On this day in 1966

by Debbie Skipper, Mississippi Today
March 19, 2025

March 19, 1966

Texas Western, the first NCAA championship basketball team to have five Black starters, defeated the top-ranked, all-white University of Kentucky team. 

The starters were Orsten Artis, Harry Flournoy, Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin and Willie Worsley. They were basketball’s David facing the mighty Goliath in the form of Kentucky and its vaunted coach Adolph Rupp, whose teams had already secured four national championships. 

Before the game began, coach Don Haskins told his players that Rupp had vowed five Black starters would never beat his team. They took that personally and imposed their will on Kentucky with tough defense, steals and slam dunks. 

“It was a violent game,” recalled Kentucky player Pat Riley. “I don’t mean there were any fights — but they were desperate and they were committed and they were more motivated than we were.” 

The victory helped to end racist stereotypes in basketball and change the game for good. 

Nolan Richardson, who played for Texas Western under coach Dan Haskins, said of the game: “What a piece of history. If basketball ever took a turn, that was it.” 

Soon, schools that had long closed the door to Black athletes began to offer sports scholarships. Over the next two decades, the average number of Black players on college teams nearly doubled. The 2006 movie, “Glory Road,” recreated events leading up to and including the famous game.

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

The GOP-controlled House and Senate passed competing “compromise” plans on Tuesday to eliminate the state income tax and raise gasoline taxes — but the Senate only narrowly passed its plan with the help of four Democrats. 

The proposals advanced by each chamber continue a debate over the potential risks and rewards of drastically altering the tax structure in the poorest state in the country as federal spending cuts loom. 

Tuesday’s Senate vote raises the question of whether that chamber could pass a more aggressive income tax elimination proposal even if the Republican Senate leadership reaches and agreement with House leaders.

The legislative dynamics 

The state Constitution requires a three-fifths majority of lawmakers to approve tax bills, so if Democrats Sarita Simmons of Cleveland, Juan Barnett of Heidelberg, Gary Brumfield of Magnolia and Angela Turner Ford of West Point had not joined the Republican majority to support the measure, it would have failed. 

“You know what they call a medical school student who finished last in his class? A doctor,” Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins told reporters after the close vote. 

Only a couple of votes could have derailed the bill in the Senate because four Republican senators voted against the measure, and four Republicans voted “present.”

Harkins said the razor-thin margin shows how fragile the coalition of support is in the 51-member chamber and how there isn’t an enormous appetite to accelerate the income tax elimination rapidly as the House proposes. 

Some Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, appeared frustrated that four of their colleagues broke from them to ensure the measure’s passage.

“Time and time again, I’ve seen where (Democrats) have had the ability to exert our power, yet we have fallen short by not voting in solidarity with the working people of Mississippi,” Simmons told Mississippi Today. 

Ahead of a Tuesday evening deadline, the House also passed an updated version of its original tax reform package in a 91-27 vote, with 11 Democrats crossing party lines in the Republican-controlled chamber to support the bill. Unlike the Senate, every Republican in the House chamber has voted to eliminate the income tax. 

Debate centers on slashing state budget as federal cuts loom

Republican House Ways and Means Trey Lamar said the House proposal slashes state revenues to give working people tax cuts. 

“This bill is the most substantial tax cut for Mississippians that this state has ever known or seen,” Lamar said.  

House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson called the bill “grossly irresponsible” and “dangerous,” arguing it would hollow out the state’s budget at a time when the federal government is considering vast spending cuts to programs Mississippi relies on. 

“We are the poorest state in the union, the lowest per capita income in the country … They are getting ready to put you in a situation where it doesn’t matter how much money they put back in your pockets,” Johnson said. “Be cognizant of the fact that you elected people to come in here and gut your public services, gut your public education, gut your public safety and gut your public health.” 

Experts have told Mississippi Today that deep federal spending cuts, along with the elimination of the state income tax, could reduce Mississippi’s ability to fund services. Some also warn the shift to a more regressive form of taxation would hit poor and low-income Mississippians hardest.

Mississippi is perennially among the most federally dependent states, receiving nearly a 3-1 return for every dollar in federal taxes it pays. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have expressed fear of the economic impact of federal cuts.

The focus of future negotiations 

Now that the two chambers have passed alternative tax cut plans, six lawmakers will likely try to work out a final agreement in a conference committee. 

Going forward, the Senate is unlikely to accept a deal that increases the state sales tax and does not change the structure of the Public Employees Retirement System. The Senate is pushing a “hybrid” retirement plan to shore up the system financially by cutting benefits for future employees.

