In last night’s Republican gubernatorial debate, both state Rep. Robert Foster (R-Hernando) and former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. advocated increasing starting teacher pay in Mississippi to $40,000.

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves countered that such an increase would cost $275 million annually. Using the same calculations used by the Mississippi Department of Education, the raise would add up to $210 million annually, still a large sum, according to an examination of figures by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

That’s an annual general fund appropriation that nearly equals or surpasses many outlays in the fiscal 2020 budget. These include:

• Department of Mental Health — $213,668,778.
• Total fiscal affairs — $142,994,685.
• Judiciary and Justice — $103,055,629.
• Military, police and veterans affairs (includes the state Department of Public Safety) — $114,441,495.
• Total for agriculture and economic development — $111,441,416.

According to the MDE, the starting salary for the lowest certification level for a teacher was $34,390 and that will increase to $35,890 in the upcoming school year with the $1,500 increase passed this session by the legislature. This increase will cost taxpayers $76.9 million per year.

Since 2007, the average teacher salary in Mississippi has increased from $40,182 in 2007 to $44,926 in 2018, an 11.8 percent increase. The starting salary has grown from $30,900 in 2014 to $35,980 for this upcoming school year, an increase of 16.4 percent.

Both Waller and Foster said they wanted the state to meet or exceed the “southeastern average” and agreed that $40,000 would be a good starting salary. The average of the southeastern states is $36,688 and Mississippi is about $800 below that number.

Increasing teacher salaries above the $4,110 to get to a starting $40,000 wage would be even more costly. A $4,500 pay hike from last year’s starting salary would cost more than $230 million annually, while a $5,000 raise would add up to more than $256 million.

To arrive at the $76.9 million amount to cover the $1,500 pay raise, the MDE first multiplied the number of teachers by the amount of the raise. This product was multiplied by 25.05 percent to account for fringe benefits and added back to the original product for the appropriation total. 

The original number was incorrect because the MDE’s antiquated computer system only accounted for 31,157 teaching positions and this was later corrected to 40,991 positions after a review of data by the agency.

Since 2000, Mississippi teachers have received three salary hikes from the legislature. The first was a $337 million phased in over six years. In 2014, a two year, $100 million pay hike gave teachers $1,500 in the first year and $1,000 in the second.

Teachers in the state receive annual raises after their first three years on the job and also receive pay hikes for earning higher certifications. A teacher in the lowest certification level starts at $34,390, increasing to $39,108 for the highest certification level. 

A teacher with 20 years of experience will earn $43,300, while the highest classification nets $53,400.

The new starting salary given in the original story was incorrect. We regret the error.

Mississippi’s $1,500 teacher pay increase will cost $18.5 million more than the legislature originally budgeted, according to a news release from the Mississippi Department of Education.

The legislature appropriated $58,442,743 based on calculations submitted by the MDE. Those original calculations said there were 31,157 teaching positions. The actual number was 40,991 and the raise will cost taxpayers $76.9 million annually.

State Rep. Richard Bennett (R-Long Beach) chairs the House Education Committee. He said in a news release that the House leadership is supportive of funding the deficit and ensuring the districts won’t be required to absorb any costs associated with the pay hike.

The legislature can act with a deficit appropriation to cover the $18.5 million when it returns to session in January.

The MDE says it conducted an additional review of the number of state-funded teaching positions and that there were additional positions eligible for the increase that weren’t in the Mississippi Student Information System as ones funded by the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the funding formula that determines how state funds are distributed to the school districts.

The problem lies in the MSIS system, which has issues with its interoperability with district systems for data. The issues forced MDE to recount the number of raise-eligible teaching positions by hand.

The legislature appropriated $500,000 as part of MDE’s outlay to start the process on upgrading it.

The expanded list of teaching positions in addition to classroom teachers, counselors, teacher assistants and librarians includes specialized positions such as dyslexia therapists, audiologists and psychologists.

This is the third teacher pay hike provided statewide since 2000. Individual districts are free to provide pay increases in addition to what the state provides.

The first of the most recent pay raises was passed by the legislature in 2000, a $337 million plan that was phased in over six years. 

In 2014, the legislature passed a two-year plan that increased teacher pay $1,500 in the first year and $1,000 in the second year, costing taxpayers an additional $100 million.

Teachers in Mississippi receive annual raises after their first three years on the job and also receive pay hikes for earning higher certifications. A teacher in the lowest certification level starts at $34,390, increasing to $39,108 for the highest certification level. 

A teacher with 20 years of experience will earn $43,300, while the highest classification nets $53,400.

