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For a decade, House Democrats have been beating the drum — often when it seemed no one else was listening — to expand Medicaid to provide health care for working poor Mississippians.

It looks as though a large majority of those House Democrats as early as Wednesday will vote against and possibly kill a bill that purports to expand Medicaid.

They say the agreement reached late Monday between House and Senate Republicans may be called Medicaid expansion, but it is not written to actually go into effect or help the hundreds of thousands of Mississippians who need health care coverage.

“It is just like an eggshell with no egg in the middle,” said Rep. Timaka James-Jones, a Democratic from Belzoni in her first term. “It does not make sense.”

Republicans, who have have supermajorities in both the House and Senate and do not need a single Democratic vote to pass any bill, have for years relished their power over legislative Democrats. But when a three-fifths vote is needed and Republicans aren’t in unanimous agreement like on this current bill, Democrats have real power to flex.

Earlier on Tuesday, after a closed-door luncheon meeting of House Democrats, Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez, the minority leader, informed Speaker Jason White that 32 of the 41 House Democrats planned to vote no. That news sent shockwaves through the Capitol.

With several House Republicans also expected to vote no, that number of dissenting Democrats would likely prevent the legislation from getting the three-fifths majority needed to pass. And no votes by 32 Democrats would surely mean the proposal would fall short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed later to override an expected veto from Gov. Tate Reeves, who is opposed to accepting more than a $1 billion a year in federal funds to provide health care for an estimated 200,000 Mississippians.

At issue for the House Democrats is a work requirement that Senate Republicans insisted be placed in the bill and that House negotiators agreed to minutes before the Monday night deadline to reach an agreement between the two chambers.

Federal officials have made it clear in the past that they would not approve a work requirement as part of Medicaid expansion. But in the proposal that House and Senate leaders agreed to, Medicaid expansion would not go into effect until federal officials approve a work requirement.

Senate leaders have expressed optimism that the Biden administration would be so pleased with longtime Medicaid expansion holdout Mississippi making an effort that it would approve a work requirement, or that the conservative federal 5th Circuit Court would approve it if litigated.

“It is tough. For the 11 years I have served in the House, I have supported the state expanding Medicaid,” said Rep. John Faulkner, D-Holly Springs. “But the truth is this conference report really doesn’t do anything to help poor people who need it.”

The comments made by Faulkner were echoed by multiple House Democrats at the luncheon meeting, according to numerous sources inside the meeting.

After that meeting, Democratic leader Johnson relayed those sentiments and the Democrats’ plans to vote against the proposal to White.

So White called a Tuesday afternoon meeting with Johnson. After the Republican speaker and Democratic leader met behind closed doors, Johnson announced on the House floor that House Democrats would hold another caucus meeting. It did not last long.

After that meeting, several Democrats said their plans to vote against the bill had not changed, though some acknowledged privately that voting against the bill would be difficult. One member, when asked if the Democrats still planned to vote against the proposal in large numbers, replied, “It is fluid. I don’t know. We will see.”

Many of the Democrats praised White, a first-term speaker, for finally tackling Medicaid expansion. And they praised the original House bill that that allowed Medicaid expansion to go into effect in Mississippi like it had in 40 other states even if a work requirement was struck down by federal officials. They also praised Republican Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee for her work to pass “a clean” Medicaid expansion bill.

READ MORE: House agrees to work requirement, Senate concedes covering more people in Medicaid expansion deal

But they expressed disappointment with the final agreement worked out between House and Senate leaders with the non-negotiable work requirement. They said they had informed House leaders all along that they would oppose a compromise that included a work requirement.

“We know all eyes are on us right now because the Republican supermajority couldn’t reach an agreement among themselves,” said Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit. “Republican infighting on Medicaid expansion becoming our responsibility to referee feels unfair when they’re the ones who couldn’t get the support for their own bill. They’re waiting to see if we’ll bail them out.”

Several House Democrats said it would be difficult to go back home and explain to their constituents that they voted against Medicaid expansion.

But Rep. Rickey Thompson, D-Tupelo, said people should not view them as voting against Medicaid expansion simply because the bill would not expand Medicaid.

“It just puts something on paper, but it does not do anything,” said Thompson.

“It is not Medicaid expansion,” said Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, who said she campaigned on Medicaid expansion when she first ran and was first elected in 2019. She spoke as a surrogate for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley last year in support of Medicaid expansion.

Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, said it would be more difficult to explain to constituents that they could not get health care through Medicaid even after the Legislature approved it than to vote against it and explain the reason for that vote.

