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Not a single Mississippi team is ranked in the Division I college baseball preseason polls, which is unusual. Not one.

Not Mississippi State, the 2021 national champion and a program that has been to the College World Series 12 times and qualified for 39 NCAA Tournaments.

Not Ole Miss, the 2022 national champion, which has won eight NCAA Regional championships since 2005.

Not Southern Miss, which has won three NCAA Regionals since 2009, has hosted back-to-back Super Regionals and averaged 44 victories a season over the last seven full seasons.

There are significant reasons why the national pollsters give the Mississippi schools so little respect:

• State won only nine of 30 SEC games last season mostly because pitches didn’t go where the Bulldogs aimed. Last season, the Bulldogs walked a whopping 321 batters in 453 innings. That right there will get you beat. Little wonder the Bulldogs’ earned run average was 7.01. No matter how well you can hit — and State can swing it — you will not succeed giving up seven earned runs a game.
• Ole Miss followed its storybook national championship season of 2022 by winning only six SEC games last year and suffering a losing record (25-29) overall. It was almost as if the Rebels had made a deal with the devil during that storybook championship run, because just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong in ’23.
• Southern Miss won 46 games last year and came up one victory short of the CWS, but must replace six position starters, one of the best starting pitchers in its history Tanner Hall and an All America closer in Justin Storm. And, oh yeah, Christian Ostrander replaces the venerable Scott Berry as the Golden Eagles’ head coach.

Clearly, all three Mississippi schools enter the 2024 season, which begins Friday, with much to prove. Nevertheless, history tells us one or more will surprise the national pundits and be in the championship hunt at season’s end.

All three open Friday:

• Ole Miss plays four-game seres at Honolulu beginning Friday night against a good Hawaii team that finished 18-12 in the baseball-strong Big West Conference in 2023. This is no cupcake opener. Hawaii swept Tulane and won two of three games against Big Ten teams at Minneapolis last spring. Hawaii also won 19 of 26 home games, including its last nine.
• Mississippi State will play host to Air Force, another quality mid-level program that is picked to finish third in the Big West Conference. Air Force won the Big West two years ago and was the runner-up last year.
• Southern Miss will open against Marist (NY) College of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Marist Red Foxes have made seven NCAA Tournament appearances, none since 2017. Marist was 16-36 a year ago.

To solve last season’s pitching problems, Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis brought in Justin Parker, who has been successful handling pitchers at both Indiana and South Carolina. The educated guess here is that Parker’s mantra has been simple and to the point: Throw strikes. Lemonis believes the talent is there. If the Bulldogs can successfully mix and match pitchers and not give so many free passes, this is a lineup that can swing it. Outfielder Dakota Jordan is rated the No. 27 prospect in this summer’s Major League Draft by mlb.com.

At Ole Miss, Mike Bianco has taken a page from Lane Kiffin’s football book and added significantly to his roster from the transfer portal. The Rebels’ 2024 success – or lack of same – will depend greatly on the contributions of these transfers: first baseman Jackson Ross (Florida Atlantic), shortstop Luke Hill (Arizona State), third baseman Andrew Fisher (Duke), outfielder Treyson Hughes (Mercer) and pitchers Kyler Carmack (Arkansas State) and Liam Doyle (Coastal Carolina). That’s a lot of new faces – and there are more – but when you were 6-24 and dead last in your conference, new faces are a good thing.

Yes, Southern Miss lost two All Americans on the mound, but Ostrander believes his 2024 pitching staff will be deeper and possibly even more talented. The starting lineup likely will include only two players (right fielder Carson Paetow and designated hitter Slade Wilkes) at their 2023 positions, but speedy and athletic Nick Monstere moves from second base to centerfield. Ostrander, too, added several notable portal transfers, including shortstop Ozzie Pratt (BYU), second baseman Nolan Tucker (Valparaiso) and outfielder Billy Butler (Rhode Island). Look out for talented freshman shortstop Seth Smith, son of former Major Leaguer Jason Smith, to make an impact somewhere before his rookie season is over.

The post Rebuilding Mississippi teams get no respect from national baseball polls appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield are examining the power of sheriffs’ offices in Mississippi as part of The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship.

