Mississippi Today

Cutting fat in state government: Everything old is new again

Published

1 month ago

November 18, 2024

mississippitoday.org – Geoff Pender – 2024-11-18 04:07:00

Years ago, some state elected leaders lamented that Mississippi has far too much bureaucracy for such a poor, small state, and vowed — for starters — to eliminate or consolidate state government’s roughly 200 agencies, boards and commissions.

More than a decade later, the number of state agencies, boards and commissions has been whittled down to … roughly 200.

There was one monumental victory in the war on bureaucracy in Mississippi: After years of bitter political debate, the Legislature this year combined the separate cosmetology and barber licensure boards into one. Saa-lute!

That’s not much ROI for Mississippi’s war on big government. But as a comedian once said, hope springs in turtles.

State Auditor Shad White, eyeing the open governor seat for 2027, has paid a Boston consultant $2 million in taxpayer dollars to determine how to cut spending of taxpayer dollars.

The resultant report is a spectacular, novel blueprint for lawmakers on how to starve the beast, run the state more like a bid-ness — and it’s chock full of hitherto unheard of ideas to put the Magnolia State’s government on a diet.

Actually, no. It’s not.

It’s mostly a rehash, amalgam of long-discussed, never enacted ideas to cut government spending. Someone could have cobbled it together after spending a day or two on Google, going through Mississippi press clippings and perusing old legislative watchdog reports and recommendations and bills.

It’s mostly a greatest hits compilation of Mississippi government spending cutting ideas. And it has many Mississippi politicos surmising it’s mostly a taxpayer-funded gubernatorial campaign stunt by White. It produced a 59-page report destined to sit atop a pile of dusty Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review reports and others espousing many of the same findings and recommendations.

White says his report shows how state government could cut $335 million in spending without breaking a sweat. That’s debatable. But it does clearly show how $2 million could have been saved.

There’s been some banter around the Capitol of folks saying they would have created a similar report for a mere $1 million, or $100,000, or for a nice lunch and a couple of beers. Others noted the 59-page report cost taxpayers $33,898 per page.

None of this is to say the report’s findings are bad ideas for belt-tightening. Many would make sense. That’s why they’ve been proposed before, some over and again. They’ve just proved nearly impossible to enact in the realpolitik of the Legislature and government. Some of the cost savings have been enacted, but then government backslid, un-enacted or ignored them.

Perhaps now is the time to dust off some of these ideas. If, as legislative leaders and Gov. Tate Reeves avow, they are going to continue slashing taxes, it might be a good idea to cut some spending as well.

White’s consultant report includes recommendations such as reducing government officials’ travel spending. This was a hot topic for several years, after a 2013 investigation by the Clarion-Ledger showed that even during lean budget years, government officials still spent tens of millions of dollars on travel, domestic and abroad, and had a massive fleet of government vehicles with dubious need for them. The Legislature clamped down on travel and agencies enacted fleet rules and promoted mileage reimbursement for personal vehicles. But according to White’s report, travel spending has been growing and again needs a major haircut.

The report found that, compared to other states, Mississippi government is spending too much on office space and insurance for state buildings and leased property, and on advertising and public relations for state agencies. Again, these are issues that have been pointed out multiple times over the last couple of decades, by lawmakers, media and PEER reports.

Ditto for the state spending millions on incentives for motion pictures to be shot here. There was a knock-down, drag-out battle over that years ago, with then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and others pointing out the state was receiving little to nothing in return for doling out taxpayer funded incentives.

White’s report recommends the state consolidate and reform its purchasing and look for better deals when it buys goods and services. That should sound familiar. Two lawmakers in particular, Sen. John Polk and Rep. Jerry Turner, led a serious crusade on purchasing reform for several years, and managed to push through some meaningful changes. But many of those have been undone or are now ignored.

White pointed out potential savings from state agencies consolidating back-office functions, such as accounting and purchasing. Nothing new under the sun here. Others, notably former Sen. Buck Clarke, championed this years ago, to little avail.

White says there is a dog’s breakfast of savings to be had with state IT purchasing — for computer software and hardware and such. Some major restructuring of the admin side of state government years ago was supposed to address this issue.

White said Mississippi could sell the state’s airplane, make officials use commercial or charter flights, and save more than $1 million a year. The state airplane, travel on it by governors and related issues have been scrutinized and debated off and on for decades. Then-Gov. Phil Bryant made a big issue out of selling one of the state’s planes (a jet) when it had two and vowed to take commercial flights.

