OurTupelo

The state government of Mississippi is packed with agencies and commissions that are governed by independent boards and not by the governor.

President Donald Trump argues such independent boards on the federal level violate the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court recently heard arguments from the Trump administration on the issue, and a ruling next year in favor of the president would be far reaching and upend decades of judicial precedence.

Not long ago, a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court abolishing the independent or regulatory boards would have been far fetched, but no longer thanks to the current Supreme Court’s willingness to acquiesce to Trump’s whims.

Is the same possible in Mississippi?

Could Gov. Tate Reeves or some future governor challenge the constitutionality of the independent agencies in this state?

Perhaps. 

After all, anybody can file a lawsuit. And it often appears that whatever Trump does, Reeves and many Mississippi politicians want to emulate. But there are some distinct differences between the powers of the governor under the Mississippi Constitution and the powers of the president under the United States Constitution.

Granted, the U.S. Constitution and Mississippi Constitution are similar in terms of the president and the governor both commanding the military, having broad pardon authority and being able to request reports from agencies.

Both the U.S. Congress and the Mississippi Legislature have created agencies with governing board members appointed by either the governor or the president. Often, the board members serve staggered terms, preventing one chief executive officer from appointing all the members.

The purpose of the independent boards – especially on the national level – is to take politics out of the governance, such as with the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Reserve, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Science Board and a host of others.

Trump wants to be able to fire the board members if he does not like their policies.

Mississippi also has multiple instances of the Legislature creating a governance system where appointed board members hire the executive director and set the policies of the agency. The Department of Mental Health, the Department of Health and the Community College Board are examples where, for whatever reason, the Legislature opted to create an agency with the executive director reporting to the board members instead of the governor.

But there are differences between the Mississippi system and the national system.

Some of the independent agencies are created by the Mississippi Constitution (the people) and not by the Legislature.

The Board of Education, arguably one of the state’s more important boards, is created constitutionally with the members appointed by a combination of the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. The state’s eight public universities are governed by a constitutionally created Board of Trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning. The board members serve staggered terms appointed by governors. In some rare instances, one governor elected to two terms could have all the appointments on the IHL Board.

Then, of course, there are statewide elected officials who oversee their agencies. Most of those state positions – the secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney general – are created by the Constitution and do not answer to the governor. But the insurance commissioner and the commissioner of agriculture and commerce are not constitutional officers. They are legislatively created.

It is not certain the U.S. Supreme Court will grant Trump’s wishes and abolish the independent boards, but many judicial experts believe it is possible if not likely.

But what is certain is that Mississippi’s Republican leadership follows the lead of Trump.

Still, it is difficult to see a scenario where a Mississippi governor would take the issue to court.

First of all, it is highly unlikely that the Mississippi Supreme Court would find a board or agency created by the Mississippi Constitution to be unconstitutional. That would be a difficult position for a judge to take.

In addition, a governor who has a strong relationship with lawmakers might have better luck changing the governance of those independent agencies that are not in the Mississippi Constitution by going to the Mississippi Legislature instead of petitioning the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But in the current crazy political climate, it seems anything is possible.

The Mississippi Mass Choir is honoring the Mississippi roots of its members with a statewide tour.

The “Sound of Church” tour began in Vicksburg on Nov. 23. Services across the state are scheduled through Dec. 21.

Jerry Mannery, the choir’s executive director, said that the tour is an opportunity to spread the Gospel to the communities where its members grew up and lived. 

“We understand that we are first and foremost ambassadors for Christ, and secondly we are ambassadors for the state of Mississippi as well,” he said.

Lillian Lilly of Belhaven is a lead singer, a soprano and one of the original members. She said she felt the Holy Spirit directing her to join the choir.

Lilly said the choir is like a big extended family. She is one of several members whose biological relatives – her son, daughter and granddaughter – are also in the choir.

“It’s a real spiritual experience to sing in church,” she said.

“We’ve had a wonderful time.”

Yolanda Clay-Moore is the choir’s marketing director and soprano singer. She has performed with the choir since 2012. She moved to Brandon when she was 10, and the Mississippi Mass Choir’s music was a major part of her church experience growing up. 

Clay-Moore considers it an honor to be part of the choir and still considers herself a fan.

When asked what she hopes audiences will take away from the services, she said, “The number one goal is always to bring someone to Christ, or to reunite them with Christ.” 

Gospel singer Frank Williams founded the Mississippi Mass Choir in 1988. Today, the choir has 214 members, has released 13 albums and has numerous achievements, including four Grammy nominations and a Stellar Gospel Music Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mannery has been the choir’s executive director since Williams’ death in 1993. 