Mississippi lawmakers have introduced a bill that would increase oversight of law enforcement officers and give state authorities more power to punish misconduct after a series of scandals was uncovered across the state last year.

The law would give the state agency that certifies law enforcement officers the ability to investigate claims of police misconduct.

If lawmakers pass the bill, the Mississippi Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training will gain the power to respond directly to complaints or allegations, putting Mississippi on par with states that regulate officers more aggressively.

If the board ruled that conduct violated professional standards, it could revoke an officer’s certification, potentially ending that officer’s career in Mississippi.

Under current law, the board can accept complaints but cannot investigate them. The agency largely has focused on running criminal background checks on new officers applying for certification, ensuring they have met basic training requirements and tracking where officers work.

All Mississippi law enforcement officers are currently required to become certified except sheriffs, who are elected officials and are exempt from certification requirements.

The proposed law comes after The New York Times and Mississippi Today published a series of articles last year revealing allegations of sexual misconduct against two sheriffs and exposing a decades-long reign of terror by a group of Rankin County deputies who called themselves the Goon Squad.

Also last year, five Rankin County Sheriff’s Department deputies and a local police officer pleaded guilty to federal charges for breaking into the home of two Black men, torturing them, threatening to rape them and then shooting one of them in the mouth.

For years the state ignored or was unaware of allegations of jailhouse rape, brutal beatings and corrupt acts by sheriffs and their deputies.

The revelations have led to increasing calls from the public for accountability.

In Rankin County, just outside Mississippi’s capital, Jackson, billboards have sprung up encouraging residents to report police brutality and hate crimes to the F.B.I. The local chapter of the NAACP has repeatedly demanded Sheriff Bryan Bailey’s resignation.

“They’re tasked with protecting and serving, but they’re not protecting and serving. They’re harassing, they’re terrorizing, they’re torturing,” said Cardell Wright, president of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. “We have to have oversight if we’re going to abate any of these issues that are happening in our communities.”

State Representative Fred Shanks, a Rankin County Republican who introduced the bill in January, said it would require all officers to complete annual training, a provision he said could improve community relations with the police and protect law enforcement agencies from lawsuits.

“This is both pro-law enforcement and pro-citizen,” he said. “The more training you have, the better you’re going to be.”

Mr. Shanks was personally impacted by one law enforcement officer’s actions in Rankin County.

According to an investigation by the local district attorney, Sheriff Bailey improperly used grand jury subpoenas in 2014 to obtain phone records belonging to his girlfriend, Kristi Pennington Shanks, who is Mr. Shanks’s ex-wife.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation examines police shootings, deaths in custody and other misconduct when a local department asks for help. Mr. Shanks’s proposal would add a second layer of oversight and could expand the kind of misconduct that is reviewed in a state that has historically resisted police oversight.

“It’s long overdue for Mississippi to change a lot of their policies, a lot of their training” related to law enforcement, said Representative Jeffrey Hulum III, a Democrat from Gulfport who said he planned to co-sponsor the measure with Mr. Shanks.

Mr. Shanks wrote the bill with Sean Tindell, the commissioner of the state’s Department of Public Safety. Mr. Tindell oversees several statewide law enforcement agencies, including the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the law enforcement training academy. Mr. Tindell said that while he and his colleagues had discussed changing the law in the past, the conduct brought to light in 2023 was a factor in pushing for the bill this year.

“I think it’s OK to look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, maybe we need to make some changes,’ and this could be that opportunity where everybody feels the same way,” he said. “We can look at a bill like this as a way to improve the overall profession and the perception of that profession.”

Mr. Shanks said that if his proposed law had been in place, many of the events that became public in 2023 could have been investigated by the certification board, even if prosecutors did not bring criminal charges. In some of those cases, charging an officer was made difficult by statutes of limitation or the high bar of evidence required to win a criminal conviction.

Mr. Tindell said leaders of both the Mississippi Sheriffs’ Association and the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police supported the new bill, giving it a healthy chance to reach the House floor for a vote. A House committee will decide whether to move the bill forward in the coming weeks.

