House Chairman kills bill aimed at building Jackson casino, says votes weren’t there

by Michael Goldberg, Mississippi Today
February 26, 2025

A House chairman killed a proposal aimed at attracting developers to build a resort and casino in the city of Jackson moments before the full chamber was set to vote on it.

House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, made a successful motion to table House Bill 1879, as its sponsor, Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, was answering questions from lawmakers concerned a casino in Jackson would bring unwanted competition to casinos in their districts.

“We didn’t have the votes,” Lamar said. “We felt like it was worth a conversation. Last year it got brought up in committee and didn’t get brought out of committee. This year it made it out of committee and got brought out to the floor,” Lamar said. “Anytime private investors are willing to invest hundreds of millions in downtown Jackson, we think that’s worthy of a conversation. That’s what happened today.”

Tabling the bill caused it to die with a Wednesday deadline.

A dejected Bell walked away after and declined to speak with reporters. Earlier Wednesday, the Ways and Means Committee quickly approved his bill and sent it to the House floor.

House Bill 1879 would have granted one gaming establishment already licensed in Mississippi the legal authority to build a casino in Jackson, in exchange for a minimum capital investment of $500 million for a resort inside downtown Jackson’s Capitol Complex Improvement District.

“This is an opportunity for the city of Jackson to take advantage of opportunities that have been passed over for several years now,” Bell said. “This act provides economic stimulus to the city of Jackson and developers who want to come inside the city of Jackson.”

The measure was the latest attempt in a yearslong push by some lawmakers to clear the way for casino in the capital city. Such efforts last year fizzled quickly in the Legislature after backlash from those who fear economic disruption of existing casinos, including some lawmakers and the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association.

Under current state law, casinos can only be built along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast, or on land owned by Native Americans. The House proposal would have changed that, allowing for a casino to be built within 6,000 feet, or about one mile, of the state Capitol building.

Proponents of the legislation said the legal authority to build a casino in Jackson, the most populous city in the state at the crossroad of three interstates, would be the primary draw for developers, not tax credits.

“A casino doesn’t need money to be incentivized to come here,” said Conrad Ebner, an accountant who helped draft the proposal. “The casino will do a market analysis and ascertain that they will make money.”

But opponents, including those in the casino industry, said such a move would give one casino an unfair monopoly over the most populated area of the state.

Speaking to reporters after he killed the bill, Lamar said there were already developers interested in building a casino in Jackson, and he expected the Legislature to try again next year at passing a similar measure if the developers were still interested.

“As far as I know, the developers interested in doing this don’t have any plans to go anywhere,” Lamar said.

Those behind the proposal said the plan was not to build a box casino, but a sprawling resort as well. The resort would include retail stores, restaurants, a spa, an RV Park and a hotel with hundreds of rooms.

In a letter sent to state officials last week and obtained by Mississippi Today, Rickey Thigpen, president of the tourism organization, Visit Jackson, said projections show such a casino resort could attract over four million visitors annually. It would create over 6,722 new jobs and bring in over $70 million per year to Mississippi’s economy, he wrote.

On top of the ability to build what proponents say would be a lucrative project, the bill also would have offered financial benefits to developers.

Beyond the casino, it would have also provided tax incentives for developers to restore blighted properties in Jackson. The incentives included a 25% tax credit for building costs.

The legislation aimed to ease the anxieties of other casinos around the state, who have long feared what increased competition from a Jackson casino could mean for their bottom lines.

Under the proposal, developers reinvesting at least $100 million at existing casinos would be eligible for a 10% tax credit, which could be claimed over three years. But the specter of economic disruption still loomed for some lawmakers who were scrambling to review the proposal on Wednesday.

House Minority Leader Robert Johnson represents Natchez, which is home to several casinos. Johnson said the state’s small casinos went through a laborious process getting off the ground, and that a Jackson casino could upend their businesses.

“I’ll do anything I can to help the city of Jackson, but I’m not going to destroy markets on the river,” Johnson said. “Jackson needs a lot of things. I don’t think a casino solves their problems.”

The legislation included a provision that would have made up for revenue shortfalls at casinos in Vicksburg. It did not do the same for Johnson’s Natchez district.

Bell, a fellow Democrat, said Jackson has been deprived of economic development opportunities enjoyed by other areas of the state.

“It’s interesting he would say that because the state of Mississippi has always swayed projects away from the city of Jackson,” Bell said. “So quite frankly, I don’t give a damn about what other casinos have issues with. I’m going to stand up for the city of Jackson. I don’t give a shit about who cares less about (Jackson).”

In 2024, another House measure to pave the way for a Jackson casino died after it caught the Senate, gaming regulators and the casino industry by surprise. That proposal appeared to give special treatment to an unnamed developer, which some speculated was tied to former Gov. Haley Barbour, who had recently pushed the casino development with state lawmakers.

This year’s bill was crafted to award the legal authority to build a casino in Jackson without favoring one developer, said Ebner, one of the proposal’s authors. Lamar told reporters that there were already unnamed developers interested.

Ebner said the measure would have been a much-needed economic boon to a struggling city.

“Unless they are going to move the capital city, the Legislature is going to have to start funding the Capital City,” Ebner said.

Another bill, sponsored by Lamar and seen at least in part as a shot at the casino lobby Lamar, would have increase taxes on Mississippi casinos from 12% to 16%. It also died with Wednesday’s deadline for passage.

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

Senate passes redistricting that puts DeSoto Republican, Tunica Democrat in same district, calls for 10 new elections

by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
February 26, 2025

Voters from 10 Senate districts will have to re-decide in November special elections who should represent them in Jackson, pending court approval, under a resolution the Senate approved on Wednesday. 