“Right now this is a very difficult time to live in, and people are really under a lot of pressure, and people are bound by a lot of things that are outside of their control,” Mannery said. 

“But we know that when the spirit of the Lord shows up through our songs, that it sets people free,” he added.

The remaining Sound of Church tour dates currently scheduled across the state are Dec. 14 at Jerusalem Temple Church in Philadelphia. and Dec. 21 at White Hill MB Church in Tupelo.

A sex discrimination lawsuit against the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees will proceed with the board and each member named as defendants, a federal appeals court has ruled. 

Debra Mays-Jackson, former vice president and chief of staff at Jackson State University, alleges that despite being qualified to lead the historically Black university, she was passed over in 2023 in favor of a man with less experience. IHL trustees had claimed qualified immunity, a legal protection from liability for government officials, in an effort to dismiss the case. 

In its ruling Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a U.S. district court’s previous decision that Mays-Jackson had adequately pleaded an equal protection violation. The federal appeals court ruling affirms that the lawsuit can continue, and not whether any discrimination occurred. 

John Sewell, a spokesman for the IHL board, said trustees do not comment on pending litigation. Lisa Ross, Mays-Jackson’s attorney, told Mississippi Today she had no further comment. 

For now, Mays-Jackson’s case will return to the federal district court, where it will proceed discovery, summary judgement or trial. The 5th Circuit judges will not weigh in on the final ruling or decision of the case. 

In November 2023, Ross filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of the U.S. Court District for Mississippi. It was the same day the IHL board hired Marcus Thompson, then an IHL deputy commissioner, to lead JSU. Thompson was not one of 79 applications for the role, according to Mays-Jackson’s lawsuit. 

Mays-Jackson’s lawsuit, which represents one side of a legal argument, also accuses individual IHL board members of denying her an interview and voting to appoint Thompson. The federal court ruled those allegations, if true, are enough to show possible constitutional violations by each person named in the lawsuit. 

Kenneth Stokes is preoccupied with the concept of “dope boys.”

It’s one of the longtime Jackson city councilman’s go-to insults, hurled toward people he blames for the city’s woes. “Dope boys are controlling this city,” he said during a December council meeting.

He has recently zeroed in on the owner of a food truck that secured a business license with the city last year and operates on an empty lot near Stokes’ home in central Jackson’s Georgetown neighborhood.

The blue trailer housing Georgetown Grub is one of few places in the area to grab a bite. It serves wings, quesadillas, cheesesteaks and fried broccoli across from an abandoned Jasco gas station. 

Stokes alleges it serves dope. 

“The dope boys have found a way to get the planning department to help give permission and permits for them to have food trucks,” he said from behind the council dais. “They’re not selling food, but they’re selling dope.”

This, in part, is what inspired Stokes’ new ordinance, enacted Dec. 2, banning city employees from maintaining any kind of business or personal relationship with anyone “known to be engaged in illegal drug activity.” 

The new law perplexed some Jacksonians, leaving them to wonder what conspiracies are afoot at City Hall. But for residents in Georgetown, it’s clear the origin of Stokes’ decree is more personal – considering the owner of the supposed drug-deal-on-wheels is the councilman’s own nephew, Daniel Cooper.

An HVAC technician who manages several rental homes in the neighborhood, Cooper said he opened the mobile restaurant – which, indeed, sells food – last year after cleaning up an abandoned lot owned by his late grandfather. 

Cooper, who now lives in Clinton with his wife and teenage son, said he wanted to help revitalize the neighborhood where he grew up. But ever since he returned to Georgetown, Cooper said he’s dealt with harassment from the councilman. Mississippi Today found no Jackson drug sale charges in Cooper’s history. 

“He thinks he can’t be touched. He thinks that everybody sells dope,” Cooper said of Stokes. “But he met his match with me because I’m not scared to fight back, because I know I’m not doing nothing illegal.”

“I’m not going to let a lie run me from that lot and diminish my father and my grandfather’s legacy,” Cooper said.

Not only does Stokes say the food truck is a dope operation, he also claims it has no authority to operate there on a major thoroughfare at the intersection of Woodrow Wilson and Ludlow avenues. That’s because of its complicated ownership status: The lot is heirs property, meaning its owner did not leave a will when he died. 

Several people have a potential stake in the property, including Cooper’s father and, since his wife died, Stokes and their children.

The city’s longest serving councilmember elected in 1989, Stokes has taken exceptional steps to target Cooper’s business, repeatedly calling the cops, complaining to city business departments, blocking the entrance of the lot with his own truck and now using it to justify his nebulous ordinance.

The ordinance, which was not reviewed by the city’s legal office before passage, requires employees who know of colleagues with relationships to drug dealers to “immediately” disclose the information to the city attorney. 