A three-year-old study says that 70 percent of the roads in Jackson are beyond life expectancy and need to be rebuilt.

WAPT obtained a copy of the study which was commissioned in 2013 and drafted in 2016 showing the problems with Jackson’s roads. According to the report, some 1,464 roads have outlived their expectancy. Of course, the problems with infrastructure expand beyond roads and include city sewage and drainage.

The state is helping some of the city. It has set aside $3 million for the Capitol Complex District, with $10 million a year to start next year. This includes work in the capitol area, along with the downtown medical corridor. 

For the previous four years, the city has also been receiving a 1 percent sales tax to help with roads. While that has aided in providing about $14 million a year, the city has cut back on public works spending from the general fund. As a result, the city went from putting about 15 percent of their general funds toward public works activities in 2009 to under 7 percent last year.

In 2009, total government activities added up to over $214 million in Jackson. The city devoted over $31 million to public works. That same year the city had a population of 176,000. 

Over the next decade, the city’s population would drop to 166,000, but the budget increased to $222 million (though it was higher in 2013 and 2015). Still, the combined money spent on roads – from both the general fund and 1 percent sales tax – only added up to about $29 million, with a little less than $15 million from the general fund.  

Hinds county didn’t do much better when it comes to maintaining roads the county is responsible for. They spent just 6.48 percent of their annual expenditures over the last three years on roads and bridges. And they account for 44, or about 10 percent, of the closed bridges in the state.

Mississippi’s second and third largest cities, Gulfport and Southaven, have both made significantly higher investments in maintaining roads than Jackson. 

Gulfport spent 13 percent of their $101 million budget on public works in 2016 and 12 percent on their $106 million budget in 2017. Southaven spent 11 percent each year over the past two years. Their general fund budget increased from $54 million to $57 million. 

Population in the city of Jackson is not increasing any time soon. Last year, the city lost about 3,000 residents, an unusually high number. In the past 25 years, Hinds county has lost $1.5 billion in annual adjusted gross income, mostly to Rankin and Madison counties. The tax base – both from individuals and businesses – will only continue to shrink.

The awful shape of the Jackson roads are not in doubt. Nor is the undertaking the city faces if they want to truly fix their roads. But that is why we have municipalities and local governments. To take care of their cities. 

If it was a priority to Jackson, it would show up in their budget. 

July 6 marked two years since the Mississippi Public Service Commission issued an order that called for a settlement in the battle over the controversial Kemper Project clean coal power plant, known now as Plant Ratcliffe.

In February 2018, the PSC unanimously approved a settlement that reduced the amount of capital costs the company could collect from ratepayers and mandated that Mississippi Power run the Kemper Project on natural gas only, something the company had done since August 2014. 

Mississippi Power’s 187,000 ratepayers on the Coast will only pay about $1 billion of the plant’s capital costs, avoiding double-digit rate hikes to pay for the multi-billion plant.

If Mississippi Power could’ve gotten the plant commercially operational — even for a few days — and the PSC approved of the utility’s spending, ratepayers would’ve had to pay more than $3 billion rather than Southern Company stockholders.

The plant was supposed to cost $2.4 billion, but the cost ballooned by 212.5 percent to $7.5 billion. 

Kemper was enabled by friendly regulators and a legislature that passed two bills, including one that allowed the company to collect the plant’s costs from ratepayers before it came online and another that gave the company the authority to charge ratepayers for a $1 billion bond to help finance the plant.

Kemper Project explained

Kemper was a 582-megawatt plant designed to convert the second-lowest grade of coal, lignite, into a natural gas-like substance called synthesis gas to fuel its electricity-generating turbines. The two gasifiers turned the high-moisture lignite into 1,750 degree syngas and presented the biggest technical hurdle that ultimately couldn’t be overcome.

The chemical plant component of Kemper that was most important to its environmental promises was its carbon capture system. This system was supposed to remove 65 percent of the carbon dioxide from the gas stream for sale to oil exploration firms to inject into old oil wells. 

Other byproducts, such as ammonia and sulfuric acid, were to be sold to off-site companies as another revenue generator to offset the plant’s massive costs.

The announcement by Mississippi Power on June 28, 2018 that it was ceasing its attempts to get the plant’s two gasifiers and assorted equipment operational was the beginning of the end of the Kemper saga. The company spent billions of dollars and three years to get Kemper’s gasifiers working as a steady-state generating unit.

An accident in October 2016 nearly resulted in a catastrophic explosion when hot syngas filled an area of the Kemper plant that wasn’t built for 1,750 degree temperatures. If the gasifiers had been working at operational pressure, there likely would’ve been a fatal explosion. 

