The Mississippi chapter of the ACLU has submitted a proposal to redraw the state’s legislative districts that creates two new majority-Black Senate districts and pits two pairs of incumbent senators against one another. 

The plan, submitted on behalf of Black residents and the state branch of the NAACP, creates a new majority-Black Senate district in north Mississippi’s DeSoto County and in south Mississippi’s Hattiesburg area. 

“Any proposed maps that attempt to meet the court order by diluting or undermining existing Black-majority voting districts in other parts of the state will fail the requirements set by the court and federal law,” Mississippi ACLU Director Jarvis Dortch said in a statement. 

The plan tweaks the boundaries of the existing 52 Senate districts. 

To accommodate new majority-Black districts, the plan places Republican Sens. Kevin Blackwell and David Parker, both of DeSoto County, in the same district. The same scenario would happen to Republican Sens. John Polk and Chris Johnson of Hattiesburg. 

Neither the Senate nor the House has released a redistricting proposal, and the federal courts have not yet ruled on a submitted plan. 

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Dean Kirby, a Republican from Pearl, said on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast that Senate leaders were “very close” to releasing a redistricting plan.  

For the House, the ACLU’s plan would make the District 22 seat in Chickasaw County currently held by Republican Rep. Jon Lancaster of Houston, who is white, a majority-Black voter district. This portion of the plan does not put any incumbents against each other. 

House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, said he did not know when the House leadership planned to release its redistricting plan but that it was one of his priorities and he plans to “get it done.” 

The ACLU proposal stems from a successful legal challenge the organization filed against state officials that argued the legislative districts drawn in 2022 by the state Legislature diluted Black voting strength. 

LISTEN: Podcast: ‘Deja vu all over again’: Senate President Protem Dean Kirby outlines 2025 issues

A federal three-judge panel agreed, ordering the state to create more majority-Black districts and conduct special elections within the impacted districts this year. 

Only a couple of legislative districts will significantly change, but the Legislature will also have to tweak many districts to accommodate new maps. State officials in court filings have argued that the redrawing would affect a quarter of the state’s 174 legislative districts.

While the court ultimately placed the burden on the Legislature for creating a new map that satisfies federal voting laws, it ordered that the ACLU and the plaintiffs should be ready with an alternative plan if they object to the state’s plan that must be adopted by the conclusion of the 2025 session, which ends in the spring.

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

Some top lawmakers in Mississippi’s Republican-controlled Legislature are prepared to make it easier for students to transfer between public schools but remain skeptical of sending more public money to private schools.

During the second week of Mississippi’s legislative session, key lawmakers were still assessing the appetite in their caucuses for what some call “school choice” bills. The term can refer to several different policies, including using taxpayer funds to pay for the private school tuition of students transferring from public schools.

Proponents argue parents should have greater autonomy over their children’s education, but some lawmakers still have unanswered questions about whether the policies would serve their intended purpose. Opponents say that taking money from public schools would add financial strain to a system that they argue has already been underfunded for decades.

House Education Chair Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said children in some rural areas don’t live near any private schools, and that funding private school tuition with taxpayer money could undermine public schools attended by the most needy students.

“In certain parts of our state, we can talk about choice all day long,” Roberson said. “But there are no other choices for a lot of these kids, and it’s really not fair to the public schools in regards to this, because public schools are given a mandate to educate all kids. Private schools are not given that mandate.”

In a pre-session interview, Republican House Speaker Jason White said he hoped to see a “true choice” bill for students in the worst performing school districts in the state who can “find acceptance” at any other school, public or private.

Lawmakers with sway over education policy said they had not yet seen such a proposal drafted. Allowing for open enrollment, or portability between public schools, has prompted questions from some lawmakers about what mechanism the state would use to force school districts to cooperate.

Current law allows students to transfer between public schools, but both the sending and receiving school boards must approve the request. Some school districts oppose changing that process, stirring backlash on racial and economic grounds.

In early January, the Madison County School District, a high-performing district in an affluent majority-white area, distributed a 2025 legislative agenda that included opposition against open enrollment. The policy would have negative effects on “school culture” and decrease property values, the district claimed. It also warned that local county taxes would fund students whose parents pay no taxes in Madison County.

In a social media post, Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, who sits on the House Education Committee, said the subtext behind the district’s statement was clear.

“I’m just going to say it: ‘negative effects on school culture’ sounds a lot like ‘we don’t want Black or poor kids coming to Madison County Schools’. Also, it’s important to note that thousands of children whose parents don’t pay property taxes are educated in MS public schools every single day,” Owen wrote. “Do we treat the kids who live in rentals, apartments, government housing, etc. differently? I vote no, but the (Madison County School District) has a different opinion. Shame on them.”

Opponents have argued, however, that much of the school choice movement is code for re-segregating schools either by race or economic class.

State Auditor Shad White said he would demand the district reveal how much in taxpayer funds it spent printing the agenda. A call requesting comment from the Madison County School District was not immediately returned.

The ferocity of the local debate takes place as advocates of school choice feel emboldened by the election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has floated a tax credit for programs that fund private school tuition.

Douglas Carswell, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, applauded the school choice proposals supported by White and Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann this session. But he vowed to keep pressuring Republicans to approve vouchers funding private school tuition.

“Organizations like ours have played too nicey nicey with some conservatives or pretend conservatives and there’s been a symbiotic relationship with conservative think tanks and politicians where we pretend that the mediocre reforms they passed 10-15 years ago were of great consequence,” Carswell said.

Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said he supports allowing students in F-rated school districts to transfer to other public schools.

There are three institutions in the state with that rating: East Tallahatchie Consolidated School District, West Bolivar Consolidated School District and the Midtown Public Charter School in Jackson.

