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Filing taxes is an exercise almost all Americans go through in the first part of each year, but those tax filings can differ based on a number of factors, including our income levels, where we live and our employment status.

Some tax tips are universal to all filers, while other advice may be specific to those who operate small businesses or work for themselves. Self-employed filers have certain distinct tax considerations, and general advice may not always apply to those who work for themselves or employ others. Changes to the tax code, especially with a shift in presidential administrations, could also have an effect on tax obligations, and may have a different impact on self-employed filers.

If you’re a small business owner or otherwise self-employed, here are some things you should keep in mind to help you get through this tax season.

Gather your documents

Have a detailed log on hand of the money coming in and out of your business. Even if you have an electronic system in place, items like sales slips, bills, invoices, receipts and canceled checks are generally key supporting documents for calculating and validating your tax filings. Organize these records and keep them in a safe place. If your business employs others, keep track of your payroll records, including documents showing wages, benefits and withholding.

If you’re a business owner…tailor taxes to your business structure

Your tax filing obligations depend on the type of business you’re running. If you’re self- employed, you might be considered a sole proprietorship, meaning you own and operate your unincorporated business as an individual or married couple. Sole proprietors generally report business income and losses on their personal U.S. federal income tax return (using Schedule C), but you could have other taxes and filing requirements, such as those related to self-employment earnings.

Other business structures include Limited Liability Companies (LLC), Limited partnerships (LP), C Corporations and S Corporations. Get familiar with the specific tax requirements for your business structure.

Don’t forget state taxes

If you reside in a state that imposes income tax, calculate your state tax liability using the process applicable to that state. Tax rules may vary by state and some states have their own tax credits and deductions for businesses.

Meet your deadlines

The deadline for filing federal individual income tax returns in 2025 is Tuesday, April 15. If you need more time, you can generally file for an extension, pushing the deadline to Oct. 15. This extension applies only to the filing of the return – you still must pay any taxes owed by April 15. State income tax deadlines can vary – many are the same as the federal deadline but check with your state’s tax agency for your specific due date

Ask the experts

Speaking with a tax professional who can help you determine good strategies for your business can help you remain compliant and successful. Consult a tax professional before making decisions about how to structure and strategize for your business.

Keep up with tax changes

As we’ve entered a new presidential administration in 2025, any tax code changes enacted this year would likely go into effect next tax season at the earliest. Of note: Many of the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in 2017, are currently set to expire at the end of 2025. That expiration or any potential new changes may impact your 2026 taxes when you file in 2027.

The bottom line

Staying on top of your taxes can be among the most time-consuming tasks for a business owner. Consider working with an accountant or tax professional who can guide you through the specific requirements for your business and help you respond to any changes in tax laws, rules or regulations.

Now might be the perfect time to grab those IRS forms, organize your invoices and receipts, and consult with an expert so you can tackle tax day like a pro.

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The post Here’s How You Can Get Ready for Tax Season this Year appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and other Senate leaders on Saturday excoriated the Republican House leadership, after the House didn’t show up for what was supposed to be “conference weekend” to haggle out a $7 billion budget.

“There is no reasonable explanation for this,” Hosemann said. “… A special session will be very expensive. We just cut taxes, but now we’re going to go spend tens of thousands of dollars so (the House) can have the weekend off. I hope they enjoy their weekend off. If anyone sees any of their House members this weekend, they need to ask them, why didn’t you do your job? Where were you?

“It’s embarrassing,” Hosemann said. “We all took the same oath … We adopted the rules. We all agreed to be here … If we can’t set a budget, that means, for Child Protective Services, we have little girls tonight having to stay in hotel rooms. Teachers can’t sign their contracts for their jobs … Highway patrolmen are out there not knowing how much they’ll get paid … This is chaotic, and it’s senseless.”

The roughly 100 bills that make up the state’s annual budget died with Friday and Saturday night deadlines.

To revive the budget bills and end this year’s legislative session roughly on time, the House and Senate would have to agree to a parliamentary extension of deadlines and the session, or Gov. Tate Reeves would have to force them into special session sometime before the new budget year starts July 1. Numerous senators, on both sides of the aisle, on Saturday vowed they wouldn’t vote for extending the session.

“There really isn’t any other option (than the governor calling a special session),” Hosemann said. “You heard what the senators were saying.”

READ MORE: Lawmakers struggle to agree on budget, or even when to work, as session draws to a close

Besides costing taxpayers easily $100,000 a day to pay, feed and house lawmakers, staff the Capitol and legislative services offices and other expenses, a special session also gives the constitutionally weak governor a little more control over legislation, in that he can control what items are on the agenda.

Lawmakers had expected to end this year’s three-month session by the middle of next week, with setting a budget being one of the final chores.