State Senator Juan Barnett, a Democrat from Heidelberg, introduced another measure that could double criminal penalties for law enforcement officers who are convicted of abusing their power.

Legislators have not decided whether to hear that bill. Joey Fillingane, a Republican and the chair of the judiciary committee in the State Senate that will decide if the bill advances, did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Barnett said the national push for greater accountability for law enforcement officers inspired him to sponsor the bill.

“We just want to make sure that people feel like they are getting protected and served by the men and women who are in uniform,” he said.

Mississippi Today political reporter Taylor Vance contributed reporting.

The post Mississippi Lawmakers Propose Measures to Oversee Police appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a decision to permit a proposed military site in North Gulfport, despite local and environmental advocates’ concerns that the site could contaminate public waters.

In 2019, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board approved the proposal from the Mississippi State Port Authority. The Port Authority is seeking to build a storage facility for the U.S. Department of Defense to serve as a link between Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg and the state’s ports.

The decision this week follows a 2022 ruling in the Harrison County Chancery Court that reached the same conclusion. The appellants in the case included North Gulfport residents John Johnson, Glenn Cobb and Lattie Grubbs, the Anointed Temple AOH Church, as well as two local organizations: EEECHO Inc. and the North Gulfport Community Land Conservancy, Inc.

The appellants, represented by ACLU-MS and Earthjustice, argued that the MDEQ Permit Board failed to consider whether the proposed site would store explosive ammunition. Attorneys working with the appellants say they discovered this possibility through a “Port Planning Order” they obtained from a records request only after the Permit Board approved the site.

Residents are also concerned because the project, which would require filling three acres of wetlands, would be located on the former home of a fertilizer company that operated in the early 1900s. In 2009, the state ordered a remediation plan for the property after finding illegal levels of arsenic and lead. As part of the plan, the contaminated area has been capped off with a 10-inch layer of clay and a 4-inch layer of topsoil.

Explaining the court’s ruling, Judge Jim Greenlee wrote that the project’s proposal only said that ammunition might be stored at the site, not that it was a necessary part of the project. Thus, the ruling argues, the Permit Board didn’t have to consider the impact of storing ammunition in order to issue a water quality certification.

The appellants also argued that the Permit Board should have redone its public notice process to inform residents that the site may store ammunition. But, Greenlee wrote, “The joint public notice was complied with the applicable regulations, and it was not deficient simply because it did not mention the single reference to explosive ammunition in the (Port Planning Order).”

In her dissent, Judge Deborah McDonald countered that very point.

“The strategic port criteria state that the port should preferably be able to receive and store up to 188 tons of explosive ammunition…” McDonald wrote. “Further, I believe the possibility of storing such highly explosive ammunition near such a site to be a ‘pertinent issue’ of which the nearby community should have been informed in the public notice…”

Attorneys for the appellants released a statement on Thursday disagreeing with the ruling.

“We are extremely disappointed with the court’s decision,” Earthjustice attorney Rodrigo Cantú said. “This allows the Permit Board to endanger the health and safety of a historically black community by ignoring the possibility of storing explosive ammunition in a residential area.”

The post Court of Appeals backs proposed military site in North Gulfport appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A formerly incarcerated woman facing terminal breast cancer is suing the prison system’s former and current health care providers for failing to diagnose and treat the disease until it spread in her body. 

Susie Annie Balfour, 62, of Memphis, is the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi that alleges prison medical officials acted with deliberate indifference because they knew for years that she might have cancer, but they did not order a biopsy to confirm until November 2021. 

Over the course of a decade, Balfour had at least eight mammograms at Merit Health Central in Jackson. That number is less than the annual mammograms and later twice a year mammograms outside doctors recommended after each of her visits, according to the lawsuit. 

Stage 4 cancer has metastasized and spread to Balfour’s lymph nodes, bones and other parts of her body. She said she’s trying to stay encouraged and do what she can. 

“I never know when my time will be up, but until then I’m not going to stop fighting,” said Balfour, who was incarcerated at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility for over 30 years and released on parole in December 2021. 

