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Former Chief Justice Pittman, who served in all three branches of Mississippi government, dies

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-09-27 12:08:56

Former Chief Justice Edwin Lloyd Pittman, who served in multiple elected offices, all three branches of government, has died.

A release from the state Supreme Court announced Pittman, who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from 2001 until 2004, died earlier this week at his Ridgeland home. He was 89.

Pittman was elected to the state Senate in 1964 representing his hometown of Hattiesburg. He went on to serve in the state elected offices of treasurer, secretary of state and . He served as attorney general from 1984 to 1988 before running unsuccessfully for governor.

After losing the gubernatorial bid in an ultra-competitive Democratic primary that included other statewide elected officials and a past governor, Pittman came back to capture a seat on the state Supreme Court in 1989.

“Chief Pittman provided exemplary leadership to the Mississippi Judiciary as chief justice,” said former Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr., who served with Pittman on the state’s highest court “His accomplishments for efficiency, transparency and access to justice had a profound effect on our legal system. He championed the establishment of (shorter deadlines for hearing cases … brought rule changes to allow cameras in the courtroom and improved access to justice for the poor and disadvantaged, to name a few.

“The court system today is better for his untiring efforts and dedication to duty.”

As chief justice, Pittman was credited with making the Supreme Court more transparent, posting dockets and oral arguments online, according to a court press release. He also led the effort to put in place regulations to allow news cameras in the courtroom at a time when only a handful of states were allowing them. Pittman worked to garner public to access to the judiciary for the needy.

Pittman said at the time, “We have to recognize the fact that we in many communities are frankly failing to get legal services to the people who need it … It’s time that the courts shoulder the burden of rendering legal services to the needy in Mississippi.”

In 2011, former Gov. Haley Barbour awarded Pittman the Mississippi Medal of Service.

 “The people of this state have honored me with a wonderful trip through life,” Pittman said at the ceremony.

Current Chief Justice Mike Randolph said, “Even though he served in all these important government positions, he never lost his common touch. I regret that I didn’t get to serve with him. I hope that when I’m done, that I will be as well thought of as he was.”

Randolph, also from Hattiesburg, now holds the post on the court that was held by Pittman.

“He was a consummate politician and public servant. He’s an important figure in Mississippi’s history,” said U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Graves. Graves was the third Black Mississippian to serve on the modern Supreme Court. Earlier in Graves’ career, he was hired to a position in the Attorney General’s office by Pittman.

Pittman was last in public view when he was asked by then-Attorney General Jim Hood to look at the legality of a frontage road being built in Rankin County to provide easier access to busy Lakeland Drive for a small neighborhood where then Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves lived.

The end result of the controversy is that the access road was not built.

After retiring from the Supreme Court, Pittman joined a firm in Madison County.

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1926

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mississippitoday.org – Debbie Skipper – 2024-11-05 07:00:00

Nov. 5, 1926

Victoria Gray Adams, Summer, 1964, Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs. Credit: of Southern Mississippi

Victoria Gray Adams, one of the founding members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, was born near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 

“(There are) those who are in the Movement and those who have the Movement in them,” she said. “The Movement is in me, and I know it always will be.” 

In 1961, this door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman convinced her preacher to open their church to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which began pushing for voter registration. A year later, she became a field secretary for SNCC and led a boycott of businesses in Hattiesburg, later helping found the umbrella group, the Council of Federated Organization, for all the groups working in Mississippi. 

In 1964, she and other civil rights fought the Jim Crow laws and practices that kept Black from , marching to the courthouse in the chilly rain to protest. By the end of the day, nearly 150 had made their way to register to vote. 

Adams became the first known woman in Mississippi to for the U.S. Senate, unsuccessfully challenging longtime Sen. John . She also helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. It was time, she said, to pay attention to Black Mississippians, “who had not even had the leavings from the American political table.” 

In August 1964, she joined party members in challenging Mississippi’s all-white delegation to the Democratic National Convention. 

“We really were the true Democratic Party,” she recalled in a 2004 interview. “We accomplished the removal of the wall, the curtain of fear in Mississippi for African-Americans demanding their rights.” 

Four years later, the party that once barred her now welcomed her. 

She continued her activism and later talked of that success: “We eliminated the isolation of the African-Americans from the political . I believe that Mississippi now has the highest number of African-American elected in the nation. We laid the groundwork for that.” 

In 2006, she died of cancer. 

“When I met … that community of youthful civil rights activists, I realized that this was exactly what I’d been looking for all of my conscious existence,” she said. “It was like coming home.”

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

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Vote today: Mississippi voters head to the polls. Here’s what you need to know

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mississippitoday.org – Geoff Pender – 2024-11-05 03:00:00

Polls in Mississippi will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. as voters make their picks for presidential, congressional, state judicial and some local races.

READ MORE: View Mississippi sample ballot

Voters are reminded to bring a identification. This can include a valid Mississippi driver’s license, an identification or employee identification card issued by any entity of the U.S. or state of Mississippi, a U.S. passport, a military photo ID card, a current student ID card issued by an accredited college or or a Mississippi voter ID card. For more information on voter ID rules, check here.