Although they’re all Republicans, House and Senate leaders — including Hosemann and Speaker Jason White — have politically clashed for the last two years and had trouble agreeing on major issues. Recently, they passed a tax overhaul bill to the governor that would eliminate the state income tax, long a goal of White and House leaders.

But Senate leaders have cried foul over the manner in which it was passed into law. The House seized on typos in the Senate bill that made it more like the House position, and Gov. Reeves signed it into law.

READ MORE: The Typo Tax Swap Act of 2025 may be the most Mississippi thing ever

With the tax battle going on for most of this session and causing ill will, the House and Senate have killed much of each other’s other major initiatives and bills.

The House on Friday had announced it was leaving for the weekend and would return Monday.

For the last two years, White has said he wants lawmakers to start negotiating on the budget earlier in the legislative session and try to avoid crunching numbers on the Saturday night deadline, referred to as “conference weekend,” which happens late in the session. 

For years, rank-and-file lawmakers have complained that they often don’t have time to read the lengthy budget bills because of the rushed nature of Saturday night budget negotiations, which has also caused lawmakers and staff attorneys in previous years to make mistakes in legislation.

Last session, lawmakers ironed out most of the budget during conference weekend, but White said he told Hosemann that would not be the case this year. 

“We’re just not going to be up here in the middle of the night doing a hurried budget,” White said. “We’re through doing that from here and all years forward.” 

White told reporters that House leaders had signed off on their proposed budget bills and sent them to the Senate before a Friday night deadline. But Hosemann and other Senate leaders on Saturday said that never happened. They said not only did House leaders not send budget bills over, they ghosted Senate budget negotiators most of last week, preventing early agreements being reached. And, Senate leaders said, the House closed its daily journal and docket rooms early at least a couple of days, meaning the Senate couldn’t deliver and file bills.

Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, on Saturday said he suspects discord over the tax overhaul, and the Senate refusing to agree with the House on legalizing online gambling played into the current budget stalemate. But he said he gets along with his House counterparts and the problems are more at the leadership level.

“As much as I respect the speaker, I don’t understand this,” Wiggins said. “… Really, what this is doing is holding hostage agencies and the running of state government because of some issues they have … People send us here to get our business done in the 90 days we have. I just want to keep us from becoming like Washington, D.C., because D.C. is not exactly the bastion of efficiency.”

Such a standoff, and potential special session, has loomed over much of the 2025 session, when it appeared the House and Senate would remain at loggerheads over the tax overhaul, until the Senate accidentally agreed with the House with the typos in what it passed.

The post Fear and loathing: Legislative session crashes with lawmakers unable to set a budget because of Republican infighting appeared first on Mississippi Today.

This story was reported in partnership with The Commercial Dispatch. 

Mississippi University for Women’s administration went back to the drawing board last year after attempts to rebrand to a genderless name were met with resistance from alumni and inaction in the Legislature. 

“Please note that we will always be The W,” the president, Nora Miller, wrote in a statement late last February. “It is our past, our present, and our future.”

But by mid-March 2024, MUW was uncertain it had a future at all. 

In a surprising move, a senator from south Mississippi had proposed merging the state’s only liberal arts institution into Mississippi State University, a behemoth land grant in Starkville about 30 miles from MUW. The effort had replaced a bill to transfer the location of the Mississippi School for Math and Science, the state’s only residential school for gifted children, from MUW to MSU. 

Amid this messy moment, MSU internally came up with its own name for MUW. 

“In fact, the campus could be known as the W – representing Workforce,” the provost, David Shaw, wrote in a white paper named “Vision for Columbus” that he circulated to his administrative colleagues on March 11. 

The “vision for Columbus” went further: In the white paper, Shaw conceived of turning MUW into a campus for nursing, speech pathology and culinary arts, plus other technical and workforce programs such as a college focused on professional and continuing studies. Freshman and sophomore courses would stay in Starkville, but some programs could be transferred to Columbus. 

Two days later, the merger bill died in the Senate. Its author, Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, and other key lawmakers including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told Mississippi Today and The Commercial Dispatch that they never saw the white paper. 

“I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but I don’t remember anything like that because we talked about a lot of stuff last year regarding The W and MSMS,” DeBar said, referring to the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. 

Rep. Rob Roberson, a Republican from Starkville who chairs the House Education Committee, was also surprised. 

“That’s a new one to me,” he said. 

Sen. Chuck Younger, a Republican who represents Lowndes County, said he doesn’t remember being presented with a new plan for the MUW campus. 

“If it was, I didn’t read it because I was just fighting against it,” he said. 

MSU has never made any public overtures for taking MUW, and its strategic plan does not include acquiring another campus. Last year, President Mark Keenum publicly said his university did not propose or initiate the takeover bill.

“We appreciate the institutional confidence in MSU that this proposal implies, but I emphatically reiterate that MSU did not seek and has not requested this action from legislative leaders,” he said in a statement. 