The complaint alleges the contract between the Mississippi Department of Corrections – which is not named as a defendant – and former medical contractors Wexford Health Sources and Centurion of Mississippi and current contractor VitalCore Health Strategies created financial incentive for the companies to withhold necessary and lifesaving care to incarcerated people. 

How that manifested was reduced outpatient referrals and hospitalizations and encouragement of conservative care to cut costs, according to the complaint.  

“This is just another avenue to draw attention to what’s happening in the prisons,” said Andrew Tominello, who is representing Balfour. 

Balfour first asked prison medical staff for a mammogram in June 2011. 

After that visit, doctors recommended she return for follow-up annual mammograms to monitor any changes in calcifications found in her right breast. By 2016, doctors recommended she have mammograms every six months. 

Instead, Balfour went up to three years between follow-ups, according to the lawsuit. 

It wasn’t until Nov. 3, 2021, that a biopsy revealed Balfour had an invasive, malignant cancer in her breast, court documents state. 

The lawsuit alleges VitalCore was aware of the doctors’ findings from the November visit and did not inform Balfour about the cancer until days before her release on Dec. 27, 2021. 

Less than a week after leaving prison, Balfour went to the University of Mississippi Medical Center where she had another mammogram and full testing, which the doctor used to diagnose her cancer as Stage 4.

Balfour wonders if actions had been taken sooner, maybe things would have turned out differently with her health. 

On behalf of its provider VitalCore, MDOC declined to comment. Representatives from Centurion and Wexford did not respond to a request for comment. 

Other defendants named in the lawsuit are Merit Health Central and multiple physicians and nurses employed by the hospital and prison health care providers. The lawsuit accuses them of malpractice for failing to properly diagnose and treat Balfour, causing her cancer to progress. 

A spokesperson for Merit Health declined to comment. Defendants will have 21 days to respond to the lawsuit complaint. 

The lawsuit also alleges Balfour and other incarcerated people were required to clean the prison with chemicals such as glyphosate that are known to cause cancer. They were not given protective equipment when mixing raw chemicals to avoid exposure, according to the complaint. 

To date, at least 15 other people incarcerated at CMCF have cancer, and they are not receiving “necessary, life-saving treatment,” according to the lawsuit. 

READ: SMCI inmate, fearing he has cancer, still awaiting needed medical procedure, he says

“These are human beings that deserve a second chance in life. Instead they’re being allowed to get sick and left to die,” Pauline Rogers, co-founder of the RECH Foundation that helps women returning from prison, said in a statement. 

Balfour is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial. 

Centurion became MDOC’s inmate health care provider in 2016 after a multi-year bribery scandal that led to the 2014 indictment of then-MDOC commissioner Christopher Epps and prison contractors including Wexford. VitalCore Health Strategies became the provider in 2020. 

In a separate lawsuit, VitalCore is being sued for failing to provide adequate medical and mental health care to incarcerated people and proper accommodations and services to those with disabilities. 

Balfour was incarcerated for a capital murder conviction in the shooting death of a Southaven police officer that carried a death sentence that was overturned in 1991. She was resentenced to serve 30 years, according to court records. 

“I just want everybody to be held accountable,” she said. “ … and I just want justice for myself and other ladies and men in there who are dealing with the same situation I am dealing with.”

The post As cancer spread in Susie Balfour’s body, she says prison medical providers failed to treat it. Now she’s fighting for life. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The House Colleges and Universities Committee advanced a bill Wednesday to increase award amounts and expand eligibility to more Mississippians under the state’s largest college financial aid program. 

Under House Bill 994, adult, part-time and low-income college students would be able to receive the Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant. All told, an estimated 37,000 more Mississippians, many who don’t receive any form of state financial aid for college, would be eligible for MTAG. 

Depending on a student’s income and academic year, the bill would increase MTAG award amounts to a maximum of $2,000 a year. This would be the first time the Legislature has increased MTAG awards since the program was created in the 1990s to benefit middle-class Mississippians who aren’t eligible for the federal Pell Grant. 

“It opens it up to every Mississippian out there,” said House Chair Donnie Scoggin, R-Ellisville, the bill sponsor. “From the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich, there is some benefit.”