“To do that we’re going to have to fully fund the students and make up on the state side the amount of taxes that are paid by the local citizen,” Hosemann said. “It’s usually about a 70/30 split, with 70 percent coming from the state.”

Hosemann said he and Senate Education Chair Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, would like any open enrollment bill to include a capacity requirement, a provision designed to ensure schools have enough space in the requested grade level to accept new students.

The Senate is not considering passing a bill that funds private schools with public money, said Hannah Milliet, Hosemann’s spokesperson.

Both chambers are looking into updating the state’s Education Savings Account program for children with disabilities, which helps cover the cost of private school tuition for those students. The changes could include pumping more money into the program and removing a cap on the number of students that can apply for the program

Roberson also said there are too many school districts in Mississippi and he hopes to pass a bill to consolidate some of them. He did not rule out the possibility of legislation passing this session to send public money to private schools and expects a fierce debate to ensue regardless.

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

News headlines the past couple weeks have tracked thusly:

• Mississippi tax cut plan would cut $1.1 billion in income.
• Mississippi’s Republican governor intent on income tax cut even if states receive less federal money.
• Mississippi’s Republican governor pushes income tax cut, says critics rely on ‘myths.’

But just eight years ago, headlines read:

• Gov. Bryant to cut budget for second time this year, pull from rainy day fund.
• On the chopping block: Mental health, universities.
• Health department closing two-thirds of regional offices.
• Agencies lower state’s credit rating, outlook.

Another great tax cut debate has begun in the Mississippi Legislature, a recurring theme in recent years with state coffers relatively flush and the economy cooking just below a boil.

The broad strokes of the debate, also a recurring theme, are Republican House leaders want to overhaul the entire state tax structure — eliminate the income tax, increase sales and gasoline taxes and provide a net huge tax cut, $1.1 billion when all in. Senate leaders urge more caution, to cut taxes again but take smaller, prudent steps and wait for the dust to settle on record tax cuts recently passed and still being phased in.

READ MORE: Mississippi House set to vote this week on income tax elimination-gas tax increase plan

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is on the sidelines, appearing to cheer on the House income tax elimination plan, but leery of any tax “swap” increase in sales or gasoline taxes as offsets. He has in the past voiced strong opposition to any such increase even if the net is a cut for most Mississippians.

Those who urge caution in cutting or overhauling the tax structure mention past experience, and they don’t have to look back too far. Eight years ago, from a combination of dozens of tax cuts the Legislature approved and a slumping economy, the state saw a budget crisis that resulted in severely underfunded schools, state government layoffs, a near halt to building new roads and highways and problems maintaining the ones we have, too few state troopers on the highway and cuts to most major state services.

Lawmakers in a few years leading up to the slump had enacted more than 50 tax cuts, from large to small, including what was at the time the largest tax cut in state history to be phased in over years. But their spending had increased.

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant was forced to make emergency mid-year cuts to the state budget five times and to raid the state’s “rainy day” savings account from 2016-2017. Mississippi law requires the state to operate with a balanced budget, and when shortfalls top 2%, the governor is required to make cuts to true the budget.

Mississippi, it has been said, is often first in and last out when it comes to a recessionary economy.

But bad times, like good times, don’t last forever, and the last four years have seen record revenue for the state. And record spending. Since those economic slump days of 2016 and 2017, state general fund spending has risen from about $6 billion to more than $7 billion, with a hefty $1 billion surplus to boot.

House leaders say the time to enact a long-championed tax structure overhaul and elimination of the income tax is now — do it while we can.

“If you say, ‘How can we do that?’ I’d say look at the last four years,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, author of the latest House tax overhaul plan. “We can do it because we’ve shown we can do it.”

Tax cuts, and structural changes, can have a stimulating effect on the economy.

But it would appear the current push to cut taxes or overhaul the structure does not include any major belt tightening with state government. And much, perhaps most, of the current largesse is a result of the federal government pumping trillions of dollars post-pandemic into the national economy and billions into Mississippi’s. That spigot will likely be turned off with a new administration in Washington. Will Mississippi’s good times continue to roll? House leaders appear to be betting on the come.

But Senate President Protem Dean Kirby, the longest serving Republican in the Legislature, has seen the other effects that ill timed or poorly thought out cuts can bring, especially coupled with a faltering economy.

“I’ve been here long enough I’ve seen the ups and downs,” Kirby said on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast. “What goes up comes down. A majority of the people in the Legislature — now including, I hate to say it, the leadership — haven’t been here during the down periods … and right now we’re here in the beginning of a down period. We were, what, $116 million below (projections) last month … We need to be very, very careful that we don’t go through the same we have in the past where we would cut everyone’s budget and every state agency and schools.”

PODCAST: ‘Deja vu all over again’: Senate President Protem Dean Kirby outlines 2025 issues

Senate leaders including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann say they, too, want tax cuts, just more modest ones. And they do not appear onboard with the swaps and shifts of increases in other taxes. Hosemann does support a cut to the tax on groceries, or unprepared food items.

In large part because the House plan includes a long called for steady stream of money for transportation infrastructure — a 5% sales tax on gasoline — and a cut in taxes on groceries, many House Democrats appear to be on board with the proposal. It’s unclear whether Senate Democrats would lean more towards a House or Senate approach.

The proposed 5% tax on gasoline — which would be about 13 cents a gallon with current average prices — along with a 1.5-cents-on-the dollar increase in the state’s 7% sales tax will perhaps be the toughest sell with Mississippi citizens. Particularly, retirees not paying income taxes now might view this as a net hike for them. And the House restructuring would make the state’s taxing more “regressive,” which would hit people with limited income and those of modest means the most.

It would appear some tax cuts are in the offing with the 2025 Legislature from its GOP supermajorities in both chambers.

The debate will not be on whether to cut, but how and by how much — a battle of moderation versus bold action.

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