Numerous members said Rep. Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg, made the most salient point at the Democrats’ first caucus meeting on Tuesday.

Watson, the longest serving member of the House, told the story of a vote in the 1982 session on a bill that would have allowed local school districts to enact kindergarten and require mandatory school attendance. Watson said he voted for the bill, but later was pleased that it died.

If that bill had passed, there would not have been the landmark special session later that year when statewide kindergarten was created and school attendance was mandated statewide.

“Sometimes it takes more than one session to pass something important,” Watson said.

Everyone at the Capitol is closely tracking what the House Democrats decide — including Senate Republicans, who are reportedly struggling to get a three-fifths vote of their own to pass the bill in that chamber.

After word spread Tuesday of the House Democrats’ meeting and potential killing of the expansion bill, Senate Medicaid Chair Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, said he would not present the expansion proposal in his chamber until after the House acted.

The bill, which faces a Thursday evening deadline, could be sent back for additional negotiations where the work requirement could be removed. But the Senate has thus far not yielded on the work requirement — something that House Democrats, clearly, believe would result in the bill never going into effect.

READ MORE: Back-and-forth: House, Senate swap Medicaid expansion proposals, counter offers

The post Why many House Democrats say they’ll vote against a bill that is ‘Medicaid expansion in name only’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Following a contentious hearing Tuesday in the disappearance and death of a Jackson man, a Hinds County judge said he intends to keep an injunction in place until the state can complete an autopsy. 

Chancery Court Judge Dewayne Thomas heard arguments Tuesday morning in a lawsuit to determine who will decide what happens to the remains of Belhaven Heights resident Dau Mabil and whether an independent autopsy can happen. 

Mabil, 33, disappeared March 25, and three weeks later, his body was found over 50 miles away in the Pearl River in Lawrence County. 

The day that a preliminary autopsy determined that the body was that of Mabil, his brother, Bul, filed the lawsuit against Mabil’s wife, Karissa Bowley, and state investigators: the Capitol Police and the State Crime Lab. None of the defendants said they were notified of the April 18 hearing when Thomas entered the emergency temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. 

Bul Mabil and his attorneys have raised suspicions about what led to Dau Mabil’s death, and they argue that an independent autopsy is the only way to be certain there was no foul play – contrary to what the Lawrence County sheriff has said. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson has requested the Justice Department investigate.

On Tuesday, that led to pointed questions by Bul Mabil’s attorney Lisa Ross to Bowley, who testified for nearly two hours. 

Ross’ questions included implications about whether Bowley or some of her family members  had something to do with Mabil’s disappearance, including introduction of text message evidence showing that the couple had fought and spent a few days apart in the weeks leading up to him going missing. 

The questioning culminated when Paloma Wu, who is representing Bowley, asked if she killed Mabil or knew who did, and Bowley said no.

Ross also asked Bowley other reasons why her husband went missing, including past arguments they had, money, whether Mabil was suicidal and why she didn’t accompany him on March 25. 

Throughout testimony, Wu made multiple objections to Ross’ questioning, asking about how they were relevant, saying they were hearsay and they should be stricken from the record. Judge Thomas allowed most of the questions. 

“This has become a performance for free-wheeling defamation,” Wu said about the attorney’s questioning. “This is not a murder trial against Karissa.” 

To date, there has been no evidence of foul play and nobody has been criminally charged. 

Bowley said she would have agreed to an independent autopsy if Bul Mabil had just asked, and she would have preferred the family to have a conversation rather than having to go to court.  

Multiple times, Ross asked Bowley if she would agree to make the results of the state’s autopsy public and to allow an independent autopsy on Mabil’s body.

“I have no reason not to,” Bowley replied. 

In court filings, Bul Mabil argued he should be considered the next of kin who can make decisions about his brother’s body rather than his brother’s wife. Wu said the state law is clear that a surviving spouse takes precedence as next of kin over siblings and other descendants. 

After the hearing, Ross said her questions highlight how there is no Mississippi case law that defines who counts as a surviving spouse. In other states, she found that courts have ruled that an estranged or separated spouse does not count as next of kin. 

A motion by Capitol Police and the State Crime Lab filed late last week asks the judge to dismiss the temporary restraining order and lawsuit complaint. 

Thomas said he plans to issue an order Thursday to address pending motions and issues raised in the hearing, and he said he will release a separate order addressing Bowley’s request to be added as a plaintiff. 