This session, the land grant university appears to have mainly focused on acquiring MSMS after the State Board of Education requested both it and MUW submit proposals to house the residential high school before later approving MSU’s plan. A bill to merge MUW and MSU has not been reintroduced this legislative session.

But questions about the white paper, which sketched out what MSU would need from the Legislature to acquire MUW, remain unanswered. An MSU spokesperson, Sid Salter, said the university had no comment, and Shaw did not return multiple calls and an email requesting comment. 

Miller said she was not surprised to learn of the proposal. She said MUW already contributes to the state’s workforce, especially its nursing program, where more than 80% of graduates continue to work in the state. 

But she added that the notion of turning the state’s only public liberal arts institution into a campus for workforce development disregards other facets of MUW’s identity, like its music program or the Welty Symposium. 

“We are an important provider of workforce in the community and in the state,” Miller said. “While I’m ready to embrace that, I think it just changes the fabric of this institution, of its founding and of what people really associate with us.” 

As a part of its plan for Columbus and MUW, Shaw wrote that MSU would “reimagine the campus to make it unique in Mississippi with a distinct identity,” drawing on work it has done to build up its Riley campus in Meridian. 

After spending a year listening to local, regional and state leaders, MSU would also bring new programs to MUW’s campus and build on existing partnerships with industry and other institutions, like the Columbus Air Force Base.

“MSU would explore expanded partnership with East Mississippi Community College, effectively creating an 82 corridor, also meeting the needs of the industry at the GTR (Golden Triangle Regional) airport and industrial park,” Shaw wrote. 

This was not proposed as an immediate cost-saving measure, however. In the white paper, Shaw noted that in order for it to take over MUW, MSU would need to retain the same level of state appropriations that MUW was already receiving — and receive new funding to transfer MSMS to Starkville. 

MSU would also need approval to demolish or transfer ownership of “buildings in disrepair” and “consideration of financial exigency to allow elimination of unnecessary or duplicative positions on the campus of the W.” 

Miller said the local community would be saddened to see some of MUW’s buildings go.

“It would break my heart to see some of these historic buildings demolished when I think of the lives that have gone through those buildings, that have lived there, that have meant so much,” she said. 

But some in MSU’s administration saw this as an opportunity. Responding to Shaw, Salter wrote in an email on March 12 that “the disposition of buildings is where MSU can win back city and county support and grow community buy-in.” 

Salter suggested talking with local leaders about the buildings, adding, “Who needs, wants what?” 

Crucially, the white paper also noted that MSU would need funds for the transfer of MSMS to Starkville “to be co-located with the Starkville Oktibbeha School District high school to be constructed on the MSU campus.” 

While The W’s enrollment dropped by 1.5% this year to 2,193 students, Miller said lawmakers will find her school excels in other data points. 

“If they want to judge us by the affordability for our students, the amount of debt that we’re helping with, with the employability of our graduates, if they want to look at the number of degrees – if they look at all of those, we do very well,” Miller told The Dispatch in November. “If they’re just looking at headcount, yes, we’re smaller than we used to be. Most regional institutions across the country are smaller than they used to be.” 

Though the merger bill did not return this session, the future of higher education remains on lawmakers’ minds. The chair of the Senate Colleges and Universities Committee, Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford, used her chamber’s anti-DEI bill to reintroduce a taskforce, which failed to pass last year, to study efficiency in the state’s higher education. 

Boyd has repeatedly stated the goal of her taskforce is not to close or merge universities, but she plans to hold committee hearings this fall to examine some of the issues she hoped the taskforce would probe. 

Indeed, “efficiency” was important for MSU’s vision for Columbus. Salter wrote on March 12 that administrative functions like public relations, campus police, and dining contracts could be combined, depending on how robust the new “workforce” campus would be. 

“Imperative to identify who among the current MUW personnel needs to survive the merger and be visible in the new regime,” he wrote. 

The post Internal Mississippi State memo proposed renaming The W for ‘workforce’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Reporters for Mississippi Today worked in partnership with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

The Mississippi State Auditor’s office on Friday said it had launched an investigation into allegations that Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey had staffed his mother’s commercial chicken farm with jail inmates who were in his custody.

The investigation follows an article published Thursday by Mississippi Today and The New York Times in which former inmates and a former deputy described working on the farm and using equipment and supplies bought with taxpayer money.

“We’re all aware of the reporting,” said Jacob Walters, communications director for State Auditor Shad White. “We read the article, and Auditor White has ordered an investigation to begin yesterday morning, when we became aware of the story.”

White’s office can investigate potential misuse of government resources and file lawsuits to recoup taxpayer money. It does not have the authority to file criminal charges, but Walters said the office had alerted federal prosecutors to the allegations.

Sheriff Bailey did not respond on Friday to requests for comment.

In a statement issued late Thursday to some local media outlets, officials at the sheriff’s department acknowledged that Sheriff Bailey had sent inmates from the Rankin County jail to work at his mother’s farm, but said the inmates were always paid.