Earlier this week, City Attorney Drew Martin said no one, including Stokes, has made such a report.

There’s little dispute that Georgetown, a historically Black neighborhood in a census tract with a poverty rate of over 30%, experiences crime because of the presence of narcotics. 

“He does have concerns that there are folks in that part of town who are engaged in illegal activity, and I share his concerns,” Pieter Teeuwissen, the city’s chief administrative officer and a former Hinds County judge, said of Stokes. “I can’t say I share those concerns about these individuals.” 

The neighborhood is also home to elderly and working class people who live in colorful, well-kept homes, enjoy fresh produce from a community garden and generally love their community.

But Stokes and one of his neighbors and allies, Geneva Johnson, are adamant that Georgetown is overridden with dope dealers, who they say congregate at the barber shop across the street from the food truck and, before it closed, the Jasco at the same intersection. Stokes takes credit for shuttering the gas station. 

Johnson said she’s experienced multiple burglaries, and that despite her numerous calls, police have neglected to address the dope problem. She estimates drug dealers live in 13 out of 24 houses on her block. This activity is one reason they allege Cooper must be involved with drugs.

“If they were not involved with drugs, why would they locate there, in a drug haven?” Stokes said.

Ten years ago, police raided the building housing the barbershop, finding $6,000 worth of methamphetamine. Its owner Shawn Morrow was arrested, but he said the drugs were found in a separate unit from his shop, and his guilty plea was deferred, meaning the court dismissed the charges after he completed three years of probation. 

In the last two years, police have recorded two calls at the address, both for “suspicious circumstances,” according to a JPD call log.

Morrow denied having any involvement in drugs, but he wasn’t surprised by the accusation, which he said is a common refrain from Stokes. Morrow told Mississippi Today that Stokes has run off all Black businesses in the area and has failed to do anything to build up the community. 

Stokes is known for cruising the neighborhood in his white Chevy Suburban, scowling, several residents told Mississippi Today.

Johnson similarly keeps a look out. When she sees Daniel Cooper in the neighborhood, she alleges his conduct matches that of the other dealers she’s aware of in the area.

“It’s obvious that they’re doing something illegal because the cars come and go,” Johnson said, adding that people in the neighborhood frequently approach Cooper. “Who walks away with their hand closed up? Nobody.”

Resident Norma Michael, the Georgetown Community Neighborhood Association president and founder of the “Sharing is Caring” Neighborhood Block Garden, said she’s disappointed by the claims, for the message they send about her community. She told Mississippi Today that no one who attends the association’s meetings has complained about drug dealing in the neighborhood. 

Michael said it seems like Stokes’ is on a “witch hunt” because nearly every issue he has raised recently about the neighborhood seems to trace back to Cooper. 

“He has an obsession about it, and I can’t understand that,” she said. “Here’s a man trying to do something about the neighborhood. It’s no drugs, it’s no people hanging around (the food truck) drinking or smoking or things like that. It was a good thing to me.” 

Cooper and his father, Roy Byram Cooper, argue their efforts have reduced crime in the neighborhood. Vagrants had taken up residence in an abandoned office building on their family lot before they demolished it. They said a house across the street was a high-traffic area with a frequent police presence until Daniel Cooper bought and renovated it. A WLBT news report even highlighted their progress in a recent feature. 

“If you had any evidence for the things you’re saying and accusing us, my son, of doing, then you should present it and we can move forward from that,” Roy Byram Cooper told Mississippi Today. “He’s not giving us anything to defend. He’s just making accusations because of his position.”

Gabrielle Cooper, Daniel’s sister, said Stokes is using his power as a city official to harass her brother, turning what is a family matter into a public issue. 

“The council might just ignore him,” she said. “But there are people who are listening, and it’s your responsibility to say something regardless of if you feel like he’s just talking.” 

A family dispute

Stokes’ screed against Daniel Cooper also deals with the ownership status of the property where Georgetown Grub resides.

The parcel has been in the Cooper family name for decades. Daniel Cooper’s grandfather, Roy Cooper, repaired air-conditioning units and owned a two-story building that housed several family businesses – a beauty salon, an ice cream parlor and a brass exchange company. 

Daniel Cooper’s father, Roy Byram Cooper, also went into the HVAC trade and helped his father maintain the property. Now 71, Roy Byram Cooper told Mississippi Today he takes pride in working with his hands, one time writing his name into sidewalk concrete he poured outside the building. 

“The other kids, they had their own careers and other things they were doing,” Roy Byram Cooper said of his siblings. “See, Daddy and I were blue collar.”

But after Roy Cooper died in 2012, the building fell into disrepair and the ownership of the lot into limbo. He has many heirs, but a court would need to establish the shares to which they’re entitled, and that hasn’t happened yet. 

