Efforts to provide state funding to reestablish a burn center in the state are not dead this legislative session even though the bills filed specifically to accomplish that goal have died.
A bill that would have provided funds for a burn center at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson recently died in the Senate when it was not passed by a key deadline day.
But Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said the issue is not dead. Money can be awarded to a burn center in an appropriations bill.
“All of that will come up in the next 24 to 48 hours,” said Hosemann referencing the work currently ongoing behind closed doors by legislative leaders to hammer out a final budget proposal for the full Legislature to vote on.
The budget will be passed during the final days in more than 100 appropriations bills that will fund the various state agencies and provide funds for specific projects throughout the state. The funds for a burn center, for instance, could be included in the budget for the Department of Health, which under state law has the responsibility to designate a burn center.
The issue has been a highlight of the 2023 legislative session after the state’s only burn center, located at Merit Health Central in south Jackson, closed last year. Merit officials said it was closing because of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and because of recruitment issues.
In the final days of the session, Hosemann said decisions will have to be made on where and if a new burn center will be designated.
Two separate bills have been debated this session about whether a new burn center should be located at Baptist Medical Center in Jackson or at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, also located in Jackson.
The legislation that passed the House in February designated Baptist as the burn center. At the time, some legislators questioned why the burn center was not being moved to UMMC. UMMC has been treating burn patients, they argued. Others pointed out the director of the burn center, when it was located at Merit, had moved to Baptist.
Going into the final days of the session, which is slated to end by April 2, if not earlier, that debate still has not been settled.
Correction 3/15/23: A previous version of this story that a bill passed by the House in February awarded $4 million to Baptist for a burn center. The bill had no funding attached to it.
If ever one basketball game encapsulated an entire season, it was Mississippi State’s excruciatingly painful 60-59 defeat to Pittsburgh at Dayton in Tuesday’s First Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Here’s what I mean:
State fought doggedly throughout, especially on defense and on the boards. The Bulldogs held Pitt nearly 16 points under its scoring average. They out-muscled and out-rebounded the Panthers 49-28 on the boards. But they lost because they could not make a shot when it mattered most.
Rick Cleveland
With just over a second to play, lefty Shakeel Moore launched a wide-open 3-point shot from just beyond the arc. No Panther was in the same zip code. Moore’s shot bounded off the rim. State’s D.J. Jeffries rose high above the goal and still had a chance for the tip-in before the buzzer. His his slap missed its mark, too.
“There was no doubt in our minds we’d fight and claw and we did,” MSU coach Chris Jans said. “We had a couple chances there at the end to win the game, but it didn’t happen.”
Of State’s final possession, Jans said, “It was a heck of a look … It’s all you can ask for, a chance — the ball is in the air, to win an NCAA Tournament game and still have enough time to get a put-back.”
The Bulldogs did everything you are supposed to do except make the shot. Or the put-back.
And that will be the way Jans’ first Bulldogs team is remembered. They were a team that performed so many facets of the game just the way you draw it up. They played hard and with passion. They defended doggedly. Indeed, they finished 10th in all the NCAA in scoring defense, second in the SEC. They rebounded well, finishing 16th in the land in offensive rebounds, third in the SEC.
They shared the basketball, worked for good shots. They just did not make enough of those, especially from the perimeter. Against Pitt, State took 23 three-point shots and made only six. Pitt made nine of 19. There’s your difference and then some. State, despite taking four more treys, scored nine fewer points from beyond the arc.
And this was nothing new. There are 363 Division I-playing basketball teams in the NCAA. The Bulldogs finished 363rd in three-point shooting percentage at 26.6 percent. And yet, they won 23 games and made the NCAA Tournament. They played the team tied with the second best record in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference to the wire.
“I’ll always remember this group for their belief, for their buy-in and for their coachability,” Jans said afterward. “I’ve told them that many times throughout the year. I reiterated it in the locker room just now because it’ll be my first group at Mississippi State. We’re proud of our accomplishments this year. Certainly, we want more. We want to be playing on Friday, but it’s not meant to be.”