The department did not share the statement with Mississippi Today or The Times. Several other news organizations published it, reporting that it had come from Jason Dare, the attorney for the sheriff’s department. The statement said that the article by The Times and Mississippi Today had “maliciously used unreliable sources and/or false allegations in an attempt to tarnish” Sheriff Bailey’s reputation.

Over six months, reporters from Mississippi Today interviewed more than 20 former inmates of the Rankin County jail and three former deputies. They also reviewed more than 1,000 pages of county records. The reporting showed that for years, inmates with special privileges, known as trusties, had been brought to the farm to perform a variety of jobs, including cleaning tons of chicken feces and used bedding from chicken houses.

Dare’s statement did not directly address many of the details described by former trusties and by Christian Dedmon, a former Rankin County deputy who is serving a federal prison sentence for his part in torturing two Black men in 2023.

For example, Dedmon said Sheriff Bailey and others had used a $97,000 skid steer, bought in 2019 with department funds, to mulch, till soil and spread gravel at the farm. The statement did not address whether that was true.

Instead, the statement noted that the sheriff “owns a skid steer that is all-but identical to and commonly confused for the one owned by Rankin County.” In interviews before the article’s publication, Dedmon said the sheriff had used the county’s skid steer on the farm for years before purchasing his own skid steer and attachments.

Dedmon also said that Sheriff Bailey had instructed him to take truckloads of gravel from a Rankin County government storage yard and deliver the gravel to Sheriff Bailey’s family farm to be spread on dirt roads. Dedmon and a former trusty said they would sneak into the yard at night, using magnets to cover the department seal on the vehicle they used.

Dare’s statement did not address those details. It said that Sheriff Bailey had covered roads on the farm with gravel and crushed concrete purchased or donated from local businesses.

“I’m sure he’s purchased gravel at some point in his life, but I also know we took a lot, too,” Dedmon wrote in an email to Mississippi Today on Friday.

Mississippi Today reported that the department had spent about $600 on a brooder house, chicken netting and heat lamps that are designed to keep chicks warm. Those purchases were for a chicken coop at the jail that is used by inmates to get fresh eggs, the statement said.

Dare did not respond to calls or emails from Mississippi Today reporters seeking clarification about the statement.

Over the past few months, the reporters repeatedly asked department officials about work done by trusties, and about department purchases related to chicken farming; Dare declined to explain the purchases and said that Rankin County government officials would not provide comment for the article.

In recent days, local news outlets have been inundated with hundreds of comments about Sheriff Bailey, though elected officials in Rankin County have largely avoided comment.

Some local residents remained supportive of the sheriff, despite a series of revelations over the past two years that have clouded his time in office. In 2024, five Rankin deputies, including Dedmon, were sentenced to decades in federal prison for their role in the torture of two Black men. An investigation by Mississippi Today and The Times revealed a decades long reign of terror by sheriff’s deputies who called themselves the Goon Squad.

Grant Callen, the founder and chief executive of Empower Mississippi, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group that works on criminal justice issues, said the allegations were “just the latest in a string of appalling and inexcusable behavior.”

“Individuals are innocent until proven guilty,” Callen said, “but leadership matters.”

Steph Quinn is a Roy Howard Fellow at Mississippi Today.

This story was published with the support of a grant from Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights, in conjunction with Arnold Ventures, a nonprofit research foundation that supports journalism.

The post State Auditor to Investigate Sheriff Who Used Inmate Labor on Family Farm appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed a bill Thursday that would help stabilize hospitals, citing alleged contradictions and the loom of a deficit among his concerns. 

“Depending on one’s perspective, there are either 25 million, 38.5 million, 40 million, or 50 million reasons to stand in the way of this bill becoming law,” Reeves said in his veto statement, ostensibly referencing the amount by which the Mississippi Division of Medicaid’s budget would increase.

The same day he vetoed the Medicaid bill, Reeves signed into law a tax bill containing typos that many lawmakers had inadvertently voted for. 

Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, author of the Medicaid tech bill, chose not to override the veto Friday – meaning the bill is likely dead. 

Blackwell declined to comment on the governor’s veto. 

A main thrust of the bill would be to lock in place supplemental payment programs that have been a lifeline for hospitals – but which are unreliable as they vary from year to year, according to Richard Roberson, CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association. 

“The language that was vetoed on the (supplemental payment) program was intended to basically allow hospitals budget stability and predictability so that they would not be worried about constant changes and fluctuations in how they get paid by Medicaid,” Roberson explained.

Each year, supplemental payment programs bring in around $1.5 billion federal dollars to Mississippi hospitals. 

Reeves said in his statement that locking the program in place is in contradiction with another of the bill’s mandates, which would change the program to allow out-of-state hospitals that border Mississippi to participate in the supplemental payment program. 