Consequences for Southern Company, the parent firm of Mississippi Power that build the $7.38 billion plant are still in play. In May, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s under investigation by the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice due to Kemper.

The lignite mine that was supposed to supply the plant with fuel is now closed and the company said in a recent SEC filing that it hasn’t decided the fate of the 30-plus mile carbon dioxide pipeline.

Taxpayers picking up the tab

Mississippi Power ratepayers weren’t alone in paying for Kemper. Taxpayers were also on the tab as well. 

The utility was set to receive $133 million in IRS investment tax breaks from building the plant. The company couldn't make the original start date of May 2014 required by the tax breaks and had to return them. 

Another set of IRS tax breaks, this one for $279 million, had to be returned after the plant missed an April 2016 deadline.

The utility also received $245 million from the U.S. Department of Energy under a now-defunct grant program for coal power plants that were supposed to be more environmentally friendly. 

Some history

The administration of then-President George W. Bush in 2004 began the Clean Coal Power Initiative, giving grants for research into cleaner electrical generation using coal. The $2 billion, 10-year program was designed to demonstrate cleaner alternatives to traditional coal-fired power plants.

Southern Company announced in December 2006 that it’d build a new coal gasification power plant company that was supposed to cost $1.8 billion and be completed in 2013. Earlier that year, Mississippi Power asked the PSC to approve its need for more generation capacity. 

Southern wasn’t going to finance this experimental project entirely with investor dollars.

One of the recipients of the DOE grant program was to be an integrated gasification plant added to the Stanton Energy Center near Orlando in a partnership with Southern Company and the Orlando Utilities Commission. The 285-megawatt plant was canceled in 2007, only two months after groundbreaking, as the company blamed an “uncertain regulatory environment.” 

Experiences with a similar plant constructed in 2002 by Tampa Electric likely didn’t help solidify the case for another coal gasification plant in the Sunshine State.

Then-Gov. Haley Barbour used his considerable influence and longstanding relationship with Southern (his lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith and Rogers was the utility giant’s long-term lobbyist in Washington) to get approval by the Department of Energy in May 2008 to move the project money from Florida to Mississippi.

The legislature passed Senate Bill 2793 in the 2008 legislative session — commonly known as the Baseload Act — allowing utilities in the state to start charging customers for power plants before they generated a single kilowatt of electricity and Barbour signed the bill into law. 

The Mississippi PSC approved MPC’s need for more generation capacity in November 2009, with the plant’s capital costs for ratepayers capped at $2.88 billion. Mississippi Power petitioned the PSC to increase the spending cap to $3.2 billion in March 2010, while two months later, construction begins at the site in Kemper County north of Meridian. 

The PSC issued the plant’s first certificate of need and necessity, which authorized the plant’s construction. A lawsuit by the Sierra Club and other groups was successful in throwing out the authorization after a state Supreme Court decision in June 2010 that sent the matter back to the PSC.

In April 2012, the PSC approved a new  certificate in a meeting that lasted less than a minute and capped the project’s costs that could be charged to ratepayers. A few weeks later, Mississippi Power announced a $488 million cost increase, which brought Kemper’s cost to $2.88 billion.

In 2013, the legislature passed a bill that allowed the company to issue a 20-year bond up to $1 billion payable by its ratepayers. Gov. Phil Bryant later signed House Bill 1134 into law.

The bond approved in 2013, known as a special purpose entity, was designed to provide up to $1 billion to offset increasing costs on the Kemper Project. 

Mississippi Power received an 18 percent rate increase — 15 percent in 2013 and 3 percent in 2014 — approved by the Public Service Commission before the plant came online. The increase was later overturned by a state Supreme Court order in a lawsuit brought by Hattiesburg businessman Thomas Blanton.

Motorists in Mississippi pay less to fill up their tanks than those in any other state in the union despite an upward climb in prices over the past month. 

As of Monday, the average price of regular gasoline in Mississippi is $2.40. This ranges from a low of $2.32 in Stone county to a high of $2.68 in Adams county. 

The average price per gallon was $2.34 a week ago and $2.28 a month ago. This is part of a national trend, as gas prices have risen by about 10 cents over the past three weeks. And manyanticipate Tropical Storm Barry could cause another spike in gas prices. 

There is a wide range of gas prices throughout the country, with motorists in the South paying the least. 

Lowest gas prices in the country

California motorists are paying $3.74 per gallon, the most in the country. Some areas of the Golden State are paying more than $4.00 per gallon, numbers not seen in Mississippi since 2008. 