The chamber passed the plan 33-16. Two Democrats joined with the GOP majority to support the plan, while three Republicans joined with the Democratic minority to oppose it. 

Even though voters just elected members of the Legislature in 2023, the 10 races will be held again because a three-judge federal panel determined last year that the Legislature did not create enough Black-majority districts when it redrew its districts.

The panel ordered the state to redraw the districts and create a new majority-Black district in the DeSoto County area in the Forrest County area. 

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Dean Kirby, a Republican from Pearl, told senators that the newly redrawn map complies with federal law and will allow Black voters in the two areas to elect a candidate of their choice. 

“It’s not a partisan ordeal,” Kirby said. “We have a court order, and we’re going to comply.” 

The map creates one new majority-Black district each in DeSoto County and Forrest County, with no incumbent senator in either district. To account for this, the plan also pits two pairs of incumbents against one another in newly redrawn districts. 

The proposal puts Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando, who is white and Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, who is Black, in the same district. The redrawn District 1 contains a Black voting-age population of 52.4%. 

McLendon spoke against the proposal, arguing the process for was not transparent and it was not fair to the city of Hernando, his home city. 

“I don’t want to be pushed out of here,” McLendon said. 

The plan also puts Sen. Chris Johnson and Sen. John Polk, two Republicans from the Hattiesburg area, in the District 44 seat.  Polk announced on the Senate floor that he would not run in the special election, making Jonson the only incumbent running in the race. 

• The full list of the Senate districts that were redrawn are: 

• Senate District 1: Sen. Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, and Sen. Reginald Jackson, D-Marks

• Senate District 2: David Parker, R-Olive Branch 

• Senate District 10: Neil Whaley, R-Potts Camp 

• Senate District 11: New Senate district with no incumbent 

• Senate District 19: Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven 

• Senate District 34: Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelburg 

• Senate District 41: Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall 

• Senate District 42: Sen. Robin Robinson, R-Laurel 

• Senate District 44:  Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, Sen. Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg 

• Senate District 45: New district with no incumbent 

McLendon and Sen. Derrick Simmons, a Democrat from Greenville, offered amendments that proposed revised maps, but both alternatives were rejected. 

Simmons, the Senate’s Democratic leader, opposed the plan the Senate passed Thursday because he does not believe any incumbent senators should be paired in the same district.

The House earlier in the session approved a plan that redrew five districts in north Mississippi and made the House district in Chickasaw County a majority-Black district. 

Sen. Kirby told reporters he believes the House and the Senate have a “gentleman’s agreement” to pass the other chambers’ plan, which has historically been the custom. 

Under the legislation, the qualifying period for new elections would run from May 19 to May 30. The primary election will be held on August 5, with a potential primary runoff on September 2 and the general election on November 4.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has no direct say in legislative redistricting, so once the Legislature passes a redistricting plan, it will go back before the federal courts for approval. 

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

Mississippi let a double murderer go free. Twice.

Now he is dead, and an older couple is injured.

In May 2023, the Mississippi Parole Board released James Williams III — 18 years after he was convicted of fatally shooting his father, James Jr., and stepmother, Cindy Lassiter Mangum. Williams had previously tried to poison them to death.

His parole faced pushback from the victims’ family, community members and lawmakers. 

At the time, Zeno Magnum, whose mother was killed by Williams, decried the Parole Board’s decision. “He murdered ‘em, threw ‘em in trash bags, put them in Rubbermaid trash cans and threw ‘em out like the trash,” he said. “We are concerned not only for our personal safety, but also for the safety of anyone who may come in contact with this psychopath.”

Parole Board Chairman Jeffrey Belk defended the Parole Board’s decision, saying they received no objection from the family or others at the time — a claim that Magnum’s family disputed.

Less than five months after his parole, he got drunk and wrecked his car on Oct. 20, 2023, the same day of the Brandon-Pearl high school football game, Magnum said. “There were people everywhere. He’s very fortunate he didn’t kill anybody.”

Williams’ parole was revoked, and he returned to prison. 

A month later, the Parole Board found that by violating the law, he violated a condition of his parole. Three of four members voted to return him to prison for a year, according to court records, and Belk cast the lone “no” vote.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Debra Gibbs vacated the Parole Board’s decision to return Williams to prison for at least a year for violating parole. 

“Mr. Williams has already served more than ninety (90) days in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections,” the judge wrote. “Therefore – unless he is held pursuant to some other sentence or order – he SHALL BE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY from the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and returned to parole.” 

The judge agreed with Williams’ argument that his DUI misdemeanor constituted a technical violation of his parole, meaning that 90 days was the maximum period he could be imprisoned for a first-time technical violation. The judge’s decision matched a recent attorney general’s office opinion on the subject.

When word came that Williams might go free again, Cindy Mangum’s sister, Barbara Rankin, said her family set up a Sept. 16, 2024, meeting with Parole Board members, she said. “They let him out a week before we were set to go.”

Around noon Saturday, Williams met his death near Sanctuary Drive. The 39-year-old was driving his 2009 Honda Civic north on Will Stutely Drive when he collided with a 2019 GMC Sierra that contained Curtis Jones, 73, and his 72-year-old wife, Ruth, who were traveling east, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

Williams was pronounced dead on the scene. Paramedics transported the couple to St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson. Their injuries remain unknown, and the patrol continues to investigate to determine if Williams had been intoxicated.

“The ironic thing,” Zeno Magnum said, “is if he was still in prison, he would be alive.”

The whole ordeal has been “cloaked in secrecy,” he said. “My mom was killed, and it was like pulling teeth to get information on it. It was tough even for me as her son to get information.”

Williams’ death has brought him a wide range of emotions. On one hand, he doesn’t want to celebrate the loss of a human being, he said, but on the other hand, the death “does bring my family and I a great deal of closure.”

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