“Complying with both requirements is a legal impossibility and places the Division, like Odysseus, between Scylla and Charybdis.” 

But Roberson said the language of the bill would not prohibit the programs from growing – it would merely clarify what hospitals need to do to get paid. 

Reeves also said the bill “seeks to expand Medicaid.” The bill brings forth code sections related to eligibility requirements, but it doesn’t call for expanding the Medicaid population by increasing the income threshold, which is what is typically referred to as “Medicaid expansion.”

Reeves’ veto letter mentioned other proposed changes in the bill were beneficial to the state, while still others were problematic. His office did not respond to Mississippi Today by the time of publication on which changes he saw as beneficial and which were problematic. 

Another bill alive in the Legislature could be used as a vehicle to insert language from the tech bill. That bill, referred to as a “dummy bill” because it is currently void of details, has been referred to conference, where six lawmakers will hammer out the details. 

House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, one of the conferees, said she is looking to the Senate for direction on future plans for the vetoed bill. 

“As this is a Senate bill, they will have first action on the next steps,” McGee said. “We are staying in communication with Chairman Blackwell and Senate leadership as to what that might look like.”

The post Governor vetoes bill hospital head said would help stabilize their budgets appeared first on Mississippi Today.

President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith for reelection, backing the campaign of Mississippi’s junior senator more than one and a half years out from the 2026 midterm elections.

Hyde-Smith, a Republican, was one of several endorsements Trump announced on social media this week. In a note published Wednesday, the Republican president said Hyde-Smith is a longtime ally and praised her work on issues such as border security and agriculture.

“Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is 100% MAGA, and doing a fantastic job representing the Incredible People of Mississippi! An Original Member of my Mississippi Leadership Team, Cindy has been with us from the very beginning. In the Senate, Cindy is fighting hard to Secure our Border, Grow the Economy, Champion our Amazing Farmers and American Agriculture, Support our Brave Military/Veterans, Promote Energy DOMINANCE, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.

“Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election – SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Hyde-Smith, the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Washington, is seeking a second full term in the U.S. Senate.

The Brookhaven native previously served in the Mississippi Senate before being elected to the statewide post of commissioner of agriculture and commerce. In 2018, former Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to the U.S. Senate to replace Thad Cochran, who opted to retire. She has since been elected to the U.S. Senate twice.

In 2018 and 2020, Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy, an attorney and former U.S. secretary of agriculture in the Clinton administration. Ty Pinkins, an attorney who has run unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate and secretary of state, has announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination again in 2026.

Hyde-Smith has been a Trump ally since she arrived in Washington. Last week, a group of protestors gathered at Hyde-Smith’s Jackson office. They said she has failed to stand up to the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to federal programs that Mississippi relies on.

“She has oversight authority and obligations over the executive branch,” said Kathleen O’Beirne, a Ridgeland resident. “What’s happening on the Senator’s watch is uniquely un-American.”

After Trump was elected to a second term in 2024, some speculated that Hyde-Smith was in the running to become his agriculture secretary. She eventually issued a statement announcing her plans to remain in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans hold a six-seat majority.

The post Trump endorses ‘100% MAGA’ Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith for reelection appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi’s legislative leaders on Friday remained so far apart on crafting the state’s multi-billion dollar budget that at least some of the individual bills to fund state agencies will die on a legislative deadline. 

Lawmakers technically have until Saturday evening to reach an initial agreement on all spending and tax bills that make up the $7 billion state budget. But the House adjourned for the week on Friday morning and will return on Monday afternoon, while the Senate will convene on Saturday. 

Since the House will not be present on Saturday, House and Senate leaders would have to sign off on the 100-plus individual budget bills by Friday afternoon to meet the deadline, something Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson said earlier Friday would not happen. 

“I think that’s almost impossible,” said Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, earlier Friday. “For conference reports to be signed today, we would have had to start meeting at least by Monday, and I couldn’t get the House to meet with me until yesterday.” 

House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, told reporters that House leaders have signed off on their proposed budget bills and sent them to the Senate, though Hopson said he had not received those bills as of Friday morning. 

For the last two years, White has said he wants lawmakers to start negotiating on the budget earlier in the legislative session and try to avoid crunching numbers on the Saturday night deadline, referred to as “conference weekend,”  which happens late in the session. 

For years, rank-and-file lawmakers have complained that they often don’t have time to read the lengthy budget bills because of the rushed nature of Saturday night budget negotiations, which has also caused lawmakers and staff attorneys in previous years to make mistakes in legislation.

Last session, lawmakers ironed out most of the budget during conference weekend, but White said he told Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann that would not be the case this year. 

“We’re just not going to be up here in the middle of the night doing a hurried budget,” White said. “We’re through doing that from here and all years forward.” 

Hopson, though, said that in the nearly two decades he’s served in the Legislature, the two chambers have always tried to work on the budget on Saturday, the deadline.