The post Veiled accusations fly in hearing over disappearance and death of Jackson man appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Rev. Reginald Buckley joined hundreds of doctors, clergy, and Mississippians from over 35 communities at the Capitol in Jackson for a “Full Expansion Day” rally, urging legislators to expand Medicaid coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.

READ MORE: ‘A matter of life and death’: Hundreds rally at Capitol for full Medicaid expansion

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The post The Pulse: Mississippians rally for full Medicaid expansion appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Hearings for new members of the governing board of Mississippi’s public universities last week were in a small, out-of-the-way room on the fourth floor of the Capitol that does not have live-streaming capabilities. 

Senate committee meetings are usually broadcast on YouTube, a point of pride for the chamber where lawmakers occasionally mock the Mississippi House for not doing the same. 

But the failure to broadcast the hearings for Gov. Tate Reeves’ nominees to the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees means there is no way for students, faculty or staff who could not make it to Jackson to observe the proceedings to know what occurred, even as, according to multiple senators, the meeting was standing-room-only. 

This is noteworthy because the IHL Board meetings are pro forma; the 12 trustees almost always vote in lock-step and rarely discuss policy proposals during regular open meetings in Jackson. The Senate has advise-and-consent power on the governor’s nominees, so its confirmation hearings are one of the few times trustees, who serve nine-year terms, must take questions from representatives of the public. 

Though Reeves’ four nominees were asked by Sen. Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford, the chair of the Senate Colleges and Universities Committee, about why they wanted to serve on the IHL board, multiple senators told Mississippi Today they could not recall, or did not ask, the appointees any questions about higher education issues. The nominees were confirmed by the full Senate with no questions on Sunday afternoon. 

The committee hearing occurred on April 23 at 1 p.m. in room 407, a small room tucked away in a corner of the fourth floor observation balcony, behind a scanner, a security guard, an assistant’s desk and a sign that says “NO ADMITTANCE Senate Staff Only.” (John Sewell, IHL’s spokesperson, said he did not recall the sign being outside the door that day.)

“I really don’t think I thought about how it didn’t have live-streaming capabilities,” said Boyd, who is also a Senate conferee embroiled in the contentious Medicaid expansion negotiations. “There wasn’t anything sinister about it.” 

Boyd added that before the committee hearing, she and the chair of the House Colleges and Universities Committee had interviewed the four nominees. She said she was excited about the different experiences the new trustees would bring to the board. 

“Our committee really wants to work closely with the college board and the community college board,” Boyd said. “I wish there were cameras in there because it’s more of an intimate setting. I would like to have more meetings in there … just because the room is small and you’re around the table.”

New IHL board member Jerry Griffith, a retired IRS agent who previously served on the Gaming Commission, said he was even confused if the hearing was public or private when he was contacted by Mississippi Today. 

“Please forgive me, I’m not trying to be ugly or anything, but I’m so new to the board,” Griffith said. “I’m not sure if I can share anything.” 

Griffith said he would be happy to chat with Mississippi Today after he made some calls, but he did not respond to further inquiries. Charlie Stephenson, the president of the Mississippi State Bulldog Club Board of Directors, and Don Clark, an attorney at Butler Snow, did not respond to Mississippi Today’s requests for comment. 

The final new board member, Jimmy Heidelberg, an attorney from Pascagoula, said he did not know all the committee members, but that Boyd and several other senators asked him about his education and professional experience. 

“She just said we’ve all got your information and your background, is there anything else you want to add or ask me and I said, ‘well, it was pretty thorough,’” Heidelberg recalled, adding that he told the committee he was also concerned with Mississippi’s declining population of college-aged residents. 

“I said, ‘we need the best universities that we can have to keep kids home,’” he added. 

Heidelberg was not asked about any policies he would support to achieve that goal, and he said he wouldn’t speak on that because he is not yet familiar with the board’s inner workings. 

Mississippi Today asked if he supported the proposal from State Auditor Shad White to defund college degrees that don’t contribute to the state’s economy. 

“I don’t know specifically what you’re talking about, but I think everybody would share if you go to college and study and achieve a degree, hopefully you will come out to be a contributing citizen with a skill that you can support yourself and your family on,” he said. “That’s the point of education.” 

This session, a failed effort to rename Mississippi University for Women threw a spotlight on the ailing enrollment of the state’s regional colleges. Lawmakers introduced several controversial proposals to reduce the number of public universities in the state, prompting outcry, particularly from supporters of Mississippi’s historically Black public universities — Jackson State University, Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University. 