Pitt, like State, an 11-seed, goes on to face 6-seed Iowa State Friday afternoon at Greensboro, N.C. State returns to Starkville, where Jans must revamp his roster and get ready for the 2023-24 season. The Bulldogs lose three of their top four scorers and two of their top three rebounders. The biggest loss is obvious: Tolu Smith, deservedly the Bailey Howell Trophy winner, led the Bulldogs in scoring, rebounding, field goal shooting and blocked shots. He will be extremely difficult to replace.
The good news for State – and for Jans – is that in college basketball today you can change a roster extremely fast. Expect the Bulldogs to be active in the portal. “That’s already begun,” Jans said. “That never ends. Recruiting never ends whether you are playing or not.”
It will be difficult, indeed, for State to find another force in the paint like Tolu Smith. But you can bet your cowbell on this: Jans also will be looking for some shooters, guys who can put the ball in the basket – especially from the perimeter.
A wide majority of Mississippians across partisan and demographic lines supports expanding Medicaid to provide health coverage for the working poor, according to a newly released Mississippi Today/Siena College poll.
The poll, conducted on March 6-8, showed 75% of respondents — including 59% of Republicans — said that lawmakers should “accept federal funds to expand Medicaid.” Additionally, 71% of Mississippians said they believe lawmakers should address the state ?s hospital crisis by passing an unspecified long-term funding solution.
Editor’s note: Poll methodology and crosstabs can be found at the bottom of this story. Click here to read more about our partnership with Siena College Research Institute.
The numbers show a continued shift of voter sentiment in what has long been a partisan battle. But there continues to be virtually no movement on the issue by Republican leaders at the state level. In total, 15 bills filed this session to expand Medicaid — all of them authored by Democrats — were killed without debate by Republicans legislative leaders.
Mississippi is one of just 10 states to refuse expansion — and that number is getting smaller by the month, with North Carolina’s legislature deciding in February to expand. Mississippi, in turn, is refusing about $1 billion a year in federal funding meant to help poor states provide healthcare, and leaving up to 300,000 Mississippians without coverage.
Meanwhile, health officials say dozens of rural hospitals are in danger of closure, in large part due to eating the cost of providing care to indigent patients. Some of those hospitals are larger regional care centers, such as Greenwood Leflore Hospital, and even larger metro area hospitals are struggling financially because of uncompensated care costs.
A Siena College/Mississippi Today poll conducted in January indicated slightly higher support for Medicaid expansion. The January survey found that 80% of Mississippians — just outside the March poll’s 4.6% margin of error — supported expansion.
Since January, as various health care and economic groups continue to apply pressure for expansion, several Republican leaders have stepped up their talking points in resistance to expansion.
“Don’t simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare, and socialized medicine,” Gov. Tate Reeves said during his annual State of the State address on Jan. 30. “You have my word that if you stand up to the left’s push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”
Lawmakers are scheduled to remain in Jackson and stay in session until April 2. There has been no serious talk among Republican leaders about Medicaid expansion.
The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department violated the Mississippi Public Records Act for refusing to give incident reports about the deaths of three men killed by sheriff’s deputies or while in their custody, a Rankin County court ruled last week.
On March 10, the Rankin County Chancery Judge Troy Farrell Odom ruled the sheriff’s office wrongly withheld requested incident reports by incorrectly claiming they were investigatory reports, which are exempt under the public records law.
“The public has an absolute right to know the who, what, when, and where,” Odom said during the Feb. 16 bench trial. “ … But the day that our law enforcement officers start shielding this information from the public, all the while repeating, ‘Trust us. We’re from the government,’ is the day that should startle all Americans.”
New York-based media company Insider, Inc., represented by the Mississippi Center for Justice, brought a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office in 2022 for refusing to turn over all records even after a reporter paid a fee invoice. Research editor Hannah Beckler asked the records officer to reconsider its denial, but that was denied.
Insider requested records were for the following deaths:
Cory Jackson, died in the sheriff’s office custody on May 15, 2021.