Though the bill has broad support, Scoggin said it faces a major hurdle: The cost. To fully fund the program, lawmakers would need to greenlight upwards of $30 million in additional spending. Last year, Mississippi spent just under $10 million on MTAG. 

But Scoggin is hoping to convince lawmakers to see the changes as an investment in Mississippi’s workforce. He said it doesn’t matter how much the state of Mississippi spends on workforce development programs if potential students can’t afford to attend. 

“My argument would be, very simply: Education is the future,” Scoggin said. “We’ve got to do something to help people go to college.” 

During the committee meeting, Scoggin told members the bill is supported by community colleges and universities whose disagreement last year was one reason his proposal failed last session. That plan also sought to overhaul the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students, or HELP, grant. 

The Mississippi Economic Council is also supporting this bill, which Scoggin worked on closely with the Office of Student Financial Aid and its director, Jennfier Rogers. After the committee meeting, multiple lawmakers came up to Rogers to tell her they supported the bill. 

Rogers said that she worked on the proposal with a taskforce to set higher MTAG award amounts without increasing the overall cost of the program too much. Though it’s hard to say if the increased award amounts would be enough to affect student behavior, Rogers said studies have shown increasing grant aid has a positive impact on college graduation rates. 

“I wish we could increase them more,” she said. “I think the award amounts need to be larger. But this is a reasonable first step.” 

MTAG has lost significant buying power since it was created in 1995. 

That year, the award amounts under MTAG for freshmen and sophomores covered roughly 10% of the average four-year, in-state tuition, room and board, and 20% for juniors and seniors, according to an analysis of federal data. In fall 2021, MTAG covered 2% of tuition, room and board for freshmen and sophomores, and 5% for juniors and seniors. 

Scoggin said he doesn’t know yet where the money would come from to fund the bill, and that it will face competition from other initiatives. 

“I think this is a priority, but someone else may think roads and bridges are a priority or someone else may think expanding Medicaid is a priority,” he said. 

Scoggin said Republicans need to balance tax cuts with programs that can help Mississippians take personal responsibility. 

“We’re trying to limit the government, but in doing that, we’re still trying to get people into that workforce development,” he said.

The post House committee passes bill expanding college financial aid to adult, part-time students appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Two Mississippi Today investigations — “Committed to Jail” in collaboration ProPublica and “Unfettered Power” in collaboration with The New York Times — were named semifinalists for the coveted Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

The two Mississippi Today projects were among 30 semifinalists that judges “deemed to be of extremely high quality and in keeping with the Prize’s criteria for impact on US public policy,” a Feb. 14 press release said.

Mississippi Today was the only local newsroom to earn multiple 2024 Goldsmith semifinalist honors. Mississippi Today journalists previously won the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for “The Backchannel” investigation of the state’s welfare scandal and the 2020 Goldsmith Prize for an investigation with The Marshall Project of the state’s restitution centers.

“This type of recognition is proof positive of Mississippi Today’s power to bring national audiences to important local news through partnerships with media institutions like ProPublica and The New York Times,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today editor-in-chief. “Our journalists are certainly deserving of being continually considered among the very best in the nation.”

“Committed to Jail,” a 2023 Mississippi Today and ProPublica investigation, revealed that Mississippi counties jail hundreds of people without criminal charges every year, for days or weeks at a time, solely because they may need mental health treatment — a practice that has resulted in 14 deaths since 2006 and is unique in scope in the United States.

We found that in just 19 of the state’s 82 counties, people were jailed without charges more than 2,000 times over four years. We spoke with 14 Mississippians about their experiences in jail and learned that people detained for being sick are generally treated the same as people accused of crimes. We obtained Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reports on jail deaths and pored over lawsuits and news clips to identify 15 people who died after being jailed during this process since 2006, (including the most recent death in January, after the original series was published). And we surveyed behavioral health officials and disability rights advocates in all 50 states to show that Mississippi stands alone.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today and ProPublica’s full series

“Unfettered Power,” a 2023 investigation from the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times, revealed how Mississippi sheriffs rule like kings, wielding vast power, exploiting and abusing the very people they are called to protect with no one stopping them.

