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Ray Mabus: Some strides made during my governorship are gone, but the path forward remains clear

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mississippitoday.org – Ray Mabus – 2025-02-04 09:53:00

by Ray Mabus, Mississippi Today
February 4, 2025

This essay is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing first-person perspectives of former Mississippi governors. We asked them to write about their successes while in office and perhaps what they wished had gone a little differently during their tenure.

When I ran for governor in 1987, my slogan was “Mississippi Will Never Be Last Again.” For so long Mississippi had been last in the things you want to be first in and first in the things you want to be last in. A common statement from other states was “Thank God for Mississippi.” That had to end. Mississippi needed to lead.

As governor, I, and the folks with me, began working to make that promise a reality, and, in the four years that followed, we got an amazing amount of things done and Mississippi moved out of last place in virtually every category.

We began with education because it is the only sure, long-term way to success. Here are a few of the things that were accomplished:

  • Passed the largest teacher pay raise in the U.S.
  • Enacted the largest percentage funding increase for higher education in the country for two years.
  • Increased the high school graduation rate by 5.7% while the national rate declined.
  • Developed the Office for Literacy, which Atlantic Monthly called “the most ambitious initiative in the nation to combat adult illiteracy.”
  • In days before computers were everywhere, put a computer lab in every elementary school in the state, teaching a very successful “Writing to Read” program.
  • Led the nation in percentage of students taking upper level science courses.
  • Used fiber optics to allow students to participate remotely in courses through interactive audiovisual communications long before the ubiquitous internet.
  • Passed the most comprehensive education reform act in America.

In jobs and economic development:

  • 90,000 net new jobs in four years.
  • First in U.S. in new manufacturing plants by population.
  • $4 billion in new investments.
  • Complete rewrite of economic development laws including tax credits for child care and educational benefits.
  • Fifth largest drop in unemployment in country.
  • 11th fastest per capita income gain in America.
  • 25th in creation of new jobs.
  • Unemployment lowest in more than a decade.
  • Tourism increased by 41% and exports by 51%.
  • Growth in welfare cut by 87%.
  • Successful Jobs for Mississippi’s Graduates for highly at-risk youth started.

In health care:

  • Largest expansion of health care coverage in state’s history by increasing Medicaid covering more than 100,000 additional Mississippians and keeping the state’s hospitals open and vital.
  • The lowest infant mortality rate in state’s history.
  • An intense focus on early childhood and child care. 

In government:

  • Changed form of county government to reduce cost and corruption, which was part of my legacy as state auditor.
  • Largest restructuring of state government in history.
  • First governor to propose a budget.
  • Appointed first woman to head a Highway Patrol in the U.S.
  • Most Black Mississippians appointed to senior roles in state’s history.
  • Enacted first capital budget.
  • No tax increases.
  • Budget always balanced.

But all this is just a far-from-complete list of nearly four-decade old statistics. What this doesn’t capture at all was our goal. It wasn’t just to move Mississippi out of last place and up the list in these categories, it was to try to make lives better and futures brighter for ALL Mississippians. 

All this was done to make Mississippi more competitive and to provide opportunities so that young Mississippians would stay and build their lives here. All this was done to make sure babies were born healthy and had the best educational opportunities starting in early childhood so that they could make the most of their lives. All this was done so that all Mississippians had the right to good health care so that the state didn’t lead the country in preventable diseases and so many other bad categories and so that EVERYONE could fulfill their potential. 

But for all that we — the people of Mississippi — did at that time to make our state the positive exception and example, looking at today and to the future, so many of those gains are gone. Mississippi is one of only three states which lost population between 2010-2020. People are voting with their feet and moving out, and others are not moving in. The needs in Mississippi are the same as they were in the late 1980s. We know what we need to do to address those needs, and we know it will work.

A much better job has to be done in public education. Education for everyone is the only way to a better future and a better state. Public education has to be better supported both financially and culturally. Tax money should go to public education and none to private schools, which is just a way to help the well-to-do and a cruel hoax on everyone else.

Health care has to be a right and not a privilege. Do whatever is necessary to cover every Mississippian, starting with expanding Medicaid to the maximum extent possible. This will also keep rural hospitals open so that people can get care close to where they live. And women must have full autonomy on all their health care decisions.

There is a saying that “the only way to keep a person down in a ditch is to get down in the ditch with them.” Because of our history, Mississippi bears a special burden on race. As I said in my 1988 inaugural address: “… a new day depends fundamentally on our resolve to banish racism forever from the state of Mississippi. We know in our hearts that the chains of prejudice have bound more than one group; they have held all of us back. A society divided against itself cannot prosper. And we know from history and our own lives the anguish and frustration of racial injustice — and we can be proud that so many among us have given so much in the belief that we shall overcome. We share the faith that we are each God’s children. After all the years, let us hear anew His truth that we are all brothers and sisters. That idea is written into our laws; now it must be woven into the fabric of our lives.”

Ray Mabus served as Mississippi governor from 1988 until 1992. He had previously served as state auditor. On the federal level, he served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and as U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 2009 until 2017. Mabus, an Ackerman native, resides in West Virginia with his wife Lynne. He has three children.