Now, just one graduate of those three universities will sit on the IHL board after the Senate confirmed Reeves’ nominees. Griffith’s background report shows he graduated from Delta State University and had attended Jackson State, Boyd said. 

But senators barely, if at all, asked the nominees questions about higher education, multiple sources told Mississippi Today. 

“I really didn’t have that many questions, and I don’t remember that many questions being asked of really any of them,” said Sen. Scott DeLano, R-Biloxi. 

That’s not the purpose of these hearings, DeLano added. He noted Room 407 was so packed, extra chairs had to be brought in. The presidents of Mississippi State University and Delta State University were in attendance.  

“Generally speaking, we don’t get into that kind of stuff,” DeLano said. “It’s very rare, unless it was a reappointment, but other than that, you don’t want to catch somebody off guard or flat-footed on an issue they do not have … background information to understand why we’re asking.” 

The hearings are more about affirming the nominees’ backgrounds, multiple senators said, after an investigation by the legislative watchdog. Boyd asked the nominees why they wanted to be on the IHL board. 

“We got a really good sense of who they are and what they’re going to bring to the college board, and I’m appreciative of people of that caliber, who could go sit and retire, giving back because the college board takes a ton of time,” Boyd said. 

The last time the Senate used its power to reject an IHL appointee was in 1996 when it repeatedly turned down four of Gov. Kirk Fordice’s nominees: Hassell Franklin of Houston, Ralph Simmons of Laurel, John McCarty of Jackson and Tom McNeese of Columbia. The four nominees were later confirmed in a special session.

“We want to have some general idea of where someone stands,” DeLano said, “but for the most part those boards are supposed to be independent, and they’re supposed to be subject-matter experts.” 

Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he couldn’t recall much of the meeting because it is the busiest time of year for him. Like other senators who spoke with Mississippi Today, he complimented the accomplishments of two of Reeves’ nominees: Clark, the attorney for Butler Snow, and Heidelberg, the Pascagoula attorney, who both graduated from University of Southern Mississippi before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law. 

“I don’t remember exactly, and I don’t know what questions were asked,” Hopson said. “I know I complemented two of the nominees that I’ve known … My experiences with them have always been positive.”

DeLano said that he had worked with Heidelberg on insurance policies affecting the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Boyd recalled that Clark and Griffith discussed the enrollment cliff that will uniquely affect the regional colleges. 

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re progressively and actively managing that and that we’re helping our regional universities make sure that they have strong enrollment numbers and growing enrollment numbers,” Boyd said. 

Ultimately, the meetings are more about jumpstarting a working relationship than they are fact-finding missions, DeLano said. After the committee wrapped, he said he spoke with Clark about public-private partnerships, because it is relevant to a bill this session that would authorize IHL to enter into a long-term lease agreement on behalf of the University of Mississippi. The bill died in conference yesterday.

“It just gives me a good opportunity to shake hands with whoever those people are and look them in the eye and tell them I look forward to working with them in my role,” DeLano said. “I’ve seen some committee meetings where they might get partisan on this issue. I don’t care about partisanship as much as I care about their willingness to dive deep into the issues and try to understand the totality of the duties that they have.” 

Sen. Sollie Norwood, D-Jackson, concurred. He said he did not ask the new trustees any questions but that he hopes to meet with them later this summer to discuss issues pertaining to the HBCUs, mainly the end of the Ayers settlement, which was meant to redress the IHL’s historically underfunding of those institutions, and IHL’s presidential selection process. 

“I want to let them get a chance to get in and get familiar with it and then we can have those conversations,” he said. 

Multiple committee members did not return inquiries from Mississippi Today or declined to comment, including: Sen. John Polk, Sen. Daniel Sparks, Sen. Josh Harkins,Sen. Alfred Butler and Sen. Tyler McCaughn. 

“I am away from the Capitol and I suggest you call the committee chairwoman Senator Nicole Boyd,” Sen. Walter Michel wrote in a text. 

“I wouldn’t be the one to talk to,” wrote Sen. Joel Carter, also over text. “I was late due to negotiations on a conference report. I know there weren’t very many questions.”

Update 4/30/24: This story was updated to include a comment from IHL spokesman John Sewell.

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With minutes to spare before a Monday-night deadline, House negotiators conceded a Senate demand that Medicaid expansion would include a strict work requirement for those covered — a requirement not likely to be approved by the federal government.

The Senate had already backed off its initial proposal that would only cover the poorest of the poor, would still leave tens of thousands of poor working Mississippians uninsured and would have turned down billions in federal money to cover the costs. 