Damien Montrell Cameron, died in the sheriff’s office custody on July 26, 2021.
Shannon Trevor McKinley, shot Aug. 21, 2021.
Robert Rushton, shot Dec. 21, 2021.
“As the Court recognized in this case, public access to public records — particularly law enforcement incident reports — is the law of the land,” Mississippi Center for Justice President and CEO Vangela M. Wade said in a statement. “In Mississippi, we value a functioning democracy above any tradeoffs of obfuscation.”
In its 2022 complaint, Insider asked the court to order the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department to produce the public records and award Insider all costs and expenses, including attorney’s fees.
Odom said in his Feb. 16 bench ruling that the requested documents were later provided to Insider once the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation completed its investigation. As a result, the court denied Insider’s request for expenses, costs and attorney’s fees.
Records are also being sought in another incident involving Rankin County deputies.
In January, Rankin County deputies allegedly raided a Braxton home where they beat and threatened two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and shot Jenkins in the mouth, according to Malik Shabazz, the men’s attorneys. Federal authorities have opened a civil rights investigation into the deputies’ actions.
The USGA and the Royal and Ancient, the two governing bodies of golf, want to change the golf ball and thus the game of golf. The modern ball goes too far – at least it does for elite golfers and the powers that be want to scale that back. If that happens, it will reduce the distance that pros and top amateurs can hit the ball. Randy Watkins, a former touring pro and a golf course owner, joins us to talk about what the changes might mean.
The Mississippi State University basketball team slipped out of town to play in the NCAA tournament against Loyola University. Mississippi officials had refused to allow the team to play in any tournament that included integrated teams. This time, the State team took matters into its own hands, defying a state injunction. Dubbed “The Game of Change,” it played a key role in the crumbling of segregation in Mississippi and the South. The Loyola team that defeated Mississippi State went on to win the national championship.
Nearly two weeks after being put on administrative leave, Thomas Hudson has resigned as president of Jackson State University.
According to a Tuesday news release from the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, Commissioner Alfred Rankins has accepted Hudson’s resignation. It will be effective March 31. Hudson will remain on administrative leave, with pay, until then.
A call and text to Hudson’s cell phone was not returned. A JSU spokesperson told Mississippi Today that the university would not be releasing its own statement.
Elayne Hayes-Anthony will continue serving as temporary acting president, according to the release. At a press conference last week, Hayes-Anthony told students, faculty and members of the media that IHL gave her no timetable for the appointment.
“I’m going to be here as long as I’m needed,” she said.
Hayes-Anthony has been over JSU’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies. She told Mississippi Today she would receive the same salary and bonus that Hudson did: A $300,000 annual salary from IHL plus a $5,000 annual bonus from the university foundation.
Hudson is a JSU alum and Jackson resident who was appointed president by the IHL board in November 2020 in the wake of a scandal. Earlier that year, his predecessor, William Bynum Jr., had resigned after he was arrested in a prostitution sting at a Clinton hotel. Bynum had been an unpopular pick for president, and under his tenure, JSU’s enrollment fell faster than any other public university in Mississippi.
Hudson was tasked with stabilizing the university. He had worked at JSU since 2012 in various roles, including Title IX coordinator and chief diversity officer. Under his leadership, the university’s finances appeared to blossom. JSU’s days cash on hand grew from 39 to 115, and annual alumni giving tripled.
“We have saved approximately $5,000,000 by restructuring our debt, cleared all audit findings, and have been removed from (accreditation) financial monitoring,” he wrote in a campus-wide letter on Feb. 10 to celebrate his third year as president.
At the time, Hudson said in a statement he was proud of the work his administration had accomplished and that he was “committed to continuing the work to collaboratively execute the strategic plan to make Jackson State the best institution it can be.”
A group organized by Black Voters Matter on Tuesday called on Mississippi lawmakers to kill House Bill 1020 and other measures they see as a “hostile takeover” of Jackson by state leaders.