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

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On this day in 1913

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8 hours ago

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February 4, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-02-04 07:00:00

Feb. 4, 1913

Rosa Parks with Martin Luther King Jr. Credit: Wikipedia

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Although she is best known for refusing to give up her bus seat, she was active in the civil rights struggle long before. 

She and her husband, Raymond, became involved in the Scottsboro Boys case. In 1943, she became secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, working on voter registration and investigating a series of sexual assaults of Black women that went unpunished in Alabama. She, too, was the victim of an attempted rape by a white neighbor. 

“I was ready to die, but give my consent?” she said. “Never. Never. Never.” 

After refusing to give up her seat, she became a worldwide icon and driving force for the civil rights movement. 

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear,” she said. “Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” 

After her 2005 death, she became the first woman to lie in state at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. On the 50th anniversary of her courageous act, transit authorities in New York City and some other cities left the seats behind the bus drivers empty to honor her. 

In 2013, Congress added her statue to the U.S. Capitol, making her the first Black woman represented in Statuary Hall. Before her death, she noted that “racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.”

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

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Mississippi Today

Mobile sports betting legalization passes Mississippi House

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22 hours ago

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February 3, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Michael Goldberg – 2025-02-03 17:20:00

The state House approved legislation Thursday for the second year in a row to legalize mobile sports betting, a move that puts Mississippi on track to join a growing number of states that allow online betting.

House Gaming Chairman Rep. Casey Eure, R-Saucier, is trying again to pass legislation after lawmakers couldn’t agree on a final proposal in 2024. Sports wagering has been permitted in the state for years, and casino gambling for decades. But online betting has remained illegal amid fears the move could harm the bottom line of the state’s casinos — a concern Eure acknowledged in committee and on the House floor.

“As I told y’all last year, I’m committed to and this bill is committed to our bricks-and-mortar casinos,” Eure said on Monday. “All mobile sports betting will still be tethered to bricks-and-mortar casinos in the state of Mississippi.”

In an 88-10 vote, the House approved a new version of the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act, which Eure said was reworked to address concerns raised by the Senate last year. The new provision would allow a casino to partner with two sports betting platforms rather than one. Allowing casinos to partner with an extra platform is designed to assuage the concerns of casino leaders and lawmakers who represent areas where gambling is big business.

Last year, some lawmakers raised concerns that gambling platforms would have no incentive to partner with smaller casinos, and most of the money would instead flow to the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s already bustling larger casinos. That concern was raised again Monday by the Democratic leader, Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, who voted against the bill.

“You talk about partners, but there is nothing that says FanDuel or ESPN has to partner with any particular casino,” Johnson. “They just have to partner with a casino in the state of Mississippi.”

Johnson also said bets should be geofenced regionally, rather than within the state as a whole, to steer revenue to local casinos.

To protect smaller casinos from revenue losses, this year’s proposal would create a pot of money that establishments could draw from for the first five years after online sports betting becomes legal. The $6 million fund, generated from taxes on sports betting, would be replenished each year. Any unused money would go to fund road and bridge repairs.

Other changes include a provision that prevents people from placing bets with credit cards, a request from the Senate to guard against gambling addiction.

The proposal would levy a 12% tax on sports wagers, with revenue reaching all 82 counties via the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Fund. Eure said he believes the state is losing between $40 million and $80 million a year in tax revenue by keeping mobile sports betting illegal.

Proponents also say legalization would undercut the influence of illicit offshore sports betting platforms. Since the start of the NFL season this year, Mississippi has recorded 8.69 million attempts to access legal mobile sportsbooks, according to materials presented to House members at an earlier committee meeting. That demand fuels a thriving illegal online gambling market in Mississippi, proponents have said.

Mobile sports betting is legal in 30 states and Washington, D.C., according to the American Gaming Association.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

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

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Mississippi Today

Jimmie ‘Jay’ Lee’s remains believed to be found

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23 hours ago

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February 3, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2025-02-03 16:16:00

A gold necklace with Jimmie “Jay” Lee’s name on it was found with human remains in Carroll County this weekend, but authorities have not publicly confirmed the remains belong to the missing University of Mississippi student and well-known member of Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community. 

Local authorities acknowledged the necklace was found with human remains that have yet to be identified through DNA. In a text, Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker acknowledged a picture of the necklace but said he had no comment. The Oxford Police Department could not be reached before press time.

An image of the cursive nameplate obtained by Mississippi Today matches a necklace that Lee wore in pictures and videos on his Instagram account as recently as two days before he went missing.

Lee’s body had been missing since July 2022 after his mother told local police that she had not heard from him. A few weeks later, a fellow Ole Miss student and recent graduate, Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., was arrested and accused of killing Lee to preserve their secret sexual relationship.

Herrington’s attorney, state Rep. Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, said he had no comment. Lee’s parents could not be reached.

The human remains were found about an hour and a half south of Oxford. The day Lee went missing, Herrington was seen on video retrieving a long-handle shovel and wheelbarrow from his parent’s house in Grenada County and putting it into the back of a box truck that belonged to his moving company, according to evidence released in the case.

Herrington was tried for capital murder in December by the Lafayette County District Attorney’s Office. A judge declared a mistrial after the jury, which was chosen in Forrest County, was hung 11-1, with the disagreeing juror reportedly unable to convict due to the lack of a body. 

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

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