Stokes told Mississippi Today during the reporting of this story that he was working with an attorney to initiate that process, but the Coopers’ attorney beat him to it, filing a petition Thursday to open the estate.

Still, the councilman has gone around boasting that he owns the property. 

“I’ll tell you this, if Mr. Cooper owned it, I own it,” Stokes said recently, taunting a few of Cooper’s friends who were using the lot to pass out food the day before Thanksgiving. 

“Go to law school,” Stokes said when pressed for an explanation before driving away, according to a video recording.

Roy Bryam Cooper says he has never gotten along with Stokes. The councilman says the same, calling his brother-in-law a “bad apple” and alleging he’s a dope dealer, too. 

But Stokes wasn’t acting out a vendetta until after Cooper-Stokes died in 2023, the brother-in-law said.

“If he wasn’t a councilman, it wouldn’t be no problem,” Roy Bryam Cooper said. “But because of him being a councilman, he knows people downtown. So he’s tried every avenue he can to try to shut it down.”

The Coopers also suspect that Stokes, whose family owns properties throughout the area, is out for a landgrab. 

For Stokes, some bitterness comes from his claim that he took out a loan years ago to pay the unpaid taxes on the property – at the request of his wife – so the Cooper family wouldn’t lose it to a tax sale. 

But he also says he doesn’t want the property. Rather, it’s the alleged drug activity – on property bearing his wife’s family name – that makes him so intent on shutting the food truck down.

“If people in these neighborhoods know that this is drug-related and everybody in these neighborhoods know that was my wife’s father’s property, you don’t think they would associate my wife’s good name with the negative activity taking place?” Stokes told Mississippi Today. 

The Cooper family hasn’t collectively decided the future of their lot, hence the temporary restaurant. Daniel Cooper said they are waiting to see how the neighborhood develops. 

But Stokes’ allegations about his nephew’s conduct extend beyond the heirs property to just about every effort Daniel Cooper said he’s made to improve the community.

Daniel Cooper and his wife began buying property in Georgetown a decade ago. He said he uses one of the homes as a makeshift office and storage for maintenance supplies to take care of his rentals. 

He said he’s tried to bring positivity in other ways, too. Cooper and his friends took a small tractor to a block of nearby Crawford Street, a mostly wooded area, to rid the street of debris and trash. Volunteers use the Cooper lot to distribute toys and back-to-school supplies for young people in the neighborhood.

Stokes has referenced each of these endeavors, alleging the address of Cooper’s home office is a drug spot, that his nephew is recruiting young people in the neighborhood to deal drugs in exchange for bicycles and that his cleanup efforts are strictly a performance.

“We got to stop them from participating in cleanups, ‘cause they trying to clean their image,” Stokes said during a Nov. 4 council meeting. “If there’s going to be cleanups, I have an ordinance to come. It must be approved by the mayor or the CAO to make sure that the wrong element is not involved.”

Marshaling city resources 

Stokes’ efforts to expose the food truck began the very day his nephew placed the trailer on the lot last year, Daniel Cooper said.

Stokes began by claiming the business, co-owned by Daniel Cooper and his father, does not have permission to be there. He alleged Roy Byram Cooper fraudulently signed city paperwork using his deceased father’s name.

In fact, the lease agreement, obtained by Mississippi Today, was signed “Roy Cooper” by Roy Byram Cooper, who shares a name with his late father. 

While Stokes has failed to make his case to the city, he has repeatedly made this forgery allegation.

“I never heard of a dead person giving permission for people to use his property,” Stokes said at an Oct. 7 council meeting. 

Stokes also insisted to Mississippi Today that the Coopers acquired the food truck used from a “dope man that’s already in jail,” but the Coopers provided a check and receipt showing they purchased the trailer new from a manufacturer in Texas.

Roy Byram Cooper said he tried to ignore his brother-in-law’s antics. Over the last year, police have visited the food truck, “in droves,” Daniel Cooper said. When it came time to renew the business license this fall, he said the city planning department’s response was sluggish.

The Coopers eventually pushed back. In August, their attorney, John Hall, sent a letter to the city attorney and planning and development department noting his clients had faced roadblocks from the city despite satisfying its permitting and licensing requirements. 

“It has come to our attention that this inference stems from the actions of a member of the Jackson City Council who is acting under the color of his authority and law in a manner that exceeds his proper jurisdiction and violates my clients’ rights to due process and equal treatment under the law,” Hall wrote. 

Hall received no response, and Stokes did not stop. 