“This is ruthlessly racist … a land and power grab by a majority-white Legislature,” said Carol Blackmon, state manager of Black Voters Matter Fund, at a press conference at the state Capitol.
HB 1020, as originally drafted, would create a special judicial district within the city of Jackson with judges appointed instead of elected as they are everywhere else in the state. The original measure, billed as a way to fight crime in Jackson, would create permanent judicial posts appointed by the white chief justice of the state Supreme Court instead of elected by the Black majority population of Jackson.
The original measure would also expand an existing Capital Complex Improvement District patrolled by Capitol Police to cover an area of north Jackson that contains most of the city’s white population.
The Senate recently made major changes to the bill, including making chief justice-appointed judges temporary, through 2026, then adding another permanent elected judge for the Hinds County district that covers Jackson. The Senate also changed it to give Capitol Police jurisdiction throughout the city of Jackson, not just in the CCID.
But those protesting the measure on Tuesday — and most of the city’s legislative delegation — still oppose the Senate amended version. The House has also overhauled a separate Senate bill to include its original CCID Capitol Police expansion.
“Our position is if you have real interest in eliminating crime, then why not provide resources to the city’s official police force, instead of creating an alternate one,” Blackmon said.
Unless the House concurs with Senate changes, a panel of House and Senate negotiators will likely try to hammer out a final version of the bills in the final days of the legislative session.
Wendell Paris, of the Minority People’s Council, likened the legislation to the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court Dred Scott decision, which held the Constitution did not extend citizenship or rights to Americans of African descent. He also said it would “violate the spirit and the letter of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.”
“This would create a superstructure that takes away the power of the vote of duly qualified electors,” Paris said. “… Mississippi is one place where we cannot tolerate going back to pre-the Civil War era and violating federal law … It will not stand.”
Wendell and others noted the national attention Mississippi is garnering from the fight over the legislation and warned it could hurt the state economically and “you might not be able to play football in the SEC here.”
Former state Rep. Kathy Sykes of Jackson urged Jacksonians who are not to register to vote or, “this is the kind of thing we get.”
“This (legislation) would have you believe that Black folk cannot govern, and we can,” Sykes said. “… We are asking for help. We are not asking for a takeover … or Jim Crow 2.0.”
Rukia Lumumba, director of the People’s Advocacy Institute and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s sister, told people and media gathered on the Capitol steps Tuesday a story about a youth she once counseled at summer camp, who later started getting into trouble. A Jackson city police officer was often called about problems with the youth. He knew the girl, knew her family and knew the community well enough to find resources to help her get back on the right path instead of locking her up, Lumumba said. She said an occupying state police force cordoning off parts of the city will not provide such community policing.
“Kill these bills,” she said. “The consequences are not minor.”
In just over two weeks, the state’s Division of Medicaid will begin the daunting process of determining for the first time in three yearswhether hundreds of thousands of low-income Mississippians are still eligible for health coverage.
As a result, Mississippians, adults and children, who have had coverage as the result of a federal pandemic-era policy of continuous enrollment could lose health insurance as soon as July, according to the division.
Mississippi’s Medicaid division will begin examining its roughly 890,000 recipients to determine their eligibility starting April 1. But with a staff vacancy rate of 12% and an onslaught of work, national health care experts and local advocates are worried about eligible children, especially, falling through bureaucratic cracks and losing coverage.
Those who work with Medicaid recipients have a litany of concerns: from the division’s ability to effectively communicate with families known to frequently move to the low rate of automatic electronic renewals the state has done in the past.
“It’s nothing new that parents, once they get over a very low income level, they have no coverage because the state hasn’t expanded Medicaid,” said Joan Alker, the executive director and researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. “What is new is we might see thousands of eligible children lose coverage during this process.”
The stakes are high.
Mississippi children in low-income families make up more than half of the state’s overall Medicaid recipients. Some have coverage through Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. During continuous coverage, Medicaid rolls in Mississippi have increased by more than 130,000 people – 80,000 of whom are children.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said as many as 15 million people nationwide could lose Medicaid or CHIP coverage. About 6.8 million people could be disenrolled even though they are still eligible, the department estimates, because of enrollees struggling to navigate the renewal processes, states unable to successfully contact enrollees or other administrative hurdles.
