Mississippi Today
Lawmakers pass largest budget in state history. No tax cuts or refunds, more for schools and roads
Lawmakers pass largest budget in state history. No tax cuts or refunds, more for schools and roads
After bitter arguments, stalemates and blown deadlines the Mississippi Legislature pulled an all-nighter and passed a state budget of $7.6 billion early Saturday morning, the largest budget — not counting federal funds — in the state’s history.
It includes a roughly $120 million increase in public K-12 education spending, an extra $620 million for road work and a $104 million bailout of the state’s struggling hospitals. It also includes more than $600 million for individual lawmakers’ projects this election year.
Despite pleas from hospitals, health advocates and some lawmakers, the Legislature again refused to expand Medicaid coverage — for which it would receive more than $1 billion a year in federal money — to cover working poor Mississippians and help hospitals struggling to provide care to the indigent.
The budget includes no new major tax cuts or refunds for Mississippians, despite vows by Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann early in the year to provide relief for taxpayers.
Hosemann had proposed a one-time rebate check for Mississippi taxpayers or cutting the state’s highest-in-the-nation tax on groceries. Reeves and Gunn proposed a phase-out of the state’s personal income tax. No agreement was reached, and no tax break was passed, although lawmakers last year enacted the largest income tax cut in state history, still being phased in.
After much dickering that held up other budget work late in the session, lawmakers on Friday night agreed to spend about $3 billion on K-12 education, an increase over this year of about $120 million.
The Senate had proposed revamping the state’s adequate education formula and fully funding it for the first time in years, which would have cost about $181 million. The House refused to add more money to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program formula, pushing instead for Legislature-directed spending for schools, including a $22-million raise for teachers’ assistants.
Neither agreed to the other’s proposals and in final negotiations agreed to provide an extra $100 million divided among schools based on numbers of students, with few restrictions other than the money cannot go to pay increases for superintendents, assistant superintendents and principals.
“This was a way to get a compromise,” Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar told his colleagues. “It’s almost the same effect as if it was in the (MAEP) formula.”
Most of the balance of the schools increase — about $17 million — is to cover increased insurance costs for education employees.
“I am pleased with it,” said House Education Chairman Richard Bennett. “I would have loved to fund raises for teachers’ assistants, but it’s a give and take … We’ve all got to sit down next year and look at the (MAEP) formula and what we need to change.”
Hosemann and Gunn said they were pleased with the final budget.
“From a $600 million-plus infrastructure plan to legislation strengthening our elections process, providing options for the continued collaboration of hospitals, and increasing the number of doctors and nurses in Mississippi, the session has been an overwhelming success,” Hosemann said. “The state is in excellent fiscal condition, we are paying off debt, our personal and business taxes are decreasing, and we have adopted a conservative budget which funds necessary services.
“I am particularly proud of the Senate’s earlier 52-0 commitment to fully funding the education of our children,” Hosemann said. “Our senators’ leadership on this issue resulted in an additional $100 million for our schools, which will fund local supplements for teachers, classroom supplies, diesel for buses, and all the other things necessary to providing every child in Mississippi with an opportunity for a first-class education.”
House Speaker Philip Gunn, who is not running for reelection and was presiding over his final regular session, said of the budget, “I think it meets a lot of needs across the state. We put another $100 million in public education. We are proud to be able to do that.”
This year’s legislative session also saw some of the worst partisan, racial and geographic division and argument in recent years, mostly centered around measures aimed at state takeover of policing, courts and infrastructure in the capital city of Jackson.
At a press conference Friday night, Democratic leaders Sen. Derrick Simmons and Rep. Robert Johnson III said Republican leaders wasted too much time and lucre on “targeting Jackson” and instead should have focused on the needs of average Mississippians.
“We had a $4 billion surplus and we wouldn’t even fully fund MAEP, provide money for hospitals and provide the kind of support Jackson needs,” Johnson said.
“Eighty percent of Mississippians want Medicaid expansion,” Simmons said. “Seventy nine percent want our schools fully funded. Another over 70% want us to restore the ballot initiative process. But what have we done here for 90 days? We spent our time dealing with bills targeting the city of Jackson … It’s an insult. This is an election year. … One thing that scares a politician is the fear of not being reelected … If you want Medicaid expansion, if you want the ballot initiative restored, if you want your schools fully funded, Democrats have supported that year after year.”
The Legislature appropriated $7 million in one fund for relief for residents impacted by the tornadoes that ripped through north Mississippi earlier this month killing at least 21 people and $7 million in another fund for housing for those impacted by the storms. In addition, $3 million was appropriated for the schools to help pay their damages from the tornadoes and $1.5 million for hospitals that suffered damages.
Legislators worked overnight Friday well into Saturday morning to fund dozens of pet projects throughout the state.
In an item separate from the budget, the Legislature did not pass any bills to restore voting rights to people who lost their right to vote because of a felony conviction. The House sent four bills to the Senate restoring voting rights, but Senate Judiciary B Chair Joey Fillingane opted not to bring any of those up for considerations before the full Senate.
Most years the Legislature passes a handful of suffrage bills (normally about five) each session.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
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.
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