s accomplishments clearly outweighed any defeats. Reagan’s legacy was a buoyant economy, stronger America and the defeat of Soviet communism.
If Biden’s legacy is of extreme failure, and Reagan’s of remarkable success, many politicians don’t seem to leave much of a legacy at all, good or bad. Like footprints on a beach at low tide, tomorrow it will be as though they were never there at all.
Many politicians fail to leave much of a legacy for the simple reason that they hold office but have little idea what to do with it. That’s not, of course, what they tell themselves in the early days. In the afterglow of their election victory, surrounded by staffers, and praised by smooth-tongued lobbyists, political leaders busy themselves with the business of government.
Yet often the urgent squeezes out the important. Once in office, they end up playing the role of Senator, Congressman, or state Governor, like an actor in a movie handed their lines by someone else.
Rather than implementing a blueprint that matters, they are distracted by the trivial. Instead of delivering difficult messages, they delude themselves that another press conference about blah blah is vital.
Rare is the type of politician who can make the political weather, rather than respond to it. Many politicians fail to leave a legacy because they fool themselves that they are responsible for things that would have happened anyhow. Or they imagine that they will be fondly remembered for things that happened on their watch.
How many Mississippians remember who was governor when the Nissan factory came to Mississippi? How many credit whoever happened to be in office? Any politician in our state wanting to leave a real legacy needs to address those things that have kept our state 50th out of 50 for too long.
First is education. Mississippi needs a wholesale reform of education, with school choice and parent power. With so many surrounding states implementing universal school choice, change is possible. The first wave of Mississippi leaders to actually come out and lead on this will be seen to deliver historic changes for the better.
Second is the state economy. Mississippi’s economy continues to be weighed down by a relatively high tax burden and red tape. Despite cutting the state income tax, Mississippi families and businesses still pay more than in surrounding states. Certificate of Need laws hold back the healthcare economy in our state. State leaders that lead on lower taxes and deregulation would stand out nationally and historically.
These are the issues that will define the future of our state. Our state leaders will be defined by if and how they address them. State leaders that address these issues will leave a giant legacy. Those that don’t, won't be a household name in their own home.