White notes state agencies’ misuse of emergency contracts — declaring an emergency so bidding requirements can be waived — costs the state millions. This was pointed out as a major issue in the Mississippi prisons bribery and kickback scandal that sent former Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps to prison and tainted around $1 billion of state contracts. There were vows then, about a decade ago, to reform this. But White says that emergency contracts now constitute more than 30% of all active state-funded contracts by value.

One would assume that Boston Consulting Group provided White with more than what’s in the 59 pages he released to the public as his “Project Momentum” report. But if it did, it’s a secret. Mississippi Today requested all the backing documents the consultant submitted to White’s agency to complete the project.

White denied the public records request, claiming exemption of any such documents as the work product of an audit. But if the work was an actual audit, it was an unusual one. In his contract with the company, White gave it the directive to find at least $250 million in wasteful spending among the 13 agencies it examined. Typically, hired auditors are not told upfront specifically what they should find.

Perhaps not to be outdone, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who himself has eyes on the 2027 governor’s race, wants to reorganize state government. He’s calling for lawmakers to create a committee to … wait for it … figure out how to consolidate or eliminate many of the more than 200 agencies, boards and commissions.

Hosemann years ago, when he was secretary of state, called for such consolidation and famously opined of the state’s sprawling bureacracy, “You wouldn’t run a lemonade stand like this, much less state government.”

Hosemann was joined in this call to cut bureaucracy and spending by then-Gov. Phil Bryant. But those efforts fizzled, with Bryant and Hosemann back then lamenting there was little will among lawmakers to whittle down state government. Hosemann more recently said there were bigger fish to fry, including tax cuts, but now he wants to focus on government efficiency and cutting the number of agencies, boards and commissions.

Once again, everything old is new again.

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

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1911

Published

20 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-21 07:00:00

Dec. 21, 1911

A colorized photograph of Josh Gibson, who was playing with the Homestead Grays Credit: Wikipedia

Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.

When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.

He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.

The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.

Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1958

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-20 07:00:00

Dec. 20, 1958

Bruce Boynton played a key role in the U.S. Supreme Court case that led to the Freedom Riders protests of 1961. Credit: Jay Reeves/Associated Press

Bruce Boynton was heading home on a Trailways bus when he arrived in Richmond, Virginia, at about 8 p.m. The 21-year-old student at Howard University School of Law — whose parents, Amelia Boynton Robinson and Sam Boynton, were at the forefront of the push for equal voting rights in Selma — headed for the restaurant inside the bus terminal.

The “Black” section looked “very unsanitary,” with water on the floor. The “white” section looked “clinically clean,” so he sat down and asked a waitress for a cheeseburger and a tea. She asked him to move to the “Black” section. An assistant manager followed, poking his finger in his face and hurling a racial epithet. Then an officer handcuffed him, arresting him for trespassing.

Boynton spent the night in jail and was fined $10, but the law student wouldn’t let it go. Knowing the law, he appealed, saying the “white” section in the bus terminal’s restaurant violated the Interstate Commerce Act. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed. “Interstate passengers have to eat, and they have a right to expect that this essential transportation food service,” Justice Hugo Black wrote, “would be rendered without discrimination prohibited by the Interstate Commerce Act.”

A year later, dozens of Freedom Riders rode on buses through the South, testing the law. In 1965, Boynton’s mother was beaten unconscious on the day known as “Bloody Sunday,” where law enforcement officials beat those marching across the Selma bridge in Alabama. The photograph of Bruce Boynton holding his mother after her beating went around the world, inspiring changes in voting rights laws.

He worked the rest of his life as a civil rights attorney and died in 2020.

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‘Something to be proud of’: Dual-credit students in Mississippi go to college at nation’s highest rate

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2024-12-20 06:00:00

Mississippi high school students who take dual-credit courses go to college at the nation’s highest rate, according to a recent report.

It’s generally true that students who take college classes while in high school attend college at higher rates than their peers. Earlier this year, a study from the Community College Research Center at Teacher’s College, Columbia University found that nationally, 81% of dual-credit students go to college.

In Mississippi, that number shoots up to 93%, meaning the vast majority of the state’s high school students who take college classes enroll in a two- or four-year university.

“When we did this ranking, boom, right to the top it went,” said John Fink, a senior research associate and program lead at the research center who co-authored the study.

