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The post Marshall Ramsey: Irony appeared first on Mississippi Today.

First-year House Speaker Jason White said his intention this year is to “scrap” and “rewrite” the formula that funds Mississippi’s public schools.

The speaker’s blunt statement about the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which has been in place since 1997, signals the continuation of a decades-long debate that has gripped the state’s lawmakers for decades.

“We are going to pass that probably in the next two weeks in the House,” White told SuperTalk on Monday of a House plan to rewrite the funding formula.

White did not say in the interview whether the House’s proposed rewrite will include an objective formula to determine the amount of money needed for a school district to provide an adequate education — a point of consternation and legislative debate over the years.

In the 2010s, White was among the House Republicans who tried to rewrite MAEP to remove any objective funding formula. Instead, the legislative leadership wanted lawmakers to determine the amount of money local school districts needed each year.

READ MORE: Could this be the year political games end and MAEP is funded and fixed?

White has long said MAEP is too complicated. But the concept behind MAEP is simple: Through an objective formula, a base student cost for schools is developed. The state provides school districts with a certain percentage of that base student cost for each student enrolled. The state provides more of the base student cost for poorer districts and less for more affluent districts.

People who supported the rewrite have said the state cannot afford to fund MAEP, which has been underfunded by $3.52 billion since 2008. For the current fiscal year, fully funding MAEP would have required an additional $175 million — a seemingly attainable goal considering the state’s record multi-billion dollar revenue surplus and the $525 million tax cut lawmakers passed last year.

The most recent effort to rewrite MAEP died a dramatic death in the Senate in the 2018 session. Since then, there has been no effort to rewrite the formula.

Last session, however, the Senate passed a proposal to make changes to the formula, including requiring wealthy school districts to contribute more to the formula and limiting the possible year-over-year growth in the formula. Along with those changes, the Senate passed legislation to fully fund the formula for the first time since 2007.

The House leadership, under former Speaker Philip Gunn and then-Pro Tem Jason White, rejected that effort. Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, has again filed legislation this year to try to make similar changes to “fix” the formula.

The House leadership this year has presumably filed a bill to rewrite the formula. That bill is expected to be publicly accessible as early as Tuesday. It is not clear whether the bill will detail the changes being proposed by White and other House leaders or just include the relevant legal code sections, allowing House leaders to unveil the specifics later in the session.

White’s radio interviewer on Monday opined that he did not know if MAEP is good for children, but pointed out that it is good for Democrats because they used it to lambaste Republicans for not fully funding education.

White said the formula was difficult to fully fund because it increased by a significant amount each year. But studies have shown that in most years the increase in the formula would be minimal after full funding was achieved.

The formula has been fully funded only twice since 2003 even though every governor since then — Haley Barbour, Phil Bryant and Tate Reeves — have committed to full funding at some point during their political tenure.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves supported fully funding public education before he was against it

The post Speaker Jason White says House will work to scrap, rewrite public education funding formula appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Members of the Rankin County “Goon Squad” who  inflicted decades of terror on residents would be among those listed in a public database of law enforcement misconduct, under proposed legislation. 

It’s one of over 300 bills relating to the criminal justice system that have been filed during the 2024 session of the Mississippi Legislature, which could affect policing, courts, jails, prisons, post-incarceration and more. 

House Bill 828 by Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, called the “Trust in Law Enforcement Act,”  would require the Department of Public Safety to create and maintain a database of officer misconduct incidents and publish it online by Jan. 1, 2025. 

That database must include information about an officer’s conduct and performance including:

• Revocation of law enforcement certification by the Board on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training and the basis of the revocation
• Termination by a law enforcement employer, unless the termination is overturned or reversed by appeal. A notation must be placed by their name during the appeal process
• Resignation or retirement while under investigation by the employing law enforcement agency, a district attorney or the attorney general’s office for an incident that could result in the officer being included in the online database 
• Resignation or retirement following an incidents that, within six months, leads to the opening of an investigation that could result in placement in the database 
• Being the subject of a criminal investigation for a crime that could result in certification revocation or suspension or filed criminal charges. The investigating agency would need to notify the Office of Standards and Training about any investigation or charges as soon as practicable. 
• Whether an officer knowingly made an untruthful statement about a material fact or knowingly omitted a fact on an official criminal justice record, while testifying under oath or during an internal affairs or administrative investigation
• Three or more failures to follow educational and training requirements by the Board on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training or failure to complete continuing education within a consecutive 10-year period 

Multiple House members are listed as co-authors of the bill: Reps. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus; Cheik Taylor, D-Starkville; Rickey Thompson, D-Shannon; Bo Brown, D-Jackson; Robert Sanders, D-Cleveland; Jeffrey Hulum III, D-Gulfport; Oscar Denton, D-Vicksburg; Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez; Keith Jackson, D-Preston; and Fabian Nelson, D-Byram. 