On its end, the state’s Medicaid division said it’s hired 22 new workers in the past week and has 100 contractors to help manage caseloads. The biggest push from the office so far has been asking recipients to ensure their contact information and mailing addresses are up-to-date.
“To raise awareness about redeterminations and the importance for members to update their contact information, (Mississippi Division of Medicaid) launched a Stay Covered campaign in January and invited community partners to sign up to be Coverage Champions,” spokesman Matt Westfield said in a statement. “Our Coverage Champions partners include a diverse mix of health centers and advocacy groups.”
Posts are all over Facebook. Flyers have been shared both online and in-person with scannable codes that link to an online form.
Medicaid coverage is determined by income, but the threshold for children to still qualify in Mississippi is higher than that of their parents and other adults.
Joy Hogge, the director of Families of Allies, a statewide nonprofit that supports children with health challenges, said her office is going to start asking every family who contacts them if they’re aware of the upcoming renewal process.
“We haven’t had families ask questions (on their own),” Hogge said. “So, I don’t know if it’s not reaching them. I’m not sure of what the awareness level is from families being affected.”
So far, Mississippi hasn’t published a detailed unwinding plan. The one document the division was required to upload for the federal government includes a long checklist of measures where the agency could check “already adopted” or “planning or considering to adopt.”
But details of where the state was in the process of adding improvements wasn’t included. That makes it hard to decipher exactly what’s going on, said Garrett Hall, a policy analysis at health advocacy organization Families USA.
Westfield said the state does plan to post a more detailed unwinding plan online once it’s ready. This is something states such as California and Arizona have already done.
Mississippians, for example, don’t have online accounts to easily log in to Medicaid – something 48 other states have, according to KFF. In a tweet earlier this month, Mississippi Division of Medicaid Director Drew Snyder said it was something his office was testing and planned to deploy this year.
Mississippi is taking the full 12 months allowed by the federal government to work through its redetermination process. Arkansas, for example, is planning to do the same process in only six months – something that raises major red flags for health care advocates.
While Hall is glad Mississippi won’t rush through the process in half the time, he does point out that Mississippi doesn’t have a high percentage of “ex parte,” or automatic, renewals. The division told Mississippi Today its automatic renewal rate was 24% before the pandemic – though that’s a rate they expect to go up over the next year.
Hall said states should hit a 50% ex parte rate at minimum.
Using state databases – like of families who qualify for food assistance or individuals receiving unemployment – Medicaid divisions can automatically enroll people they know are still eligible. Hall said it’s the most seamless way to ensure people retain coverage who still qualify.
“No one who is still eligible for coverage should lose it because they are subjected to a confusing and cumbersome renewal process,” Hall said. “Looking at Mississippi’s unwinding plan, they have some steps in the right direction but they need to follow through on some of those further steps.”
Alker worries about whether notices will even reach families. Low-income families are often mobile, and may not know they need to update their address. If the letter does find them, she wonders what the language will be like and if it could be misleading. Alker pointed to a prior instance where Mississippi’s Division of Medicaid shifted enrollees’ coverage without making a public announcement.
“Is it going to be clear that even if a parent loses coverage, their child may still be eligible?” Alker said. “Is there going to be adequate support at the call center to work through the renewal process or questions? Sometimes there are just glitches and delays due to short staffing. All sorts of things can go wrong.”
Westfield said when the Mississippi division begins its redetermination process, it will first focus on auto-renewing benefits using state data systems for electronic verification. If someone can’t be approved this way, they will be mailed a renewal form which they will have 30 days to return to the office.
If the Medicaid division determines someone is no longer qualified, they will receive a notice by mail explaining the decision and how to file an appeal, according to Wesftield. Their information will also be sent to the Health Insurance Marketplace, and they will be notified about their options through the Affordable Care Act.