In response to Stokes’ complaints, Teeuwissen said he paid a visit to Georgetown Grub in mid-October. On a warm Friday afternoon, he sat in his car across the street and observed two people coming and going. One bought what appeared to be a drink and another seemed to buy food. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

When he reviewed the business file, it didn’t take long for Teewuissen to realize Stokes had a familial connection to the property. But he said he found no reason for the city to reject the business renewal.

“The I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed,” Teeuwissen told Mississippi Today.

While the city was still contemplating the renewal, an unusual series of events transpired.

The mysterious Impala

First, a man, unrelated to anyone in this saga, was driving down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive days before Thanksgiving when his car engine died. He wrote his phone number and a message saying he’d be back, and then left that piece of paper on the driver’s window after pushing the broken-down Chevy Impala into an empty lot.

The lot belonged to Stokes. The councilman then hired a wrecker to tow the car blocks away, next to the food truck.

Hours later, volunteers with a group called Organized Gentlemen arrived at the Cooper lot for a Thanksgiving food drive and encountered the Impala. 

As the group of men, local law students and a judge dished plates of turkey, mac and cheese, and green beans, Stokes appeared. The councilman summoned the police to meet him and asked an officer to run the plates to see if the car was stolen. 

The confrontation put a damper on what had been a joyous event and made the people there to receive food feel uneasy, said Perry Thomas, a member of Organized Gentlemen.

“You could see their face change,” he said.

Thomas, wearing blue food-safe gloves, approached Stokes to inquire about the gray Impala and why Stokes had called the cops, according to a video recording. The councilman sat on the hood of another broken down car, a vintage Mercedes that belonged to Cooper’s grandfather, and answered by repeating: “FBI. FBI. FBI.” 

Police found the Impala was not stolen. Stokes told Mississippi Today he had the car towed because he was attempting to do gravel work on property where the car was left as part of his effort to build a museum for his late wife. 

Cooper said he believes Stokes was attempting to harass, or worse, entrap him. 

The following Monday, when Cooper’s cook arrived to open up the truck for the day, Stokes had maneuvered his SUV to block the lot’s entrance on Ludlow Avenue. 

Cooper, exasperated, called the cops. As he began to explain the problem, the arriving officer interjected, “I already know. We’ve been dealing with this for a while,” according to a recording obtained by Mississippi Today.

The officer told Stokes he couldn’t block the property because Cooper possessed all the proper paperwork. He would know: “We’ve had several officers to come out here and they’ve did several reports,” the officer said.

“Y’all have to work this out a better way than this,” he added. “Because this is going to cause somebody to get hurt.” 

Stokes’ antics may seem petty, but Cooper said he’s afraid of what might happen if someone takes his uncle seriously. Stokes is a city councilman who appears on the news, after all. 

If an idea that Cooper’s food truck is full of drugs prevails, Cooper said it’s not hard to imagine someone trying to rob his business. The same goes for his nearby office. Or what if the man who owned the Impala had spotted it on Cooper’s lot and gotten angry?

“It has you paranoid at all times, thinking that somebody might believe this junk,” Cooper said. “I just have to hope nothing that he’s trying to conspire to do works.”

Slang in city code

The clerk of council first read aloud Stokes’ “dope dealer” ordinance during the council meeting Nov. 18. Attendees laughed, but the other council members had no comment, and the meeting proceeded to other items. 

When Stokes brought the measure to a vote Dec. 2, he explained that in addition to problems in his neighborhood, his ordinance was also a nod to a recent FBI sting involving Mississippi Delta sheriffs, as well as a federal investigation that ensnared Jackson’s former mayor, a former Jackson council member and the Hinds County district attorney. 

The Jackson case doesn’t pertain to drugs, rather a development proposal, but District Attorney Jody Owens was quoted in the 2024 indictment as saying, “We can take dope boy money… but I need to clean it and spread it.”

After Stokes’ spiel, his council colleagues raised concerns: Should city employees shun family members they suspect of selling drugs? What if someone was convicted years ago and has reformed? How would the ordinance be enforced? 

“If you believe this city is that unsafe, we need to have a task force or something in place to do something with safety and security,” Ward 2 Councilwoman Tina Clay said after introducing an amendment to replace the term “dope” with “drug,” arguing city code should not contain slang. 

Her amendment failed, but two others passed: Only drug activity within the last year would count, and the ordinance would not violate or impose on federal law. The ordinance passed with all but Clay voting yes. 

Not long after, Stokes spotted Cooper and his friend, Jeremy Harris, in the hallway through the glass of the chamber doors. The men had hoped to hear what Stokes was saying about them. Stokes left the meeting and summoned a Jackson Police Department assistant chief to deal with the men.

Out in the hallway, Harris asked Stokes if it’s illegal to attend a public meeting, to which Stokes responds: “It’s against the law to be a dope boy,” according to a video recording.