Lawmakers can pass a resolution to revive budget bills that die on deadlines. This could force them to extend the legislative session, which was expected to end early next week.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves could also force them back into a special session if they leave the Capitol without passing a budget. 

The post Lawmakers struggle to agree on budget, or even when to work, as session draws to a close appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

I saw the leaky fire hydrant up ahead on my daily walk. I had seen it every morning for several weeks, but had refrained from calling the city to repair it. I knew what they would say. “If we repair it, the pressure in the pipes will go up, and they might burst.” I had heard this line before when I had called about an uncapped hydrant.

But this time was different. Now, the federal government had allocated $800 million to repair Jackson’s water system. Now, if a pipe burst, funds were available to replace the pipe that had failed. I made the call.

A few days later I saw the leaky hydrant had been replaced by a new one. I turned the corner past it and looked down the street. The far end was flooded, and surrounding the flooded area were three trucks and workers busy repairing the leak.

I had timed my call well.

Jackson is now only a few days away from an election to determine its leaders for the next four years. Only about half the candidates for mayor seem to recognize the water system is an issue that needs attention. The quality of water in Jackson has been improving steadily since the crisis of 2022 and the ensuing intervention by the federal government, but Jackson will likely reach a crucial crossroads two years from now, when the officials elected this year will be in office. Together with the state government, they will decide the way that the water supply of the city and disposal of sewage will be managed and funded for decades to come.

Jackson’s water system is complicated to run for several reasons. Unlike most other municipalities in Mississippi which rely on relatively clean well water, Jackson must rely mainly on surface water which requires more processing to remove contaminants. Jackson has three filtration plants: two for surface water and one for well water. One of the surface-water plants, O.B. Curtis, actually hosts two different filtration systems, more complex than any other plant in Mississippi. Personnel must be present for ensuring that the plant works smoothly, all day every day. Each plant also requires laboratory personnel who test the water frequently and ensure that it meets quality standards. Most of the personnel have received training or certification for their positions. All the plants are over 20 years old, adding to the expense of maintenance. In addition to the filtration plants, Jackson has a vast web of pipes that delivers water to city residents and which needs to be maintained leak-free.

I was given the opportunity by JXN Water, the water company that was created to repair Jackson’s water system, to attend a series of lectures on the system, and I was also given a tour of the O.B. Curtis water plant. I had a firsthand look at how the city’s water is processed, learned what will have been accomplished within the next two years, and what will remain to be done.

JXN Water has made considerable progress in repairing and enhancing the water system. The filtration plants have been insulated against cold, preventing deep freezes from disrupting service such as occurred in 2021 and in 2022. The filtration system at the J.H. Fewell plant has been rehabilitated, and rehabilitation at O.B. Curtis is ongoing. Over 5,200 leaks in the distribution system have been repaired, and numerous valves have been opened that were mistakenly left closed. Some pipes have been replaced with ones of larger diameter.

Several improvements have been made with an eye to the future. Pressure sensors to detect leaks have been placed throughout the distribution system. JXN Water has generated a digital map of the distribution system, including locations of valves and whether the valves are open or closed. The old meters have been replaced with electronic ones that continuously relay usage information to JXN Water. These changes will help locate future leaks, and the last improvement eliminates the need for reading meters.

Despite this progress, several challenges remain. Terminal pipes in the delivery system need to be replaced with ones of larger diameter to accommodate increased pressure. The sewage system is also in need of repair and rehabilitation. Federal funds cover neither of these, but JXN Water is using remittances by customers to make progress on these issues. Regrettably, these remittances are still lagging. JXN Water’s number one financial goal is increasing the number of consistent rate payers. Another challenge is attracting qualified staff to Jackson.

I chatted with some of the staff at JXN Water who had previously worked for the city of Jackson. I asked them what it was like to work for JXN Water, and was told that it was wonderful to be “treated right” for a change.

Jackson faced staffing shortages in 2022. The Environment Protection Agency mandates that a Class-A operator be present at both surface-water plants around the clock. Ideally, twelve Class-A operators should be on staff per plant in case of absences. In August, 2022 the O.B. Curtis plant had only two. The deputy director of water operations resigned, citing exhaustion from putting in extensive overtime to substitute for the operators that the plant lacked.

Nationally, people with the qualifications to run water filtration systems are in short supply. Mississippi is among the states that employ the most water-system operators. It is also among the states that pays them the least.

JXN Water is addressing the shortage of operators via an internship program that trains Jacksonians to run the filtration plants. It is uncertain, though, how many recruits will choose to remain in Jackson when they have skills that are in high demand elsewhere.

Jackson needs competent leadership to deal with its water system. Fortunately, the upcoming election has a wide array of candidates. In order to solve the issue of Jackson’s water supply, we need to select leaders who are informed about what the federal funds have accomplished and what these funds cannot do. Our leaders also need to be able to make the compromises necessary to construct an administrative framework for the water and sewage systems that will persuade the state and federal governments to fund any shortfalls. 