House and Senate negotiators agreed to a deal that would expand Medicaid to about 200,000 people who make up to 138% of the federal poverty level, roughly $20,000 for an individual. It would require recipients to prove they work for at least 25 hours a week.  

The plan will be a “hybrid,” as first proposed by the House. People up to 99% of the federal poverty level would be covered by traditional Medicaid. Those making 100% to 138% of FPL would be covered with subsidized private insurance plans from the federal exchange.

Neither House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, a Republican from Hattiesburg, nor Senate Medicaid Chair Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, answered questions from reporters at the Capitol about the agreement on Monday night. 

“A compromise requires concessions between the chambers,” Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in an earlier statement. “The Senate requires a real work requirement, but our plan now covers individuals up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.” 

The Affordable Care Act, the federal legislation that allows states to expand Medicaid coverage, does not authorize work requirements. However, states can seek a federal waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to implement them. 

CMS under the Trump administration did sign off on some states using work requirements, but under the Biden administration, the federal agency has not approved requests and rescinded the ones that had been approved. 

The House’s original plan directed state officials to seek a waiver for work requirements, but would have expanded Medicaid even if the federal agency denied it. House leaders previously pointed out that people with income above the federal poverty level are likely working.

The Senate, however, drew a hard line that it would only agree to an expansion plan that contained work requirements — a stance that could at the least delay expanded coverage, perhaps for years, or prevent it from ever happening.

READ MORE: House, Senate leaders swap Medicaid expansion proposals as Monday night deadline nears

If CMS denies Mississippi’s waiver for a work requirement, the compromise proposal directs the state Division of Medicaid to apply for a work requirement waiver each year the first denial. 

It also directs state officials to immediately apply for a waiver if CMS starts approving work requirements in other states.   

Senate leaders have expressed optimism that the Biden administration will be so pleased with longtime Medicaid expansion holdout Mississippi making an effort that it would approve a work requirement, or that the conservative federal 5th Circuit Court would approve it if litigated.

Work requirements in states that previously had them proved to be costly and ineffective, with a large amount of costs going into administration of the work requirements instead of medical services.

The agreed proposal will likely bring an end to several days of House and Senate negotiators trading proposals back and forth with one another behind closed doors. 

Right up to the 8 p.m. Monday deadline, it was unclear if legislative leaders would reach a compromise. They signed the agreement with only minutes to spare.

Reporters, lobbyists and advocates gathered at the Capitol waiting to see if lawmakers could broker a deal to establish what many believe could be the most transformative state policy since Gov. William Winter’s Education Reform Act of 1982.

But despite earlier vows by House and Senate leaders to negotiate Medicaid expansion in public, the final details were worked out behind closed doors and negotiators declined comment Monday night.

Now that the negotiators have signed off on an agreement, the Capitol’s two chambers have until Wednesday to either approve the proposal, reject it or send it back to negotiators for further work. The 2024 legislative session is expected to end within days, although lawmakers have already had to push back deadlines for agreeing to a state budget.

The Medicaid expansion proposal places a 3% tax on managed care organizations to cover the state’s costs, and the Legislature’s rules require a three-fifths majority of the lawmakers in both chambers to approve bills that enact taxes. 

But the actual threshold the two chambers likely need to achieve is a two-thirds majority, needed to override a potential veto from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, a longtime opponent of expansion. 

Passage of the compromise, particularly by a wide margin, may be difficult in both chambers. House Democrats, who support Medicaid expansion, have threatened to oppose any bill with a work requirement. Any expansion measure is a tough sell in the Senate, and its earlier more austere plan barely garnered a two-thirds vote.

Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, on Monday night said he was glad the two chambers came to an agreement and he looks forward to seeing more details.

“I am grateful we are finally at a point where we are working to provide access to health care to Mississippians who desperately need it and have been waiting for it for a long time,” Simmons said.

The post House agrees to work requirement, Senate concedes covering more people in Medicaid expansion deal appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House and Senate Republicans continued to haggle over Medicaid expansion proposals Sunday, and the state budget process hit a snag after leaders couldn’t reach final agreements by a Saturday night deadline on how to spend $7 billion.

House Speaker Jason White on Sunday told his chamber that Medicaid expansion negotiators from the House and Senate had been meeting and he expected a compromise “will be filed by Monday or Tuesday at the latest.”

House Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee said the Senate had delivered another counter proposal on expansion Sunday evening but declined to provide details. Her Senate counterpart, Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, declined comment on Sunday. The two leaders met in McGee’s office on Sunday evening following a Saturday afternoon meeting.