“I’m not a dope boy,” Harris told him. “Just ‘cause you said don’t mean it’s true.” 

The officer asked the pair to leave City Hall, and they didn’t put up a fight, Cooper said. Stokes moseyed back to his leather seat behind the dais. 

“I left the council chambers ‘cause the dope boys had showed up,” he announced, adding that he’d given Cooper’s office address to the sheriff, FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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

Growing up in a grocery store in the Arkansas Delta resulted in a part of my DNA being formed with the smell of freshly sliced bologna and the clinking of ice in the ice box that kept drinks cold. One of my favorite memories was standing on a Coke case selling the drinks and baked goods to customers of all ages.

Country stores are mostly memories of bygone days, but in my case, I learned many life lessons spending my preschool years there. My daddy was owner and proprietor of the store that served mostly farm workers, community residents and individuals who used the store as a bus stop for trips to bigger cities like Memphis. In his 50 years running the store, he was familiar with multigenerational families, and many of them considered him family.

Early on, I saw hardworking people going to the fields every day —  rain or shine — with a cotton sack or hoe. Not to be overly dramatic but I knew even then, if you did not eat, you could not be healthy enough to work. I got into the food business before food stamps were a staple.

In the 1950s at our store, the real currency was credit, trust and the monthly payments made by patrons when they were paid. Daddy kept a ticket on each credit customer, and with nothing more than a cigar box and his own accounting system, he maintained meticulous records. I never saw a dispute with a customer.

Life changed over time. The ice box was replaced with a refrigerated cooler, and the Coke box was put away. I was trusted to make change, and my payment for helping out was the chance to play the pinball machine.

By the time I left the community, food stamps and cash were prominent means of payment, even though the monthly credit was still an option to regular customers. The type of food changed as new products were promoted on television and added to the basics.

As I became an adolescent, my days of working at the store were replaced by involvement in school activities. But as I became a young adult schoolteacher, I found myself back there holding a makeshift summer kindergarten on the front porch. With more mature eyes, I saw the place and the people differently.

I knew the popsicle from Mr. Raymond’s store was my drawing card for attendance, and it worked. Children walked to the store accompanied by an older child or adult, while the local elementary school principal and a parent with a car transported those who lived too far away to walk. We learned basic skills to be better prepared for first grade.

As a first-grade teacher, I saw starving children eating as much as they could hold in the school cafeteria. With stomachs bulging, we would return to the classroom to digest and hopefully keep it down. I also saw their parents working for a very low wage and trying to navigate the life they had.

Today, many people assume that children no longer live in food-scarce homes. However, according to Feeding America, for the last 19 years at the county level Mississippi has the highest rate of food insecurity in the country. We deserve the rating.

The minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour. The most recent report disseminated by the United Ways in Mississippi underscores the depth of the problem. In 2023, based on the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), 19% of Mississippi households were defined as being in poverty.

Yet this measure failed to account for an additional 30% of the state’s households that were also experiencing financial hardship. These households fall into the ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — earning above the FPL, but not enough to afford basic expenses in the county where they live.

Combined, ALICE households and households living in poverty make up an estimated 49% of Mississippi homes below the ALICE Threshold in 2023. This rate placed Mississippi 50th among all states and the District of Columbia with first representing the lowest rate of hardship. Families below this threshold are forced to make impossible choices — like deciding whether to pay for utilities or a car repair, whether to buy food or fill a prescription.

The history of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP helps explain the hardship many Mississippians face today. It began when unemployment was widespread and there was an agricultural surplus.

From the beginning, its purpose was and still is to supplement the income of working-class families and individuals on fixed incomes due to low wages and high costs of living.

Some of today’s most successful men and women participated in the SNAP or the federal supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, also known as WIC.

During my son’s pursuit of a master’s degree in theology, he applied for WIC, which is a cousin to SNAP. With a new baby and only one very fixed-income, WIC was a critical supplement to their budget.

Research clearly demonstrates access to healthful, nutritious food during pregnancy and early childhood is essential for a strong start in life. For babies, good prenatal nutrition helps lay the foundation for healthy brain development supporting learning, behavior and mental health well into adulthood.

A balanced diet also builds stronger immune systems, leading to fewer infections and doctor visits. It is important to Mississippians to lower the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, which all carry high lifetime medical costs and result in missing work. When adults are frequently sick, the workforce becomes less productive, affecting not only families but the state’s overall economic health.

Mississippi consistently has some of the highest food costs in the nation. It can be difficult for Mississippians to afford healthy foods that help their babies grow up healthy. As of July 1, Mississippi has a grocery tax of 5% while 33 states do not have any.