In the coming days, the citizens of Jackson should examine the backgrounds of the candidates to decide which have the attributes to solve this problem.

Ranjan Batra retired in 2020 from University of Mississippi Medical Center after teaching anatomy and doing research in neurobiology for 21 years. He lives in Belhaven with his wife and is overjoyed that last year JXN Water fixed the sewage leak of many years behind their house.

The post Are candidates talking enough about Jackson water issues as election nears? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Note: This story was conducted in partnership with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

State Auditor Shad White has initiated an investigation into allegations that Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey used jail inmates to work on his family’s chicken farm south of Puckett, a representative of the auditor’s office confirmed Friday.

The confirmation followed the publication of an investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times Thursday that revealed allegations by four former inmates and a former deputy that Bailey had for years supplemented the farm’s workforce with trusted jail inmates, called trusties, and used taxpayer-purchased equipment and resources to clear his family’s private land and otherwise improve the farm. 

“We’re all aware of the reporting,” said Jacob Walters, communications director for the state auditor. “We read the article, and Auditor White has ordered an investigation to begin yesterday morning, when we became aware of the story.” 

Walters also confirmed that the auditor’s office had alerted federal prosecutors of the allegations. 

FULL INVESTIGATION: ‘You’re His Property’: Embattled Mississippi sheriff used inmates and county resources for personal gain, former inmates and deputy say

Hours after the publication of the investigation Thursday, the attorney representing the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, Jason Dare, issued a statement to some local news outlets conceding that Bailey used trusties to work on his farm and explaining that chicken supplies the department had purchased using county funds were for chickens kept on jail grounds for inmates’ benefit. The statement stopped short of directly denying some other allegations in the investigation, including that Bailey and others used a $97,000 construction vehicle bought in 2019 with department funds to clear land on the farm. 

Neither the sheriff’s department nor the Rankin County Board of Supervisors, which oversees the department’s purchases using county funds, provided explanations of the purchases prior to publication, despite multiple interview requests over the past three months. Reporters sent detailed lists of purchases to the board and the sheriff’s department Monday seeking their response. 

Neither Bailey, nor Dare, nor county government officials responded to a request for comment for this story. 

Steph Quinn is a Roy Howard Fellow at Mississippi Today.

This story was published with the support of a grant from Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights, in conjunction with Arnold Ventures, a nonprofit research foundation that supports journalism.

The post State auditor to investigate Rankin County sheriff’s alleged use of inmates, county resources for personal benefit appeared first on Mississippi Today.

At the Anderson United Methodist Church earlier this month, 14 candidates vying for the mayor of Jackson sat hip-to-hip on the red carpeted stage. 

Just four had experience serving as an elected official in government, while the rest included longtime businessmen, a child care development professional, the founder of a local nonprofit, a Christian rapper and a talk-radio host.

It took more than 45 minutes just for everyone to introduce themselves.

This year’s mayoral contest — a wide-open race with 19 mayoral candidates — should be a sign of healthy democratic engagement, and in some ways, it is.

“From our point of view, it just states that right now, this time, the community is highly engaged, and people are excited and feel the charge to step up to help Jackson’s future,” said Henry Goss, the communications director at the nonprofit MS Votes. 

But for Jackson voters trying to make sense of a race with a dearth of campaign analysis and no reliable polling, democracy here is beginning to feel more like a puzzle than a privilege.

“It cuts both ways,” said Christopher Berry, a University of Chicago political scientist who studies municipal elections. “On the one hand, we know that democracy requires choice, and so when you see we have 12 candidates, you might say that’s great for democracy.” 

But it’s possible, he continued, for voters to have “too much choice.”  

READ MORE: Click here for more information about all of Jackson’s municipal candidates

The 2009, 2013 and 2017 mayoral elections each saw similarly stacked races of about 15 candidates. But with incumbent Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba under federal indictment and myriad issues at the front of voters’ minds, many Jacksonians are struggling to whittle down the crowded field to a few of the most serious candidates.

Independent candidates have been campaigning, adding to the number of bodies on any given stage, but most voters in the April 1 primary will be choosing between 12 Democrats to start — still a daunting number.

“When you give me 12 candidates and I don’t have time to become more informed about them, is that enhancing democracy or undermining democracy?” Berry said. “The answer is probably both.” 

Many just aren’t sure how to make their decision.

“It’s too many daggone people,” Valerie Brown, a voter, said outside the Smith Robertson Museum after the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign forum last week. “I don’t even know where these people come from.” 

Brown did everything an informed citizen should: The 51-year old mail carrier attended a two-hour candidate forum, listened to the six men on the stage, and asked a question.

She still left not knowing who she’s voting for. 