Because Mississippians enjoy a low price at the pump, many – including both Democrats and Republicans running for governor – have called to raise the state’s gas tax, with the belief that it will be less painful. Some advocate for adjusting the tax to inflation annually, thereby preventing legislators from ever having to vote for a tax hike again while ensuring regular increases.

All this would do is simply redirect money from the private sector to government. A government that already controls 55 percent of the state’s economy. 

Taxpayers currently spend over $1 billion annually on the work of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Some might want more, but the biggest problems with Mississippi roads are not state-maintained roads. Of the 479 bridges that are currently closed, only 11 are state controlled – and they are all being replaced. The rest are maintained by cities and counties.  

And far too many of those localities are simply not keeping up with their roads and bridges and that is evidenced by what they spend. For example, Hinds County has spent an average of only 6.48 percent of its annual expenditures in the last three years on roads and bridges. It has 44 bridges closed, according to the Office of State Aid Roads. Neighboring Rankin and Madison counties spent 31 and 22 percent on roads and bridges, respectively. 

Increasing the gas tax would not help local governments as those taxes go to the state and the Department of Transportation. 

As we often see in government, the first reaction is a tax increase. But we know there are often far better solutions, like prioritizing your current funding. That is something local government could – and should – work on.

A stud welding company will be receiving funding from state taxpayers, plus other tax incentives, to relocate a facility from Illinois to Clarksdale.

Image Industries will relocate to the former Metso facility in Clarksdale, where it will manufacture threaded weld studs, shear connectors, concrete anchors, hydraulic weld ports and cable management studs.

According to Mississippi Development Authority spokesperson Tammy Craft, the state will provide:

• $300,000 grant for relocating equipment.
• $500,000 grant for building renovations.

The company is expected to invest $3 million and create 50 jobs. From 2012 to 2017, taxpayers have spent $678 million in just MDA grants alone from 2012 to 2017.

The company will also participate in the Growth and Prosperity Program, which is designed to encourage economic growth in impoverished parts of the state. To qualify for the program, a county must have an unemployment rate that is 200 percent of the state’s annual unemployment rate or have 30 percent or more of its population below the federal poverty line.

This program allows a participating entity that relocates or expands in a GAP-qualified area to receive:

• A full exemption on all state income and franchise taxes related to the new location.
• A full sales and use tax exemption on all equipment and machinery purchased during initial construction. This exemption lasts from the project inception until three months after startup.
• A property tax exemption for taxes levied on land, buildings, equipment and some inventory at a facility in a GAP area. The exemption doesn’t include school taxes or the portion of the ad valorem taxes that pay for fire and police protection.

These incentives can last for up to 10 years after authorization. The GAP-eligible counties are Adams, Bolivar, Claiborne, Coahoma, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Leflore, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tunica, Washington and Yazoo. 

There are also areas of Adams, Amite, Attala, Franklin and Lowndes counties that are also part of the GAP program.

A planned Enviva wood pellet mill cleared a big regulatory hurdle, as the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved its air pollution permit at its meeting Tuesday.

The permit board’s unanimous decision came after a contentious May public hearing in Lucedale and a comment period that was extended from the required 30 days to 61 days by MDEQ officials. 

The plant, which could be the largest wood pellet plant in the nation, is designed to manufacture 1,420,500 oven-dried tons of wood pellets, which can be used to fuel overseas power plants, such as in Great Britain.

Maryland-based Enviva has seven mills in the Southeast and one of those mills is in Amory, acquired in August 2010. 

When MDEQ staff was asked about complaints from dust emissions produced by the Amory facility, they said there had been some complaints over dust. The Amory plant was originally built by CKS Energy in 2007 and acquired by Enviva in 2010. 

They also said the new Lucedale facility would have better emissions control equipment to mitigate the 250 possible tons per year of volatile organic compounds, particulates of less than 10 microns in diameter and smaller particles of less than 2.5 microns in diameter. 

Two of the audience members spoke about the pellet plant. Frank Figures, a local resident and opponent of the plant, says that the plant will be allowed to be periodically bypass its emissions controls. 

MDEQ said the plant would be allowed to do that 50 hours annually for plant startup/shutdown operations. 

Former Lucedale mayor Doug Lee said he supported the plant and thought it’d be a positive for George County.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Enviva reached a settlement this year in a lawsuit filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Environmental Integrity Project to add more pollution controls and reduce emissions by 95 percent from Enviva’s wood pellet plant in Richmond County, North Carolina.