The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B and Appropriations A committees. 

Here is a look at some of the other criminal justice bills making their way through the legislative process. 

Policing

House Bill 301 by Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr., D-Jackson, would require police officers and sheriffs to have a less-lethal force option available to use while on duty. 

Examples of these options include but are not limited to stun guns, batons and pepper spray. 

Municipalities that employ the officers and counties that employ the sheriff and deputies would pay for the less-lethal force option through approved budgets for the police department and sheriff’s office. 

The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee. 

House Bill 61 by Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, would require cities and counties to provide body-worn cameras to police officers and deputy sheriffs. 

Officers and sheriffs deputies would also be required to wear a body-worn camera while on patrol, or be faced with a misdemeanor with a maximum of six months in jail and a fine up to $1,000. 

The bill has been referred to the Municipalities and County Affairs committees.

Domestic violence

House Bill 842 by Rep. Cedric Burnett, D-Tunica, would establish a domestic violence fatality review team within the State Medical Examiner’s Office. 

The multi-agency and multidisciplinary team would review domestic violence-related deaths and suicides to identify potential challenges or breakdowns in interventions, safety barriers and gaps in community services, according to the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which supports the bill. The team can help consider alternate or more effective responses to prevent future fatalities. 

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the stark reality that domestic violence is a pervasive issue in our communities. It shatters lives, breaks families, and all too often, results in tragic consequences,” MCADV Executive Director LaVerne Jackson said in a Feb. 11 statement. “The creation of such a board is not just about acknowledging the gravity of the issue but taking concrete steps towards a safer and more secure community for everyone.

The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B Committee. 

House Bill 435 by Rep. John Hines Sr., D-Greenville, would allow courts to establish domestic abuse court programs that act similarly to existing intervention courts for drugs and mental health. 

Hines has been filing legislation to establish domestic abuse courts since as early as 2013. Last year, the bill passed the House and went to the Senate’s Judiciary B and Appropriations committees where it died – the furthest Hines’ domestic abuse courts bill has advanced to date. 

“In order to fix your problem, you have to be willing to admit that there is a problem. And nobody in the state wanted to admit there was a problem with domestic violence,” Hines has told Mississippi Today. “If you kill (the bill), we don’t have to talk about that.”

The bill has been referred to the House’s Judiciary B and Appropriations A committees.

The post Officer misconduct database among criminal justice bills before Legislature appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s reluctance to investigate or prosecute campaign finance violations last year prompted other state leaders to call for reform and more enforcement.

Now Fitch is calling for — wait for it — campaign finance reform and more enforcement. This appears to be at least in part political damage control, trying to get out front in an area where she’s drawn slings and arrows.

Fitch, whose own campaign is largely funded by out-of-state special interests, in a brief media tour with conservative media outlets said she wants to put a halt to “out of state influencers” with deep pockets meddling in Mississippi elections.

But oddly, in announcing this crusade, Fitch offered an open call to out-of-state influencers to dump unlimited amounts of money into Mississippi elections.

Fitch, in her press release announcing her call for reform, said — contrary to more than 30 years of legal interpretation and practice — there is no limit to the amount of money out-of-state corporations can donate to a Mississippi candidate. She even put it in italics, for emphasis on her attempted nullification of one of the few stringent campaign donation rules Mississippi has.

This goes against at least 30 years of legal interpretation and practice. Mississippi candidates and campaigns, bless their hearts, have operated under the assumption that out-of-state corporations face the same $1,000 a year donation limit as in-state corporations.

In its written campaign finance guide for Mississippi candidates, the secretary of state’s office for decades has advised candidates: “Corporations, incorporated companies, and incorporated associations are prohibited from contributing more than $1,000 per calendar year, directly or indirectly, to a political party, candidate for office or political committee.” The current 2024 guide for candidates includes this same language that does not make a distinction between out-of-state and in-state corporations.