READ MORE: House, Senate close in on Medicaid expansion agreement

Lawmakers have for the past couple of months been debating on how to expand Medicaid coverage for poor Mississippians and help the state’s flagging hospitals. The House initially voted to expand coverage to an estimated 200,000 people, and accept more that $1 billion a year in federal dollars to cover the cost, as most other states have done. The Senate initially passed a far more austere plan, that would cover about 40,000 people, and would decline the extra federal money to cover costs.

Since those plans passed, each has offered counter proposals, but no deal has been reached.

A group of about 50 clergy, physicians and other citizens who support full expansion showed up at the Capitol on Sunday to sit in the Senate gallery and deliver letters to key leaders who are negotiating a final plan.

“When we stand before the Lord, he’s not going to ask how much money did you save the state. He’s going to ask you what you did for the least of these,” Monsignor Elvin Sounds, a retired Catholic priest, said outside the Senate gallery on Sunday.

READ MORE: A solution to the Republican impasse on Medicaid expansion

Lawmakers hit an impasse on setting a $7 billion state budget and missed Saturday night’s deadline for filing appropriations bills. This will force the legislature into extra innings, and require lawmakers to vote to push back deadlines. Lawmakers had expected to end this year’s session and leave Jackson by early this week. But House Speaker Jason White told his chamber on Sunday they should expect to continue working through Friday, “and possibly through Saturday or Sunday.

White later said of the budget impasse, “When you get to haggling over spending $7 billion, folks are going to have disagreements.”

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said “things are fluid. But everybody is working.”

He looked at his watch and said “It is 5 o’clock. By 6 o’clock what I tell you will have changed.”

White said one reason for the session having to run extra innings is that when he became speaker he vowed to House members that he would not continue the practice of passing much of the state budget last-minute, late at night or in the wee hours of the morning with little or no time for lawmakers to read or vet what they are passing.

He said the House was prepared early Saturday night to file budget bills with agreed-upon numbers, but not to file “dummy bills” with zeros or blanks and continue haggling a budget late into the night.

“I made a promise that we are not going to keep them up here until midnight, then plow through all these budget bills,” White said. “We had had a gentleman’s agreement (between the House and Senate) earlier in the session to negotiate a budget by April 15. That didn’t happen … We are not going to do everything last minute with no time for our members to read things and ask questions. We are not going to do it in the middle of the night.”

READ MORE: Senate negotiators a no-show for second meeting with House on Medicaid expansion

The post Lawmakers negotiate Medicaid expansion behind closed doors, hit impasse on state budget appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Legislation that strips significant power from the board that governs the state’s public employee pension program has passed both chambers of the Legislature.

Under the legislation set to go to Gov. Tate Reeves during the final days of the 2024 session, the Public Employees Retirement System Board would no longer have the authority to increase the contribution rate levied on governments (both on the state and local level) to help pay for the massive retirement system.

The legislation, which passed both chambers in recent days, was a reaction to the decision by the board to increase by 5% over a three-year period the amount local governments contribute to each employee’s paycheck for their retirement. Under the PERS Board plan, the employer contribution rate would have been increased to 22.4% over three years, starting with a 2% increase on July 1.

The board said the increase was needed to ensure the long-term financial stability of the system that pays retirement benefits for most public employees on the state and local levels, including staff of local school districts and universities and community colleges.

City and county government officials in particular argued that the 5% increase would force them to cut government services and lay off employees.

Under the bill passed by the Legislature there still would be a 2.5% increase over five years — a .5% increase in the employer contribution rate each year for five years.

In addition, legislative leaders said they plan to put another $100 million or more in state tax dollars into the retirement system in the coming days during the appropriations process.

Under current law, the PERS Board can act unilaterally to increase the amount of money governmental entities must contribute to the system. But under the new bill that passed both chambers, the board can only make a recommendation to the Legislature on increasing the employer contribution rate.

The PERS Board also would be required to include an analysis by its actuary and independent actuaries on the reason the increase was needed and the impact the increase would have on governmental entities.

In the 52-member Senate, 14 Democrats voted against the bill. Only one House member voted against the proposal.

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said the bill failed to address the financial issues facing the system. He said a permanent funding stream is needed.

Blount said, “You are moving in the wrong direction and weakening the system” with the bill the Legislature approved. “Is it painful? Is it going to cost more money? Yes, but we need to do it” to fix the system.