Mississippi continues to struggle with food deserts, where access to full-service grocery stores is limited and reliable transportation is often unavailable. For many families, the only nearby options are gas stations and dollar stores – places where fresh, nutritious food is scarce.

I have no fight with the state auditor or governor if they want to campaign for cutting food stamps to purchase sugary foods. But I do take issue with the growing atmosphere of disrespect toward the working people who rely on these benefits. These families deserve dignity, not judgment.

When the nation was facing a government shutdown earlier this year, Gov. Tate Reeves talked about requesting a waiver to limit the use of food stamps on sugary products such as drinks and candy even though there were questions of whether there would be any SNAP payments at all. He commented that “welfare benefits are a hand-up for those in desperate temporary need.”

The truth is, there was and still is a desperate need across the state for the full SNAP payments disseminated to participants. Yet during the shutdown, Gov. Reeves was not interested in following the strategy Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry implemented. He used Louisiana state emergency funds to allocate $150 million to supplement SNAP during the shutdown.

This contrast reveals a fatal flaw in Mississippi’s leadership. When the weakest link in the chain of productivity breaks or is damaged, the entire system suffers.

Without healthy workers who keep our streets clean, prepare hotel rooms and staff our restaurants, we will have no tourism, no community growth, no strong tax base and no one to train in the highly publicized high-paying jobs coming into our state.

It seems to be a no-brainer.

Bio: Cathy Grace is the early childhood specialist at the North Mississippi Education Consortium. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 50 years as a first -grade teacher, consultant to state and nonprofit agencies and child care programs. Grace taught early childhood education at four state universities and retired from Mississippi State University as professor emerita. She also directed the planning and implementation of public kindergarten while employed at the Mississippi Department of Education. She has worked in Washington as an early childhood advocate and presented research numerous times at state, regional and national conferences. 

As health insurance premiums for next year rise and threaten to push hundreds of thousands of Mississippians off plans, a “perfect storm” is brewing that could steer people towards riskier coverage options, experts warn. 

About 200,000 Mississippians are expected to drop their Affordable Care Act Marketplace coverage if Congress does not vote to extend the enhanced premium tax credits that make coverage more affordable for over 22 million Americans. Mississippi is expected to see one of the steepest dropoffs in health coverage among all states.

People who are seeking affordable coverage options may be drawn to plans that “walk and talk” like traditional health insurance, but don’t have to follow ACA rules, local and national experts told Mississippi Today. These alternatives — including short-term limited duration, fixed indemnity, Farm Bureau and health care sharing ministries — are not required to cover people with preexisting conditions and may not provide maternity, prescription or mental health services. 

These alternatives may seem like good options for lowering health costs, but could instead expose consumers to financial risks, leaving them vulnerable to losing coverage or not being able to afford care when they need it, said JoAnn Volk, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. 

“They may seem more affordable in terms of the premium, but that’s because you’re going to pay more out of pocket or not have coverage at all,” Volk said.  

And they are often deceptively marketed to look like comprehensive health insurance, she noted, so that consumers don’t understand exactly what type of plan they are purchasing or the risks they are assuming. 

Because the plans are exempt from ACA regulations, they can choose to deny coverage, exclude certain services, retroactively cancel coverage after you submit a claim, set a dollar limit on your health benefits and don’t have to meet requirements for the portion of a customer’s premiums that they spend on medical services. 

Khaylah Scott, a program manager for Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, said the organization’s consumer assistance program has seen this scenario play out many times. 

“Consumers would purchase an ‘affordable’ plan, but later discover it’s of no-good use, either because a provider doesn’t accept it, or the services they seek aren’t covered,” she said in an email.

If enhanced premium tax credits are not extended by Congress, consumers who are insured through the Marketplace will pay more than double on average, according to KFF, though the rate changes will vary based on age, income and location. 

Republicans and Democrats have both proposed competing health care bills aimed at addressing the subsidies’ pending expiration. Democrats have proposed extending the subsidies for three years, while the Republican plan would replace the enhanced tax credits with new health savings accounts. The Republican-controlled Senate voted Thursday to reject both health care bills, reported the Associated Press. 

“It’s never too late to extend these subsidies,” said Volk. “But every day that goes by, there’s more damage done, people who went and looked at the price and walked away for good or took the bait and went to a substandard plan.” 

And as people leave the Marketplace in pursuit of lower-cost plans, costs may rise for those that remain. 

“Mississippians remaining in the ACA Marketplace can experience higher premiums because the insurers expect healthy people to leave for the cheaper, inadequate, short-term plans,” Scott said. 

One such plan — short-term limited duration health insurance — could gain traction as Marketplace plans become less affordable, especially after the Trump administration indicated earlier this year it is loosening restrictions.