Fitch’s office did not answer questions about her new interpretation that such limits don’t apply to out-of-state corporations. It would appear that only months ago — on Aug. 4, 2023 — Fitch herself appeared to believe that limit applied. She announced, after months of inaction on major campaign finance complaints, that her office was investigating whether a PAC run by lieutenant governor candidate Chris McDaniel’s campaign treasurer tried “exceeding corporate contribution limits” by shuffling out-of-state money through PACs.

But now, Fitch contends out-of-state corporations do not face the state’s $1,000 limit law. This is likely based on the wording of that law, which says, “It shall be unlawful for any corporation … organized under the laws of this state” to exceed $1,000 a year in donations to a candidate. But that law also says this applies to any corporation “doing business in this state.” This language, similar to corporate law and rules elsewhere in Mississippi regulations and those of other states, has been generously interpreted. Doing business in this state can mean many things, including making a donation to a candidate, and hence out-of-state corporations have been at least in practice limited to $1,000 a year.

READ MORE: Chris McDaniel, Lynn Fitch and the case of the missing $15,000

It would appear Fitch — the only statewide official with clear authority to investigate and prosecute campaign finance violations — is going through some legal contortions in an effort to avoid having to do so. Many political observers believe this is because she has higher political ambition, perhaps for the governor’s office, and doesn’t want to draw ire from the more conservative wing of the GOP by clamping down on campaign finances.

In a radio interview last week, Fitch said, “We’re allowing out-of-state influencers to determine and to pick who the candidates should be in our state … (and) We’ve got to have enforcement.” She said there were instances last election that were “clearly unethical and clearly immoral … but they weren’t criminal under our laws.” She said she wants lawmakers to fix that. Others have said Fitch’s office has campaign enforcement power that she refuses to exercise.

Fitch’s call for reform and limiting out-of-state money in Mississippi rings a little hollow. A majority of Fitch’s own campaign money, according to her 2023 finance reports, came from out-of-state businesses: about $727,000 of $1.27 million.

Fitch also appears to get lots of money from out-of-state interests to whom her office awards contracts. Records show that Fitch signed at least nine AG office contracts last year with out-of-state law firms (law firms and other forms of limited liability companies do not face a $1,000 limit) that had donated more than $300,000 to her campaign.

Secretary of State Michael Watson declined comment on Fitch’s call for reform and statement that the $1,000 limit doesn’t apply to out-of-state corporations. Watson has called for major reforms and last summer appeared to take a dig at Fitch when he said he wasn’t seeking more power for his office.

“But when people do not do their jobs,” he said, “I will stand in the gap for Mississippians.”

READ MORE: Chris McDaniel, Lynn Fitch show that Mississippi might as well not have campaign finance laws

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who filed several campaign finance complaints with the AG’s office against his primary opponent McDaniel last year, has also called for reform and more enforcement. On primary election night when his victory was evident, Hosemann said campaign finance reform would be a top Senate priority this session.

Calls for Mississippi campaign finance reform are fairly common, particularly during statewide election years. But actual reform is rare. In 2017, after a more than a year-long investigative series by the Clarion Ledger, lawmakers did pass a law ending the practice of Mississippi politicians spending campaign donations for personal expenses — a practice dubbed “legalized bribery.”

But otherwise, Mississippi’s weak campaign finance laws for decades have only been tweaked and changed piecemeal. The laws are now a confusing, often conflicting, patchwork. For instance, the new law on spending for personal expenses conflicts with some existing law that was left intact.

And enforcement has been nearly nonexistent.

It’s unclear whether sweeping reform such as that being proposed by Watson will be addressed this legislative session. Generally lawmakers are loath to police their own campaigns or give more enforcement power to any other office holder. Some have said the appointed Ethics Commission should be given more authority and enforcement power, as many other states have non-elected entities policing campaign finances.

Fitch’s Democratic challenger in last year’s election, attorney Greta Kemp Martin, campaigned unsuccessfully on reform and enforcement of campaign finance laws.

“It’s amusing to see Attorney General Fitch’s newfound interest in election laws,” Martin said last week, “especially considering there was no apparent concern leading up to Election Day. Enhance penalties, reform and clarity are needed in Mississippi campaign finance for sure. But AG Fitch has not shown that enforcement of even the minimal laws currently in place has even been a priority for her office … Further, this sudden interest has me curious as to whether AG Fitch has taken a look at her own financial reports, especially when it involves out-of-state donations.”

Fitch did not provide great detail on her “reform package” in her press release or subsequent interviews. Her office did not answer questions on what specific bills might be forthcoming or which lawmakers would be filing them.