The system has assets of about $32 billion, but debt of about $25 billion. But Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, and others argued that the debt was “a snapshot” that could be reduced by strong performance from the stock market. The system depends on its investments and contributions from employers and employees as sources of revenue.

The system has about 360,000 members including current public employees and former employees and retirees.

The legislation states that no changes would be made for current members of the system. The legislation does reference looking at possibly changing the system for new employees. But that would be debated in future legislative sessions.

The bill does not include an earlier House proposal to dissolve the PERS Board, which consists primarily of people elected by the members of the system, and replace them with political appointees.

The post Legislation to strip key power of PERS Board passes both chambers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Kathleen O’Beirne knocked loudly on Sen. Kevin Blackwell’s office door in the basement of the Mississippi State Capitol on Saturday morning.

O’Beirne, a Ridgeland resident and mother of two boys, has been closely tracking the back-and-forth debate on Medicaid expansion, which Blackwell, as chairman of the Senate Medicaid Committee, is leading for the Senate. She and a group of other concerned citizens simply wanted a word with the Republican leader.

But there was no answer at the door, and there would be no conversation. So O’Beirne and the others took blank sheets of copy paper and began writing letters. When they finished writing, they taped the letters to Blackwell’s door.

“I’m here because of the human cost of not expanding health care coverage to poor Mississippians,” O’Beirne said outside Blackwell’s office. “But I’m also here because I’m a taxpayer. And I see that our senators are about to pass up literally billions in federal tax dollars that you and I and most other Mississippians already pay. We have the chance to bring all of that money back to the state of Mississippi, but we’re about to walk away from it for no good reason.”

As O’Beirne and other Mississippians have closely followed, Blackwell has been as dug-in as any lawmaker during the Medicaid expansion fight. This week, after agreeing to hold public conference committee meetings to debate Medicaid expansion, he refused to meet a second time with his House counterparts. He has seldom engaged with House Republican leaders in private, either.

He did, however, choose to speak to a gaggle of reporters on Friday after the Senate sent a compromise plan to the House for consideration. In the interview, he drew hard lines against any additional compromise with the House, specifically around a work requirement, and even doubted whether his own plan had the necessary support from his Republican Senate colleagues.

READ MORE: Blackwell says Senate won’t budge on Medicaid work requirement

Blackwell and some Republican senators have long maintained that any expansion deal must include a requirement that Medicaid recipients work, which is a conservative policy desire that the federal government has struck down in 13 previous expansion states. Including a stringent work requirement, health care advocates and legal scholars believe, would effectively kill any expansion plan.

But in the plan the Senate put forward on Friday, they would still mandate the requirement. It would also force the state’s attorney general to sue the feds over any rejection and hope that a conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals allows the work requirement to go into effect. Unless a work requirement was granted by either the federal Medicaid agency or the federal courts, expansion could not go into effect under the Senate plan.

READ MORE: The unlikely Mississippi politician who could tank Medicaid expansion

However, an earlier House proposal also included a work requirement but would allow expansion to go into effect if the state could not convince the federal government to allow it. House leaders have not yet publicly responded to the Senate plan they received on Friday, but the work requirement piece has been the main topic of deliberations on that side of the building. 

The House and Senate Republican remained at an apparent impasse as of midday Saturday and adjourned for the day without giving any public updates on expansion negotiations. Both chambers were working into the evening Saturday and will work again Sunday to hammer out final agreements on a $7 billion state budget.

None of that sat right with O’Beirne, inspiring her to come back to the Capitol on Saturday and make the unannounced visit to Blackwell’s office. When asked what message she was trying to deliver to Blackwell, she said: “Well, a compromise.”

O’Beirne then summed up what she wrote in her note to Blackwell:

“I’m a recovering lawyer, so I’m used to resolving litigation. I think there’s a very obvious compromise that the Senate and the House could come to if they were willing to do the work. 

My suggestion is to keep the Senate’s work requirement. Keep the provision that says if CMS kicks back the work requirement, then the AG has to sue the feds. But also, keep the House provision that will allow Medicaid expansion to go into full effect, even if CMS kicks back the work requirement.

So you go on and you start pulling down those billions of federal dollars that help the state and people get health care coverage. Then in the meantime, let the lawyers and government officials sort out the work requirement business. To me, that’s a win-win-win. 

Now, I’m sure Lt. Gov. Hosemann, Sen. Blackwell and other leaders are mulling that over. Maybe they’ve already had that thought. To me, it’s such an obvious compromise that takes full advantage of our tax dollars. It’s not wasting our tax dollars. It’s helping communities. It’s helping hospitals. It’s helping doctors. It’s helping needy patients. It is just an all around win that I sure hope they can get to.”

