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As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

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mississippitoday.org – Geoff Pender – 2024-09-04 17:10:21

As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

A legislative panel looking for ways to cut or eliminate taxes in Mississippi on Wednesday heard from city, county and transportation about their need for adequate and stable .

“Infrastructure, that’s our main need,” said Mayor Kenny Holloway. “We’re an old city, and we’ve got crumbling water pipes, sewer pipes, sidewalks and roads. We’re growing, and it’s hard to keep up with needs.”

Holloway was one of four mayors to address the House Select Committee on Tax Reform during its second of several planned hearings for the summer and fall. The committee also heard from a representative of the association for counties, a transportation expert about the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s need for more funding, and the Department of Revenue.

Reps. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, and C. Scott Bounds, R-Philadelphia, co-chairmen of the tax committee, said helping keep up with infrastructure needs statewide and cutting taxes — potentially eliminating the state income tax — are not mutually exclusive. State coffers have remained flush since an influx of federal pandemic relief spending, even as the largest income tax cut in state history has been phased in over the last few years.

“There are three goals,” Lamar said at the outset of Wednesday’s hearing. “One, to learn as much as we can and recommend policy to the that will be transformational and provide us with the most competitive, most fair tax structure … Two, to be sensitive to the needs of local governments … closest to the people … and three, to fix the funding model for the Mississippi Department of Transportation for the long haul.”

House Republican leaders have for several years promoted elimination of the state’s income tax. Their efforts have fallen short of elimination, but in 2022 resulted in passage of a $525-million a year income tax cut. When fully phased in in 2026, Mississippi will have a 4% income tax rate, one of the lowest among states that have an income tax.

Senate leaders, who have also formed a fiscal study committee to make recommendations for next year, previously balked at full elimination of the income tax that provides nearly a third of the state’s revenue. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and other Senate leaders have appeared more focused on cutting or eliminating the state’s 7% sales tax on groceries — the highest such tax on groceries in the nation.

But city leaders — especially those in small cities — have for years been leery of talk of cutting the sales tax on groceries. Many small city budgets rely on sales taxes, and in many small rural cities, the main source of sales tax is from grocery stores.

On Wednesday, mayors of several Mississippi cities stressed to lawmakers how much their budgets rely on sales taxes and use taxes — sales taxes collected on internet and other sales outside of the state. The state collects the taxes, then provides cities a “diversion” of part of the taxes collected inside each city.

DOR officials said Mississippi appears to be the only state that provides such a diversion of sales taxes, but many other states allow cities to levy their own “local option” sales taxes on top of the state’s. But state lawmakers have been loath to allow cities to levy local option sales taxes. Lamar told the panel Wednesday he recently went to a seminar in West Virginia, and he got an itemized bill that showed nearly 20% in sales taxes all told.

“We in local government don’t have any problems that money can’t fix,” Louisville Mayor Will Hill joked with lawmakers. “… We have the infrastructure issue, and the increased cost of policing and fire protection. We’re interested in having conversations on the importance of sales taxes, whether it’s increased diversions of local options.”

Steve Gray with the Mississippi Association of Supervisors reminded lawmakers that counties do not receive such a sales tax diversion, but he said they are thankful for lawmakers diverting some use taxes to county road and bridge needs starting a few years ago.

Gray said needed road and bridge work — and the skyrocketing cost of construction and materials — are the biggest fiscal challenge facing counties.

“We’re excited to be at the table and helping work toward a solution,” Gray told lawmakers.

The panel also heard from an expert with a company that has helped the Mississippi Department of Transportation for decades with its long range planning.

Paula S. Dowell, with HTNB Corporation, said has perennially been short of money to maintain all its roadways, much less build new ones to keep up with demand. The agency is primarily funded by a flat, per-gallon gasoline tax that is not indexed to keep up with inflation.

Mississippi, at 18.4 cents a gallon, has the second lowest motor fuel tax in the nation — which hasn’t been raised in 30 years. Dowell said lawmakers could consider diverting more existing state dollars to MDOT, increase current taxes or enact new ones, such as an indexed sales tax devoted to transportation infrastructure.

She said other states have also implemented road user charges, or mileage fees, package delivery fees or container/cargo fees to fund infrastructure. Dowell said some states have built toll roads, but that would have limited benefit in rural Mississippi.

In addition to the select committee hearings, House Speaker Jason White recently announced a tax policy summit, open to the public, on Sept. 24 at the Sheraton Refuge in Flowood.

“This Policy Summit is another step in the House’s commitment to building Mississippi up to have the most appealing tax structure in the nation,” White said in a statement. “It is the vision of the House of Representatives that we accelerate our pathway to eliminating the personal income tax so that we reward ‘ hard work, not tax it. The Select Committee has been working hard in studying our grocery tax and providing relief to Mississippians when they go through the checkout line to provide for their families.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1875

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-02 07:00:00

Nov. 2, 1875

Pictured here are U.S. Sen. Hiram Revels of Mississippi, left, with six Black members of the U.S. House, Ben J.S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, Jefferson H. Long of Georgia, and Robert C. De Large, Joseph H. Rainy and R. Brown Elliot, all of South Carolina. Credit: Library of

The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from , resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the

A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state. 

Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton. 

The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan. 

John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: “It was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.” 

A federal grand jury concluded: “Fraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi Today’s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Mary Margaret White – 2024-11-01 12:34:00

High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader ; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.

In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Here at Mississippi we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.

Why NewsMatch and Why Now?

This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.

Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday life—whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s around them.

Special Event: “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact”

As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual , “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.” Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s “25-foot law,” which affects journalists’ ability to vital .

We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!

How You Can Help

Make Your Gift Today

Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.

Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we love—not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to .

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Hinds County loses fight over control of jail

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-01 12:57:00

The sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.   

Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, a failure to protect detainees from harm. 

However, the appeals court called the new injunction “overly broad” in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.

The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be

The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as “federal intrusion into RDC’s budget” – especially if the receivership has no end date. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion. 

In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which people facing trial. 

“But the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,” the appeals court wrote.  

This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022. 

The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in

The county had a to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old and use of force. 

Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.

But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff. 

The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference. 

Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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