Michael Minor, the executive director of Oak Hill Regional Community Development Corp., has been working closely with families who qualify for Medicaid or CHIP since 2019. The initiative is called “Healthy Kids MS,” and it aims to keep kids covered and up to date on doctor’s visits.
“We see ourselves as being that unseen, invisible hand there that’s helping folks to work with the system,” Minor said. “It’s a matter of meeting folks where they are.”
That means churches, schools, and doctors offices. Volunteers will even drive forms to Medicaid offices on behalf of families with transportation struggles. Hogge and Minor both said their workers will sit on a phone call to Medicaid with a recipient if that’s the support families need.
Minor and his team of Medicaid navigators are bracing for the surge of questions – but they’re not worried.
‘We’re set up for this,” he said. “And we’re just doing what we normally do.”
A new Mississippi Today/Siena College poll shows Mississippi voters across the spectrum want their right to put issues directly on a statewide ballot restored.
The poll, conducted March 6-8, comes as lawmakers continue to argue mainly about how restrictive these rights should be compared to the Mississippi’s previous ballot initiative process, which the state Supreme Court struck down in a 2021 ruling on medical marijuana.
The poll showed 72% favor reinstating ballot initiative, with 12% opposed and 16% either don’t know or have no opinion. Restoring the right garnered a large majority among Democrats, Republicans, independents and across all demographic, geographic and income lines. Among the wealthiest voters making $100,000-plus a year, support was at 83%.
Editor’s note: Poll methodology and crosstabs can be found at the bottom of this story. Click here to read more about our partnership with Siena College Research Institute.
Many Mississippians were angry when the state’s high court stripped voters of this right in 2021. This was in a ruling on a medical marijuana initiative voters had overwhelmingly passed, taking matters in hand after lawmakers had dallied for years on the issue. Legislative leaders were quick at the time with vows they would restore this right to voters, fix the legal glitches that prompted the Supreme Court to rule it invalid.
But lawmakers could not reach agreement last year on a measure to restore the right, and an effort this year faces an uncertain future as the 2023 legislative session enters its final weeks. The House and Senate have differing versions of the legislation, but both are more restrictive than the process struck down in 2021.
The Senate version would require the signatures of at least 240,000 registered voters to place an issue on a statewide ballot. The House version would require about 106,000, nearer the previous threshold required.
The new poll asked respondents who supported restoration of the ballot initiative whether they supported the higher signature or lower signature threshold. Among respondents, 65% said they wanted the lower threshold of about 106,000 signatures compared to just 26% support for the new proposal of 240,000 signatures.
Opponents of the larger threshold of signatures say that would mean only well-funded, organized interest groups could realistically get a measure on a ballot, not grassroots groups of Mississippians.
Under both proposals, lawmakers by a simple majority vote can change or repeal an initiative approved by voters. The House version would prohibit abortion issues being placed on ballots by citizens.
Under the old process, initiatives passed by voters were enshrined in the state constitution — requiring another statewide vote for changes or repeal. Under both versions now being considered by lawmakers, voters would only be allowed to pass state laws, not constitutional provisions.
Supporters of ballot initiative say voters need a safety valve — a way to bypass the elected Legislature on issues of great importance. Opponents say the process can lead to “mob rules” and democracy should be tempered through legislative representation, protective of minority rights and checked by the judicial and executive branches.
Failure by lawmakers again this year to reinstate the initiative right, or passage of a process voters believe is too restrictive, would likely be an issue in this year’s statewide elections. Both main candidates for governor, incumbent Republican Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley, said they support restoring the right to voters.
Siena has been rated as one of the top pollsters in the nation by the FiveThirtyEight Blog, which analyzes pollster data. The poll, conducted on March 6-8 of 764 registered voters, has a margin of error of 4.6%, meaning the results could vary by that margin.
The respondents had a racial breakdown of 57% white voters and 35% African American voters. It also included 35% Republicans, 33% Democrats and 31% independent and other parties. The poll was conducted via cell phones, landlines and “from a proprietary online panel of Mississippians.”