Sheriffs accused of raping women in their custody without consequences. Beating others they arrested or jailed. Spying on citizens for personal reasons. Deputies using Tasers to torment residents. And a 20-year reign of terror by a “Goon Squad” that barged into homes in the middle of the night, handcuffing or holding people at gunpoint, and torturing them into confessing or providing information.

Mississippi Today and The New York Times produced a series of stories that revealed not just these travesties but also how powerful allies in the criminal justice system – from local prosecutors and judges to the state attorney general and the Justice Department – had repeatedly failed to investigate or prosecute sheriffs for them.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today and The New York Times’ full series

The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, one of the nation’s most prestigious journalism honors, is housed at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. Finalists for the 2024 award will be announced in the coming weeks, and the winner will be announced on April 3.

The post Two Mississippi Today investigations named Goldsmith Prize semifinalists appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Patrick Mahomes was the MVP and the cameras were often on Taylor Swift, but there was plenty of Magnolia State on display at the Super Bowl. Mississippi State alum Chris Jones dominated for the victorious Chiefs on the defensive line. Jackson State’s Sonic Boom made a surprise halftime appearance with Usher, and there was more. Also, all hail Patrick Williams, Pro Football Hall of Fame-bound.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Mississippi at the Super Bowl. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said that deciding how to ensure the long-term financial solvency of the massive Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System is “the major issue” facing lawmakers during the current legislative session.

PERS provides pension benefits for more than 360,000 current and former government employees in Mississippi, including school district employees and higher education and community college staff.

The system has experienced financial problems for years that many argue have gone largely unaddressed. It has about $32 billion in assets to pay its retirees, but it is about $25 billion in long-term debt. It has a funding ratio of about 56%, meaning the system has just 56% of the revenue needed to cover its liabilities over a 30-year period.

PERS leaders this year are asking the Legislature for an infusion of cash — which lawmakers traditionally do not provide on an annual basis — to help offset the system’s uncertain financial future.

Hosemann recently said until the issues facing PERS are resolved, the Legislature cannot commit on how much to provide in funding for state agencies, schools and other programs.

“We are going to pay the retirees,” Hosemann said.

House Speaker Jason White, R-West, has also talked of the importance of addressing PERS.

“I think there has been a commitment at least around the coffee pot that we (legislators) want to fix this long term,” White said before the session began. “… For myself, I would say we are not going to just increase it (the amount of government money put into the plan) 5%, 10% and hope it gets better.”

While Hosemann and many legislative leaders appear to be locked in on PERS, the problems have not been addressed by Gov. Tate Reeves. Reeves, in the first year of his final term as governor, did not mention PERS in his recently released budget proposal. At a time when legislative leaders and local government officials are grappling with how to fund PERS, Reeves instead touted his plan to eliminate the state income tax, which would, if passed, do away with one-third of the state’s current annual general fund revenue.

Fixing the pension program, many leaders believe, will take a significant infusion of funds. Some proposed solutions could place a significant strain on city and county governments, on school districts and state agencies that currently pay into the system unless the Legislature commits to appropriating an additional amount of money.

During a recent meeting with the Senate Finance Committee, Ray Higgins, the PERS executive director, did not provide a specific amount of money that he believes the Legislature needed to contribute to the program. Hosemann has spoken of the program possibly needing an additional $360 million annually.

“When it comes down to the long-term sustainability of PERS, we should either fund it, change it, or eventually we may risk it,” Higgins wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “Revenue must increase, expenses and liabilities should decrease, or both.”

The retirement system’s revenue to pay pension benefits is generated in the following ways:

• From employees contributing 9% of their salaries to PERS.
• From employers or governmental entities contributing a sum equal to 17.4% of an employee’s paycheck to the program.
• From investment income. Investment income is key since the employee/employer contributions are not enough to cover the monthly costs.

The average annual retirement income for retirees is about $26,900.

Multiple factors are contributing to the financial uncertainty in the system, including:

• Recessions through the years that have impacted the investment earnings.
• A shrinking governmental workforce and additional retirees.
• Legislature-approved added benefits through the years, dating back to the 1990s — some of which were provided, some argue, without a revenue stream to pay for them.