But Fitch did say she wants more transparency and truthfulness in campaign finance reporting, suggesting “adding a penalty of perjury to all campaign finance reports, which can carry up to 10 years in prison.” She also called for improving the civil penalties for violations and “giving the secretary of state authority to do his job” of making public campaign finance reports easy to read and search.

Despite most everyone else already thinking it’s the law for decades, Fitch wants to prohibit “all corporate contributions over $1,000 — not just those made by Mississippi corporations, which is current law.” (Those italics are by her.)

In her press release, Fitch said: “We have devised a package of reforms that will tighten the laws to keep outside special interests from meddling in our elections, to give Mississippi voters the tools to know who is trying to influence their vote, and to hold bad actors accountable.”

The post Attorney General Lynn Fitch wants campaign finance reform and more enforcement — wait, what? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi State University, home to the largest undergraduate student body in the state, made strides earlier this month towards its goal of being carbon neutral by 2042.

The school announced on Feb. 6 that it was installing on its campus 3,420 solar panels — which it expects to start generating power by this summer — claiming it as the largest such project among Southeastern Conference colleges. The project also includes upgrading 54,000 lighting fixtures with LED bulbs. Officials say the additions are a major step in reaching the 2042 goal, which the school set for itself in its 2012 climate action plan.

“We think renewable energy is one of our primary methods of reducing our footprint,” Saunders Ramsey, executive director of MSU’s Campus Services, told Mississippi Today. “We’re doing all we can to be good stewards.”

MSU isn’t the only Mississippi college with carbon neutrality or sustainability targets: The University of Southern Mississippi’s climate action plan aims for the school to be carbon neutral by 2050. The University of Mississippi has taken similar measures, including tracking its greenhouse gas emissions. In 2013, Alcorn State University launched a sustainability program looking to expand recycling and use more efficient vehicles.

Ramsey said the recent improvements cost the school $7.6 million altogether — about $5 million for the LED lights and $2.5 million for the solar panels — minus a $265,000 rebate it received from Tennessee Valley Authority. But the added efficiencies in energy usage will eventually save money for the university.

“We’re thinking within seven or eight years that you’re starting to look at a profitable venture,” Ramsey said. “The savings that you’ve realized from an alternative energy source and a reduction of energy usage actually becomes a net positive and you’ve paid your debt off.”

He estimated that the school will save $700,000 a year with LED light fixtures and $200,000 a year with the new solar array, which are being installed and maintained by consultant Entegrity.

Les Potts, MSU’s interim vice president for Finance and Administration and CFO, said the college’s other energy efficiency projects over the years have included a 500-car garage powered entirely by solar panels, as well as a thermal storage system that makes ice at night, when energy demand is low, and then melts it during the day for cooling needs.

“The largest impact obviously is when you add this first solar array,” Potts described about the new project. “If you think about the energy costs of buildings, (the solar panels will power) only about 2%, but it is significant with an institution our size.”

MSU saw it’s largest ever freshman class the beginning of this academic year with 3,700 new students. The school’s total enrollment of 22,657 is 12% higher than it was a decade ago.

When asked if the university is on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2042, Potts said he’s cautiously optimistic.

“I think that it is plausible and realistic, but not without challenges,” he said. “I think the biggest obstacle is, when you’re looking at the last decade and a half, we’ve grown here over two million square feet in heated and cooled building space, and that is necessary for the institution to accommodate growth.”

He added that the value of adding the new solar array goes beyond the environmental and financial benefits for the school.

“One of the positives of the solar array to me is the opportunities for our students to research and learn about: how do these things operate, what is the land like that they’re on, what other uses are there, what are landowners needing from us, as our outreach is advising landowners across the state of Mississippi, ” Potts said. “How can we help them? I think it just helps us to be doing it ourselves, and it’s an ancillary benefit to the carbon reduction and responsible stewardship.”

The post With new solar panels, Mississippi State is taking strides towards carbon neutral goal appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Jackson State University’s Director of Bands, Dr. Roderick Little, to talk about The Sonic Boom of the South’s incredible Super Bowl LVIII halftime performance with Usher.

Little tells the incredible story of how a text led to the Sonic Boom of the South landing on the biggest stage in the world. It’s one of my favorite interviews. Little also wanted to thank Jackson State President Dr. Marcus L. Thompson for his support. 