House Speaker Jason White said he plans to press the Senate to move off its “hard condition” of overhauling PERS. His caucus wants a dedicated stream of revenue for the retirement system. The House has proposed diverting most of the state’s lottery proceeds to PERS, or he suggested for the first time Tuesday that revenue from legalizing online sports betting could also help the system.

“The spot we’ve identified for additional revenue is mobile sports betting, where we’re losing to illegal gambling now,” White said. If (the Senate) wants to keep the amount of either gas tax or sales that has to be raised to offset this income tax (cut), then we should look at that as a valid place to look.” 

Legalizing mobile sports betting has been another wedge between the chambers. The House has passed legislation this session to legalize the practice but the measure faces opposition in the Senate.

A look at the latest tax proposals  

The new House Plan would:

• Fully eliminate the state income tax by 2037. The elimination would begin phasing in after the state next year finishes implementing another income tax cut it approved in 2022. The phase-in period would take a decade, beginning with a reduction from 4% to 3.5% and then lowering further from there.
• Cut about $2.2 billion from the state’s current $7 billion general fund. The state would also raise about $750 million through tax increases. But much of collected through tax increases would go to the general fund.
• Increase the state’s net sales tax from 7% to 8%. The revenue from this tax increase would provide $48 million annually to pay for infrastructure improvements via the State Aid Road Fund. The remaining money would go into the state’s general fund.
• Add a new 15-cents-a-gallon excise tax on gasoline. The tax increase would be phased in at 5 cents a year over three years. This would be added to the current 18.4-cents-a-gallon excise Mississippi motorists currently pay.
• Cut the sales tax on groceries from 7% to 5%.
• Increase the state’s “use yax,” which is imposed on goods purchased outside the state or online, from 7% to 8%.
• Create a new fund that gives those over the age of 65 property tax credits of $200 a year. The fund would be paid for by revenue from the use tax increase referenced above.
• Transfer $100 million per year from the state lottery system into the public employee retirement system. 

The new Senate plan would: 

• Decrease the 4% income tax rate by .25% each year from 2027 to 2030 and leave it at 3% in 2030.
• After it reaches 3%, the income tax would be reduced with “growth triggers” or at a proportional rate depending on the difference between the state’s revenue and spending plans that year. 
• Reduce the sales tax on groceries from 7% to 5%.
• Increase the 18.4-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax by 9 cents over three years, for a total of 27.4 cents, then this would increase automatically based on the cost of road construction.
• Change benefits for government employees hired after March 2026 to a “hybrid” retirement that includes part-defined benefit and part-defined contribution.

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

by Sophia Paffenroth, Mississippi Today
March 18, 2025

Dozens of advocates, doctors and spiritual leaders gathered outside the Capitol Tuesday to call for the “defense and expansion of Medicaid.” 

“Medicaid is not just an insurance program – it is a lifeline for 707,000 Mississippians,” said Sonya Williams Barnes, the state policy director for Southern Poverty Law Center. “Medicaid ensures that 315,000 children receive the health care they need … Make no mistakes: A cut to Medicaid directly harms our most vulnerable.”

Despite having some of the strictest eligibility requirements for the program, Mississippi has one of the largest Medicaid populations in the country as a result of the state’s poverty. 

With federal changes threatening already-existing health care programs, defending Medicaid for vulnerable groups such as those who are pregnant, elderly or disabled has become the new goal  for Mississippi advocates. Expanding Medicaid – arguably the biggest issue of the historic 2024 legislative session – has taken a backseat. 

But some urge it’s as important as ever. 

“In this moment we cannot shift gears, after all these years, and only beg our elected officials to save Medicaid,” the Rev. Jason Coker said. “We can’t give up that ground at a moment when we need to be gaining ground. We’ve got to keep pushing for Medicaid expansion, while we demand and pray for Medicaid to continue uncut.” 

Key lawmakers have said expanding Medicaid in Mississippi is all but dead this year – though a vehicle for expansion is still alive in the Legislature. 

“In a most practical sense, I’d say we probably won’t be doing anything this year,” Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell told Mississippi Today.

Mississippi is one of 10 states not to expand Medicaid, which would give health insurance to hundreds of thousands of low-income working Mississippians who can’t afford private health insurance and don’t qualify for subsidies that make marketplace insurance affordable.

“What kind of society are we to compound suffering with catastrophic costs to those in our congregations and so many across our state who fall within that coverage gap?” Coker asked. 

Dr. Randy Easterling, former president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, recounted a story of an uninsured patient who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a kind of cancer, around the same time that Easterling’s insured relative was also diagnosed with the disease. The uninsured patient, Jimmy, died, while Easterling’s relative is now in remission. 

“Is this what we boil down to?” Easterling asked. “If you have insurance, you live, if you don’t, you die? Let me tell you something, folks: That’s not what I signed up for when I went to medical school.”

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