Enviva and Mississippi officials announced in January that the company — which makes wood pellets that fuel overseas power plants — will build a $140 million pellet mill and a $60 million loading terminal at the port in Pascagoula.

Enviva is expected to hire 90 employees in Lucedale, with 300 loggers and truckers possibly finding work supplying logs to the company.

Mississippi taxpayers will be providing $4 million in grant funds, with $1.4 million for a water well and a water tank, while the other $2.5 million is for other infrastructure needs and site working. George County will provide $13 million in property tax breaks over the next 10 years.

All of those incentives, if realized, could add up to $17 million or about $188,888 per job.

These wood pellets are made from low-grade wood fiber unsuitable for lumber because of small size, defects, disease or pest infestation; parts of trees that can’t be processed into lumber and chips, sawdust and other residue. 

The Lucedale plant will mill, dry and pellet the wood in a press, using natural polymers in the wood called lignin to act as a natural glue.

The Rankin County School Board has proposed a budget that calls for a tax increase from property owners.

The fiscal year 2020 budget, which was presented during a board meeting on Wednesday morning, includes a local increase of about $3.5 million from county taxpayers. The final budget will be adopted this fall by the Rankin County Board of Supervisors. 

If the tax increase is adopted, taxpayers will be paying about $20 more per year on a $100,000 house with a 2 mill increase. Homeowners of a $200,000 house will be paying an additional $40. 

Over the past decade, the millage rate in Rankin county has increased from 48.89 to 56.55. The increase would bump it up to 58.55 and represent an increase of almost 20 percent during this time period. 

A look at the school district

The Rankin County School District is the third largest school district in the state, behind just Desoto County and Jackson Public Schools. And while the county continues to grow, the school district does not.

Enrollment in 2013 stood at 19,284. It hasn’t been that high since and the district estimates enrollment to be 19,150 for the upcoming year. School officials regularly use the word “stabilized” to describe the district’s enrollment. Essentially, the district is educating the same number of children eight years later, or even experiencing a slight decline.

These numbers are most noticeable in the early grades. While there were 1,509 students in kindergarten and 1,621 in first grade in RCSD in 2013, this past year there were just 1,365 and 1,438, respectively. 

At the same time, the county’s population has increased from just under 146,000 to 154,000 today. So, people are moving to the county, and/ or having children, they just aren’t going to the district schools in the same proportion. And the district benefits from the revenue they receive for the children they don’t have to pay to educate. 

This has helped the assessed property valuation to only increase. In 2013, it was $1.25 billion. It is now $1.47 billion. 

The tax increase is intended to fund an increase to the local supplement for teachers and other personnel as well as additional safety and security expenditures. Both are important and worthwhile proposals that make very good sense and most would support. In fact, they should be near the top of any budget, rather than asking more of taxpayers. 

Over the past decade, property value has increased by 17.6 percent while enrollment is slightly down. Rankin county taxpayers were hit with a tax hike just a couple years ago. Each time we are told “it’s only a few dollars.”

Perhaps another tax hike would be more tolerable if priority items – such as a teacher pay raise – were prioritized in the budget, rather than being the item the county uses to sell another hike. 

Because when the county takes more money out of my pocket, my options are to either prioritize and cut expenses or earn more income through work. I can’t just propose an unbalanced budget (with more uses than sources) and expect someone else to pick up the tab. 

Ole Miss trash cans have gone high tech. The university is home to new solar-powered, network-connected trash cans that communicate with one another and will let you know when they are full. But they come at a cost. 

According to The Daily Mississippian, the BigBelly garbage cans cost $4,560 per unit. The school is renting them through a five-year lease. They are currently paying $1,900 per month for 25 trash cans. If the university purchased them individually, they would cost $4,000 per unit, about $500 less than the current costs. 

A 36-gallon Global Industrial garbage can, similar to most found on campus, retails for under $500. Supporters say the benefits outweigh the cost. 

Because the new garbage cans communicate with each other, work crews can spend less time on collections by avoiding bins that are not yet full. According to a BigBelly rep, this will reduce collections by about 80 percent. 

This would lead to a reduction in the amount of motorized golf carts used on campus, and by extension, a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. At least according to a study by graduate students at the University of Washington. 

For now, Ole Miss is in a five-year trial period. If the university sees a benefit, it can continue with the lease program or purchase the cans. 

Of course purchasing the cans after the lease would more than double the original cost. Seems like a steep price to introduce “techie trash cans” to Ole Miss so that the air quality can be improved. We’ve never seen any studies warning of us of the poor air quality in Oxford. Then again, it’s hard to put a value on virtue signaling. 

Beware of a future “improved air quality” student fee.