“Why are you just now coming,” Brown said she’d like to ask the candidates she’s never seen before. “Where have you been? What have you done prior to coming here? So if you just fell from the sky, what you gonna do different?” 

Brown, who ultimately decided to vote for Lumumba, had been considering someone new this election, like candidate Marcus Wallace, a former mayor of Edwards with whom she has her own experience: Years ago, he donated to a toy drive she helped organize. 

Connections matter to Jackson voters, said Nsombi Lambright-Haynes, the executive director of OneVoice, a nonprofit organization focused on civic engagement that sponsored the forum at Anderson UMC. Lambright-Haynes is also Lumumba’s campaign coordinator. 

“In my experience being a Jackson resident, people tend to choose the person that resonates with them the most, the person that they kind of feel touches them in the most personal way,” she said. 

At several forums, Lumumba has leaned on his relationships with the city’s activist community, commenting on how many faces in the room he recognizes.

Wallace has repeatedly drawn attention to his status as a graduate of Callaway High School, while personal injury attorney Delano Funches touts his alma maters Jim Hill High School and Jackson State University.

At last week’s forum at Forest Hill High School, Kim Wade, an independent candidate with a popular conservative talk-radio show, kept making the teenage audience laugh. 

“I noticed that too,” said Jeremiah Wilson, a Lanier High School senior who is voting in the April 1 primary. 

“But I told them, you can’t just go off this one conference,” he added. “You gotta do your research, see what these people really are.” 

Name recognition also matters. John Horhn, who’s running for mayor for the fourth time and secured the backing of a number of influential groups, including the public worker’s union, has served in the Mississippi Legislature since 1993. 

Voters may remember Socrates Garrett, a longtime city and state subcontractor and founder of the Mississippi Link newspaper. The same goes for David Archie, whose antics as a Hinds County supervisor kept his name in the headlines.  

“Of course, everybody knows David Archie,” Brown said. 

And, in a city that’s 85% Black, political party makes a difference. Though the Democratic primary is a competitive race, Jackson hasn’t gone for a Republican or independent candidate in half a century, since before the parties were what we know them as today.

“As long as voters know the party of the candidate, they can make a pretty good choice even without much further information about the individuals,” Berry said. 

That’s one advantage of the two-party system, he added. In political science, a voter is considered “informed” if they end up voting for the candidate they would have chosen had they consumed the entirety of the candidate’s backgrounds and positions, even if the voter is really only working from limited information.

“It might still turn out to be bad,” Berry said. “I might be voting for a guy who turns out to be a bad guy, but if that’s the vote I would’ve taken with all the research, then that’s the best vote I could’ve cast.” 

In rare cases, a voter’s choice could simply come down to who’s at the top of the ticket. When Jackson voters go to the polls, each ballot in the Democratic and Republican primaries will list the candidates in the same alphabetical order, the city clerk, Angela Harris, confirmed. 

In the Democratic primary, every ballot will start with Archie at the top. This could give Archie a 1-2% bump, Berry said. It’s small, but in a crowded race, it could make a big difference. 

“Ballot order effects are real,” he said. “It is true. Candidates higher on the ballot tend to get more votes.” 

Archie’s name will be followed by James “Blue” Butler, a retired plumbing contractor, Lakeisha Crye, a mental health nurse practitioner, Funches, Garrett, Tim Henderson, a military consultant, James Hopkins, a community activist, Horhn, Lumumba, Kourtney Christopher Paige, Wallace and Albert Wilson, a nonprofit founder.

It’s likely the Democratic primary will go to a runoff April 22, which Berry said will help voters narrow the field to the most serious candidates. 

“The whole institution of the runoff is meant to remedy the problem you’re describing of ‘too many candidates, too many choices,’” he said, before adding, “in an ideally functioning system.”  

Regular Jacksonians are trying to help each other make sense of it all. 

John Zehr, a copywriter in northeast Jackson, said he was tired of complaining about the government in Jackson and wanted information on the candidates that came from an authoritative, unbiased source. He’s not very politically involved, but conservative-leaning, and has been dissatisfied with news media coverage.

So with the help of ChatGPT (and a few politically savvy Jacksonians), he came up with questions, contacted all the candidates he could, and posted Zoom-recorded answers from the 10 candidates who responded to a website he named “IWantToBeYourMayor.com.”

Voters can watch the primary source of information on the candidates — themselves — and use a scoresheet Zehr created to determine who they should vote for. He estimates he put more than 100 hours of work into the website, strictly as a community service.

“I think the problem with democracy, as it exists today, is that it’s marketing and spin, right,” he said. “I wanted a format where, without any input from me … what would come out of the candidates would be unfiltered.”

In a video introducing the website, Zehr also encouraged voters to attend forums, get with the candidates face-to-face, “look them in the eye, see what kind of gut feel you get from them, and if you can discern whether or not they’re the kind of people who really know what they’re talking about and people who keep their word,” he said.

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