State officials say there’s likely no silver bullet for the high rate at which Mississippi’s dual-credit students enroll in college. Here, “dual credit” means a course that students can take for both high school and college credit. It’s different from “dual enrollment,” which refers to a high school student who is also enrolled at a community college.

In the last 10 years, participation in these programs has virtually exploded among Mississippi high school students. In 2014, about 5,900 students took dual-credit courses in Mississippi, according to the Mississippi Community College Board.

Now, it’s more than 18,000.

“It reduces time to completion on the post-secondary level,” said Kell Smith, Mississippi C0mmunity College Board’s executive director. “It potentially reduces debt because students are taking classes at the community college while they’re still in high school, and it also just exposes high school students to what post-secondary course work is like.”

“It’s something to be proud of,” he added.

There are numerous reasons why Mississippi’s dual-credit courses have been attracting more and more students and helping them enroll in college at the nation’s highest rate, officials say.

With a few college credits under their belt, students may be more inspired to go for a college degree since it’s closer in reach. Dual-credit courses can also build confidence in students who were on the fence about college without requiring them to take a high-stakes test in the spring. And the Mississippi Department of Education’s accountability model ensures that school districts are offering advanced courses like dual credit.

Plus, Mississippi’s 15 community colleges reach more corners of the state, meaning districts that may not be able to offer Advanced Placement courses can likely partner with a nearby community college.

“They’re sometimes like the only provider in many communities, and they’re oftentimes the most affordable providers,” Fink said.

Test score requirements can pose a barrier to students who want to take dual-credit courses, but that may be less of a factor in Mississippi. While the state requires students to score a 19 on ACT Math to take certain courses, which is above the state average, a 17 on the ACT Reading, below the state average of 17.9, is enough for other courses.

Transportation is another barrier that many high schools have eliminated by offering dual-credit courses on their campuses, making it so students don’t have to commute to the community colleges to take classes.

“They can leave one classroom, go next door, and they’re sitting in a college class,” said Wendy Clemons, the Mississippi Department of Education’s associate state superintendent for secondary education.

This also means high school counselors can work directly with dual-credit students to encourage them to pursue some form of college.

“It is much less difficult to graduate and not go to college when you already possess 12 hours of credit,” Clemons said.

Word-of-mouth is just as key.

“First of all, I think parents and community members know more about it,” Clemons said, “They have almost come to expect it, in a way.”

This all translates to benefits to students. Students who take dual-credit courses are more likely to finish college on time. They can save on student debt.

But not all Mississippi students are benefiting equally, Fink said. Thr research center’s report found that Black students in Mississippi and across the country were less likely to pursue dual-credit opportunities.

“The challenge like we see in essentially every state is that who’s in dual enrollment is not really reflective of who’s in high school,” Fink said.

Without more study, it’s hard to say specifically why this disparity exists in Mississippi, but Fink said research has generally shown it stems from elitist beliefs about who qualifies for dual-credit courses. Test score requirements can be another factor, along with underresourced school districts.

“The conventional thinking is (that) dual enrollment is just … another gifted-and-talented program?” Fink said. “It has all this baggage that is racialized … versus, are we thinking about these as opportunities for any high school student?”

Another factor may be the cost of dual-credit courses, which is not uniform throughout the state. Depending on where they live, some students may pay more for dual-credit courses depending on the agreements their school districts have struck with local community colleges and universities.

This isn’t just an equity issue for students — it affects the institutions, too.

“You know, we’ve seen that dual-credit at the community college level can be a double-edged sword,” Smith said. “We lose students who oftentimes … want to stay as long as they can, but there are only so many hours they can take at a community college.

Dual-credit courses, which are often offered at a free or reduced price, can also result in less revenue to the college.

“Dual credit does come at a financial price for some community colleges, because of the deeply discounted rates that they offer it,” Smith said. “The more students that you have taking dual-credit courses, the more the colleges can lose.”

State officials are also working to turn the double-edged sword into a win-win for students and institutions.

One promising direction is career-technical education. Right now, the vast majority of dual credit students enroll in academic courses, such as general education classes like Composition 1 or 2 that they will need for any kind of college degree.

“CTE is far more expensive to teach,” Clemons said.

Smith hopes that state officials can work to offer more dual-credit career-technical classes.

“If a student knows they want to enroll in career-tech in one of our community colleges, let’s load them up,” Smith said. “Those students are more likely to enter the workforce quicker. If you want to take the career-tech path, that’s your ultimate goal.”

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