The post Mississippi Stories: Jackson State University’s Dr. Roderick Little appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Higher education officials — from the presidents of each public university to the commissioner of their central governing board — all agree: Mississippi’s faculty and staff are woefully underpaid. 

“If there’s ever a group in the United State of America that deserves our applause, deserves our thanks and appreciation,” it is the faculty, University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce said during an impassioned speech at the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees meeting Thursday.

“The essence of our education is the faculty,” said Tom Duff, the billionaire owner of Southern Tire Mart who chairs IHL’s finance committee. “So they need to be fairly compensated.” 

Pay raises have “been an ongoing priority for the board,” Commissioner Alfred Rankins told Mississippi Today.

But despite several years of state-funded pay raises, Mississippi’s faculty and staff continue to make far less than those in other Southern states. An analysis of federal data shows just three institutions — University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University and University of Southern Mississippi — pay their faculty above the average salary in neighboring states of $73,163. 

Faculty also make far less than they used to. Since 2016, the average faculty member in Mississippi has actually seen a nearly $11,000 pay cut due to inflation, according to an analysis of federal data. In fall 2022, the average faculty salary in Mississippi was $68,676. 

Why is that? 

Some reasons that IHL has offered at the Capitol and during its board meeting include: General inflationary pressures on the universities, a rise in health insurance premiums and financial problems plaguing retirement for public employees.

Though it has long been IHL’s goal to bring faculty salaries up to the Southern Regional Education Board average, that has been somewhat out of reach as Rankins told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday that other states are raising pay faster than Mississippi. And, coupled with a falling number of high school graduates that means less tuition, Rankins said the universities are staring down a functional budget cut this year if lawmakers provide IHL with level funding.  

Still, the agency does not want to ask for more money than lawmakers will appropriate, and it would be “a large number” to raise faculty salaries to the SREB average in one year, Rankins told the committee.

IHL is asking lawmakers to appropriate $53 million for salaries, enough for a 6.4% incremental raise for faculty, according to IHL’s 2025 legislative funding priorities. 

“Our board structures their request based on revenue collection and what we reasonably think the Legislature will appropriate to our universities given their other priorities,” Rankins said. 

To many faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi, where more than 100 people attended a rally for fair pay Thursday, those other priorities may be the cause of the wage stagnation. A flier distributed at the rally said USM pays faculty $10,000 less than peer institutions. 

In one example, Ole Miss has its eyes this year on a $165 million residence hall, and a $49 million parking garage. Jackson State University and Mississippi Valley State University are also requesting funding for residence halls. 

“The bottom line is that public higher education in Mississippi and everywhere needs robust and sustainable public funding that prioritizes the core academic mission,” Irene Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, said at the USM rally to cheers of “hear, hear.” 

“That means compensation for the faculty,” she added. “The people, without whom, you would not have a university.” 

At the IHL meeting, Rankins, Boyce and Duff all said that investing in dormitories and athletic facilities supports pay raises for faculty, not just because the universities rely on tuition.

“There’s no contradiction because you’re talking about a separate pool of money,” Rankins said. “Salaries come from the general E-and-G appropriations. Capital funds are typically bonded. It’s different funding.” 

Boyce said Ole Miss, where the enrollment cliff is not an issue, needs to fund updated facilities to accommodate its growing enrollment because tuition now makes up about 75% of the university budget. 

It’s IHL’s purview, Boyce added, to come up with a legislative request for faculty raises. Unlike with capital projects, Ole Miss does not enter the session with a specific dollar amount for faculty raises that it will ask lawmakers to fund. The university sets the actual percentage raise that faculty receive after the session. 

“We use almost every penny of what they give us for faculty and staff raises, and that’s why it’s so important to us to gain their support,” Boyce said of lawmakers. “That’s not to say we wouldn’t obviously reach into tuition dollars. It all flows together and works together. It is not a case of one versus another. It’s a case of what the demand is.” 

In an emailed statement after the IHL meeting, Boyce said Ole Miss has raised nominal employee salaries 11% over the past three years and hopes to provide another raise this summer to “attract and retain high-quality employees.”

“We have been fortunate to experience several years of growth as an institution, in part because we are focused on continuing to improve the student experience and quality of life for our employees,” he said. “We also have to grow enrollment to ensure academic quality and offer new programs, which requires us to build facilities to house and educate more students.”

Duff said IHL’s request is made in collaboration with the university presidents like Boyce. In years past, IHL has told the university presidents they need to give faculty a larger raise, though Duff didn’t specify which year that happened. 