Perhaps the most confusing and controversial change that placed stress on the system was the action by the 10-member board that governs PERS to change what is known as the assumed rate of return. Based on recommendations from actuaries, the board recently dropped the assumed rate of return from 7.5% to 7%, meaning that PERS’ investments will earn 7% instead of 7.5% annually. The change was made to paint what PERS officials said is a more accurate picture of the system’s financial outlook. But the lower assumed rate of return means the expectation is that the investment earnings will generate less money, thus causing more debt.

Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, pointed out that at one point not too long ago the assumed rate of return was 8%. He said, optimistically, that each year the investment earnings exceed the assumed rate of returns means the system’s debt is decreased.

Still, the PERS board believes that strong investment earnings will not be enough to totally resolve the financial woes facing the system. The board plans to phase in a 5% increase in the employer contribution rate over a three-year period. There has been talk of phasing in a 10% increase in the employer contribution rate. The first 2% increase that will be enacted on July 1 will cost the state $60 million, not counting the cost for local and county governments. Under current law, the board has the authority to act on its own to increase the employer contribution rate, though the Legislature could change the law.

City and county officials have told legislators they cannot afford the increase.

Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he already is hearing from state agency directors about the issue.

“I guarantee they are coming to me saying whatever you do, give us enough money to pay for the PERS increase,” Hopson said. “ … Either we provide the money or they have to absorb it,” meaning they cannot provide raises or enact other programs that cost money.

Hosemann said such increases in the employer contribution would be “catastrophic” for the system since local governments would start hiring contract workers instead of full-time government employees who would be eligible for PERS pensions. That, Hosemann said, would further reduce the number of employees paying into the system.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, pointed out that each time the Legislature privatizes a governmental function it reduces the number of state employees paying into the system.

Bryan also pointed out that years ago, a separate public retirement system for Mississippi Highway Patrol troopers faced financial difficulties. Bryan said in that instance, the Legislature passed a law to place a fee on traffic citations with the revenue earned from the fee directed to the retirement system.

Whether there is the legislative will to create a similar source of revenue dedicated to the much larger PERS system remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the Legislature is expected to act on a proposal by the PERS board to change the benefits for new governmental hires. The proposal includes eliminating the guaranteed 3% annual cost of living increase for new employees. Instead, under the proposal, new employees would get a cost of living increase when revenue is available and tied to the annual inflation rate instead of the automatic 3% cost of living increase each year. The proposal would not make any changes to the guaranteed 3% annual cost of living increase for current employees and retirees.

Both Hosemann and Hopson said they do not believe it is legal to reduce the benefits for current employees and retirees.

“I don’t think you can do that,” Hosemann said. “I am not going to do it.”

The post Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann calls state pension problems ‘the major issue’ of 2024 legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

No state has fewer public electric vehicle charging stations per capita than Mississippi.

With 145 total stations, the state has just under five for every 100,000 people, much lower than the national rate of 19 per 100,000, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy.

But with a boost of $50 million in federal funding, Mississippi plans to add about 30 new stations, which will be spread out along the state's busiest highways. Jessica Dilley, the director of Alternative Program Deliveries with the Mississippi Department of Transportation,told Mississippi Today that the agency projects that new charging stations will start showing up by 2026 or 2027.

The $50 million, which came from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is coming to the state over a five-year period. As of now, MDOT is still in its planning phase and hasn't spent any of the money.

Dilley said there was an adjustment period for the agency, versus its counterparts in other states that already had electric vehicle programs.

"There are some states nationwide that already had programs before the national program was established," she said. "We are not one of those states. So we spent time coordinating with the industry and educating ourselves... as well as coordinating with the utilities, the energy department, and communities throughout our state."

As far as where the new stations will go, MDOT is planning to build between 25 to 30 new locations along I-10, I-20, I-22, I-55, I-59, I-69 and I-269. In order to meet federal requirements, stations have to be spaced no more than 50 miles apart from each other, and no more than a mile from the nearest interstate. The average cost of each new station, MDOT estimates, is between $500,000 and $1.5 million.

MDOT is issuing two rounds of request for proposals, Dilley said. The first round will be issued by the end of this year, with awards going out by mid-2025. Based on what's happened in other states, she said, it'll take anywhere from six months to a year after contracts are awarded until the stations are up and running.