Kathleen O’Beirne

Such a compromise would require some careful drafting of the legislation, experts say, and whether it checks enough boxes for Blackwell and the hard-line senators is anyone’s guess. But O’Beirne, a self-described “pragmatist,” felt led to share it with Blackwell on Saturday.

“I really do think there’s a path here,” O’Beirne said. “It seems like a very simple solution right under our noses that Senate leaders are about to pass up. How frustrating would it be to come all this way to get nothing?”

READ MORE: These Republicans wanted a Medicaid work requirement but couldn’t get approval. So they got creative.

The post A solution to the Republican impasse on Medicaid expansion appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A new school funding formula has been approved by the Legislature that, like the long-standing Mississippi Adequate Education Program, will rely on an objective mechanism to determine how much state funding is needed to operate schools.

The push to replace MAEP has been one of most contentious issues facing legislators in the final days of the 2024 session. There have been efforts for years to replace the formula by those who say the state could not afford it.

On Saturday the 52-member Senate with three dissenting votes passed on to the governor a compromise proposal to replace MAEP. The House had unanimously passed it late Friday.

“The whole point of us doing this is to make certain our school districts are treated as fairly and as best we could,” said House Education Chair Rob Roberson, R-Starkville. He said the new formula will provide additional money for poor districts and for low-income and special-needs students.

Roberson’s original bill did not include an objective funding formula, which had been the hallmark of MAEP. Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, who was reluctant to rewrite MAEP, finally acquiesced, but was insistent that any rewrite include an objective formula that took out of the hands of politicians – namely legislators – the amount of money needed for the operation of local school districts.

On Saturday, DeBar told senators that if the Senate had not insisted on an objective funding formula, the Legislature could have “willy nilly” decided the level of education funding.

“This formula will allow for predictability over time. Whereas the House bill did not,” DeBar said. “It (the House plan) was a one-year thing where the Legislature could come in and decide to increase or decrease funding for education. This will hold our feet to the fire in the Legislature and ensure our schools are funded.”

House Education Vice Chairman Kent McCarty, R-Hattiesburg, told House members that the objective funding formula made the original House proposal stronger.

“I think this is a good addition to the bill,” he said. Like MAEP, the formula will be recalculated every four years and in the intervening years there will be an inflation factor added to the funding.

Under the new formula, schools will receive per student the average teacher salary divided by 14, which represents the average student-teacher statewide ratio. In addition schools will get another 20% of that amount for administrative costs, 30% for ancillary costs and money for operations and maintenance based on the three-year, per-square-foot average of the school district’s operations and maintenance costs.

On top of that, the school districts will receive additional funds for students in certain categories, such as for special-education students, those living in poverty, or living in areas of high poverty and for students who do not speak English as their primary language. The additional money provided to categories of students was a key component of the original House bill.

Like MAEP, local school districts will be required to pay a portion of the cost. But wealthier districts will be required to pay more than districts with a smaller local property tax base. No district will be mandated to pay more than 27% of the cost.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, one of the architects of MAEP in 1997, was one of the three no votes.

While Bryan said there appeared to be good features to the new funding plan, more time was needed to study it.

“It is simply not possible to enact a funding formula for public education in this legislative session where we know what we are doing,” he said. “We don’t have enough time for people to look at the new proposal, consider alternatives.”

Bryan pointed out that if MAEP was unpredictable for school districts it was because of the Legislature’s refusal to fully fund it. He said it is possible – even likely – that the same will occur with the new formula.

MAEP had language saying the formula “shall” be fully funded, But the full funding mandate was ignored every year since the program was fully enacted in 2003 except for twice.

Under the first year of the new formula, which goes into effect with the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1, K-12 education is supposed to receive an additional $230 million.

The additional funding will bring the education budget to $2.94 billion – about $50 million less than MAEP would have provided if fully funded.

DeBar said that based on inflation it will take about $50 million more in funds to fully fund the new formula next year.

The new formula will be called simply the Mississippi Student Funding Formula.

Sen. Angela Hill, R-Picayune, voted against the proposal because she feared that like MAEP the new formula would make a commitment over time the state could not afford. Plus, she said she was concerned about the money going to educate students who spoke English as a second language. Hill said she wanted more details on that feature of the bill.

The post Lawmakers send MAEP education funding formula rewrite to governor appeared first on Mississippi Today.