“It is our constant endeavor to make sure they’re paid appropriately,” Duff said of faculty. “To think that we don’t see those salaries is incorrect.” 

Though Duff said that he can’t say the money the state of Mississippi is spending on athletic buildings could not be better spent on faculty salaries, it is a fact that students want better facilities. 

“It’s a great question,” Duff said. “But fortunately or unfortunately, schools cater to the demands of the students and to the demands of the economic reality we’re in.”

The post Mississippi’s university faculty are woefully underpaid. Is that ‘economic reality’?  appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Thursday the Senate will have a bill by Monday’s deadline to expand Mississippi Medicaid to cover the working poor.

Hosemann said the bill will likely contain a work requirement and cover roughly 230,000 adults who make too much to currently be eligible for Medicaid, but too little to afford private insurance. As it stands, these adults — if they’re not pregnant or disabled — have no access to preventative care, leading to Mississippi’s abysmal public health metrics, such as the lowest life expectancy in the country.

This marks the first time, after a decade of partisan debate, that a Mississippi Republican leader has taken an affirmative step toward expansion.

Hosemann, who is still loathe to use the words “Medicaid expansion,” said he hopes lawmakers pass such a plan into law.

“I have tried to tell everybody this: Stop saying Medicaid expansion,” Hosemann said. “What we are looking at is providing health insurance for working people. How you couch that is up to you but the interest I have had for a while is: We need to have a better labor force participation rate. That right now is the lowest in the country. But to get to that point … I’ve got to have healthy people.”

Hosemann said the Senate proposal will likely increase Medicaid eligibility to people making up to 138% of the poverty level. That would be an annual household income up to about $43,000 for a family of four.

New House Speaker Jason White — who replaced longtime Speaker Philip Gunn this year — has been outspoken about the state’s health care crisis, calling on Republican lawmakers to consider expansion. Gunn had blocked Medicaid expansion legislation, and even thwarted serious debate or consideration.

Many Capitol observers expected White and the GOP House leadership to be the first out of the gates this session with expansion legislation. But even after House Democrats unveiled an expansion bill the House leadership still hasn’t brought out a version or provided details of what it might propose.

Governor Tate Reeves — vehemently opposed to expansion, calling it “welfare” — has the power to veto a bill if it passes the Legislature. If he vetoed an expansion bill, two-thirds of lawmakers would have to vote to override the veto for it to become law.

Last session, the Legislature passed a measure to provide 12 months of postpartum coverage for mothers. This session, legislatives leaders are focusing on addressing the coverage gap, in which hundreds of thousands of adults go without health care. That is, until unaddressed health issues render them disabled, qualifying them for Medicaid, or land them in an emergency room — the most expensive place to receive health care.

“We’re looking at the part of people who aren’t already covered that would fit into this workforce – maybe a working mom with a child or two children, how do we get her continued health care after the postpartum period,” Hosemann said. “One of the most economic ways is to have the federal government pay for it, so that’s of real interest to me. So if I can get the federal government to pay for some or all of this, I’m going to do that.”

Hosemann said he would like to see a work requirement in any expansion bill, and he would also like to see a requirement that recipients make a contribution toward their health insurance.

“When I get a plan that covers working people, I would like for them to make some contribution to their health care,” he said. “I think that’s important, I think that’s self dignity, you become part of the system when you’re paying some part of it.”

Hosemann, who has been working on addressing the coverage gap for several years now, said he was convinced when Louisiana expanded Medicaid in 2016. 

“When Louisiana did this several years ago, there was a great concern that people would move from the private market to the public,” he explained. “Well it didn’t happen. It’s maybe, like, 1% difference.”

Mississippi is one of 10 states not to expand Medicaid to cover the working poor. Proponents of expansion say the state is leaving more than $1 billion a year in federal money and thousands of new jobs on the table by refusing expansion.

Regardless of whether a House or Senate version of a bill is ultimately successful, Hosemann said he hopes that headway is made on increasing health care coverage of working Mississippians.

“I’ll be a proponent of a plan like this. I’m very hopeful that the Senate will pass one. I’m very hopeful that the House will address one, as well … We’ve been working on it a long time. Because of my current maturity, I don’t much care who gets the credit. My goal is to have working people have health care. If somebody else gets the credit – the governor or members of the House – I don’t really care much about that.”

The post Hosemann announces Senate Medicaid expansion bill appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Where there is smoke…

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