READ MORE: Vote Tuesday: Candidates battle for seats on state’s highest courts

Those who do not have a valid ID can vote affidavit, but must return and present a photo ID within five days for their ballot to count. Voters waiting in line as polls close at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote. If you vote absentee or affidavit, you can track the status of your ballot here.

POLLING PLACE LOCATOR: Use the secretary of state’s online locator to find where you vote

Stay tuned to for results, starting after polls close.

LISTEN: Podcast: Mississippi’s top election official discusses Tuesday’s election

The Mississippi secretary of state’s office offers an online resource, My Election Day, where voters can locate or confirm their polling place, view sample ballots and view current office holders. Those with doubts or questions about their precinct locations are urged to contact their local election officials. Contact info for local election officials is also provided on the My Election Day site.

READ MORE: Mississippi Election 2024: What will be on Tuesday’s ballot?

The secretary of state’s office, U.S. attorney’s office and the state Democratic and Republican parties will have observers across the state monitoring elections and responding to complaints.

The secretary of state’s elections division can be contacted at 1-800-829-6786 or ElectionsAnswers@sos.ms.gov.

The U.S. attorney’s office investigates election fraud, intimidation or rights issues and can be contacted at 601-973-2826 or 601-973-2855, or complaints can be filed directly with the Department of Justice division at civilrights.justice.gov. Local enforcement primary jurisdiction and serves as a first responder for alleged crimes or emergencies at voting precincts.

The secretary of state’s office also provides some Election Day law reminders:

  • It is unlawful to campaign for any candidate within 150 feet from any entrance to a polling place, unless on private property.
  • The polling places should be clear of people for 30 feet from every entrance except for election officials, voters waiting to vote or authorized poll watchers.
  • Voters are prohibited from taking photos of their marked ballots.

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

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Senate panel weighs how much — or whether — to cut state taxes

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mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2024-11-04 15:42:00

A group of state senators on Monday grappled with how much to slash state taxes or if they should cut them at all, portending a major policy debate at the Capitol for next year’s legislative session. 

The Senate Fiscal Policy Study Group solicited testimony from the state government’s leading experts on budget, economic and tax policies to prepare for an almost certain intense debate in January over how much they should trim state taxes while balancing the need to fund government services. 

Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, a Republican from Flowood whose committee has jurisdiction over tax policy, told Mississippi Today that he wanted senators to have basic facts in front of them before they decide next year if Mississippi should cut taxes.

“We’re getting a tax cut the next two years whether we do anything or not,” Harkins said. “I just want to make sure we have all the facts in front of people to understand we have a clear picture of how much revenue we’re bringing in.”  

Mississippi is already phasing in a major tax cut. After a raucous debate in 2022, lawmakers agreed to phase in an income tax cut. In two years it will Mississippi with a flat 4% tax on income over $10,000, one of the lowest rates in the nation.

However, the top two legislative leaders, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who oversees the Senate and House Speaker Jason White, have both recently said they want legislators to consider new tax cut policies.  

Hosemann, the Republican leader of the Senate, has publicly said he would like to see the state’s grocery tax, the highest of its kind in the nation, reduced, though he hasn’t specified how much of a reduction or how long it would take for the cut to be implemented. 

White, a Republican from , said last that he would like to see the state’s 4% income tax phased out and have the state’s 7% grocery tax cut in half over time. 

“We are hoping to construct a tax system that, yes, prioritizes certain needs in our state, but it also protects and rewards taxpayers,” White said last week. 

But it’s difficult to collect accurate data on the state’s grocery tax, and state lawmakers must grapple with a laundry list of spending needs and obligations based on testimony from state agency leaders on Monday. 

Mississippi currently has a 7% sales tax, which is applied to groceries. The state collects the tax but remits 18.5% back to . For many municipalities, the sales tax is a significant source of revenue. 

If state lawmakers want to reduce the grocery tax without impacting cities, they could pass a new law to change the diversion amounts or appropriate enough money to make the municipalities whole.  

State Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham said the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the agency in charge of collecting state taxes, does not have a mechanism in place for accurately capturing how much money cities collect in grocery taxes. This is because the tax on groceries is the same as non-grocery items. 

However, Graham estimates that the state collects roughly $540 million in taxes from grocery items.

The other problem lawmakers would have in implementing significant tax cuts is a growing list of spending needs in Mississippi, a state with abject poverty, and sewer and other woes and some of the worst metrics in the nation. 

Representatives from the Legislative Budget Office, the group that advises lawmakers on tax and spending policy, told senators that lawmakers will also be with rising costs in the public employee retirement system, the budget, public education, state employee health insurance, and state infrastructure projects. 

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

State agencies, including the employee retirement system, also requested $751 million more for the coming budget year.

“That’s the billion dollar question, I guess,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, said. “How we’re able to fund basic government services?” 

Harkins and Hopson said the committee would likely meet again before the Legislature convenes for its 2025 session on January 7.

A House committee on tax cuts has also been holding hearings, and White in September held a summit on tax policy.

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

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