There are a wide range of companies that may put in bids to run the new stations, Dilley added.

"What we've seen from adjacent states is everywhere from Waffle Houses putting in (bids) to Tesla, and everything in between," she said. "So it'll be up to whoever submits to apply for the funding to put in the station."

Companies that win bids will be responsible for 20% of the station costs, and MDOT will use its federal dollars to pay for the rest. Each station will have to have four DC fast chargers, each supplying 150 kilowatts at a time.

Mississippi's current charging stations, as shown in the map above, are spread out around the state, but most of them lack the capacity that the new stations will carry.

During the agency's public engagement, Dilley said MDOT received over 2,700 comments in the first year of the program. She said a "good amount" of the responses expressed "resistance" towards the program, because they were against electric vehicles in general or because the program is being funded publicly rather than privately. Other commenters were supportive, Dilley said, showing interest in reducing fuel emissions.

As part of the federal requirements for receiving the funds, Mississippi has to submit annual plans for building electric vehicle infrastructure, which the public can view on MDOT's website. Dilley said the agency will continue to engage with the public and post updates online.

The post New EV charging stations two to three years away, MDOT says appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Former state Rep. Alyce Clarke, the first Black woman to serve in the Mississippi Legislature, sat patiently in her motorized wheelchair Tuesday as her many feats and accomplishments were listed inside the Capitol.

But when it came time to unveil her portrait, the 84-year-old Clarke stood. Clarke had said it was important to have her portrait hanging in the Capitol so that “little boys and little girls who come to the Capitol could see someone who looks like them.” Perhaps Clarke wanted to make sure that those little boys and girls saw her standing next to her portrait.

When Clarke was elected to the Mississippi House in a 1985 special election, there were three women serving in the Legislature. She is the first woman to have her portrait hung in the Capitol. A bust of former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy is located prominently in a Senate committee room.

Clarke’s portrait was painted by Jackson artist Ryan Mack. The portrait was based on a photograph from 1985 when she was first elected to the Mississippi House.

Mack said on Tuesday that Clarke’s years-long work to establish drug courts that provided treatment opportunities for people convicted of crimes made the invitation to paint the portrait an even bigger honor.

“It is better to treat people than to incarcerate,” Clarke said in the past. “And that is what the drug court does.”

The portrait was hung in the House Education Committee room. She was a member of the Education Committee for most of her tenure, including serving as vice chair, and worked for many years to boost public education across the state.

Clarke’s tenure in the Legislature ended when she chose not to run for reelection in 2019. Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, said Clarke’s colleagues inquired of having her portrait placed in the Capitol. She said former House Speaker Philip Gunn supported the effort as did then-Speaker Pro Tem Jason White, who is now serving as speaker.

During Tuesday’s ceremony, current House Pro Tem Manly Barton, R-Moss Point, praised Clarke’s persistence in getting legislation passed. For years she filed bills to create a state lottery. When it was finally passed in 2018, Clarke’s colleagues chose to name the lottery in her honor.

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader, said Clarke “effused power but did so with grace and persistence.”

Clarke, a nutritionist and educator, said during a 2019 interview on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast that she was first encouraged by peers to run for Jackson City Council, but her supporters came to her at some point later and said, “We are no longer running for city council. We are running for the House.”

But she added, “The real person who made the decision was a lady in the Mississippi Delta. I called that person and she said, ‘Haven’t I always told you that you don’t know what you can do unless you try and you haven’t tried that.’ I said, ‘Thank you, Mama.’” At that point, she told her supporters she would run.

Clarke represented District 69 — one of the most densely populated districts in Mississippi. But she grew up in rural Humphreys County.

“I picked cotton, and I took pride,” she said, “I guess in making sure no male in the field could beat me picking cotton.”

Clarke went to Alcorn State on a scholarship and later ended up in Jackson, where for decades she has been an integral part of the community.

Her portrait will forever hang in the Mississippi Capitol.

The post Trailblazing state Rep. Alyce Clarke honored with portrait in state Capitol appeared first on Mississippi Today.