Short-term limited duration health plans were designed to insure people with a short-term gap in coverage, like those who are between jobs. The plans are limited in length — up to three months plus renewals, according to current federal rules — and are often also limited in the types of services they cover. 

“Mississippians that buy these short-term policies risk being left with significant medical bills,” Scott said.

The Trump administration announced in August it will not prioritize enforcement of Biden-era consumer protections for short-term plans and will consider rule changes that could roll back those regulations. The strictness of regulations for the plans have seesawed back and forth between different administrations. 

“Until future rulemaking is issued and applicable, the Departments (of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury) do not intend to prioritize enforcement actions for violations related to failing to meet the definition of ‘short-term, limited-duration insurance,’” read the announcement. 

Farm Bureau plans are similar in that they are less expensive than traditional health plans but often have restrictions on coverage. They usually cover primary care visits and most medical procedures, but aren’t required to cover people with pre-existing conditions or maintain coverage when people become ill. 

Fixed indemnity plans pay a predetermined amount for covered services and act as a supplement to health insurance. The plans give patients the option of going to the provider of their choice, but don’t always cover the full costs of care, saddling patients with high out-of-pocket costs.

The Obama administration issued a rule that fixed indemnity plans could only be sold to people with existing health insurance coverage in 2014, but two years later, the courts struck the rule down, arguing that the federal government could not restrict the sale of the plans.

The plans can be a helpful supplement used to pay for out-of-pocket health insurance costs, but they aren’t a substitute for a traditional plan, Volk said. 

“It’s when they’re sold instead of a comprehensive plan as if they provide good enough protection against unintended or unforeseen costs, that it’s problematic,” said Volk. 

Health care sharing ministries are a type of plan in which members, who often share a common religious belief, make monthly payments to cover the health expenses of other people enrolled in the ministry. But like the aforementioned alternatives to health insurance, plans offered within these ministries don’t have to follow the same rules as those that follow ACA standards. 

The ministries have come under increased scrutiny in recent years. 

One such organization, Sharity Ministries, filed for bankruptcy and dissolved in 2021, leaving about 10,000 families with $50 million in unpaid medical bills when it shut down. Former members were projected to receive only a small fraction of what they were owed after a liquidation plan was approved. 

The state of California sued the organization’s parent company in 2022, alleging it spent only 16 cents on the dollar of members’ monthly payments on health care. The case was settled in October 2025, barring the company from doing business in California and imposing a fine of $34 million. 

Marketing of these plans flourishes when health insurance coverage becomes less affordable for people, just like they will if the enhanced Marketplace subsidies expire at the end of this year, said Volk. 

During sales, brokers may withhold important information — like the subsidies people are eligible for through the ACA Marketplace, which prevent people from making apples-to-apples comparisons based on their premiums, she said. 

Secret shopper studies performed by researchers have shown that sales representatives sometimes use misleading tactics to pitch alternatives to comprehensive insurance. 

In about one out of four tests in a 2020 Government Accountability Office study, health insurance sales representatives engaged in potentially deceptive practices, such as claiming that a pre-existing condition was covered even when plan documents said otherwise. 

To protect yourself from deceptive marketing practices, Volk recommends working with a reputable health insurance broker in your community, ideally with a brick-and-mortar location, and asking for a summary of benefits or coverage, a document that is required for all insurance plans to help consumers compare their options. 

“If they’re holding back on information and especially if they can’t provide a summary of benefits and coverage, that is a sign,” she said.

As federal agents move through Mississippi, a handful of local law enforcement agencies and jails are offering assistance through agreements to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

“We’re assuming, until we find out differently, that our local sheriffs and police are, at a minimum, communicating and perhaps sharing information with ICE,” said Lea Campbell, a member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mutual Aid Collective, a community advocacy group. 

The agency has several types of agreements and contracts with local, county and state law enforcement, including identifying those in violation of immigration laws in jails and assisting in arrests. Another agreement, in place for several years in Madison and Hancock counties,  enables local jurisdictions to serve as holding facilities for detainees,

Four sheriff’s departments and two state offices already have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, giving them some immigration enforcement abilities through collaboration with ICE. 

The Department of Public Safety has a pending agreement in Hinds County. 

Bailey Holloway, spokesperson for the department, said officers from the Mississippi Highway Patrol,  Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division will partner with ICE to identify people suspected to be in the country without legal authorization who are not charged with crimes. She also said the DPS officers will exercise limited immigration authority on ICE-led task forces. 

“The Mississippi Department of Public Safety will work in full cooperation with our federal partners to assist in enforcing immigration laws and removing individuals who are in the country unlawfully, ensuring the safety of our communities,” she wrote in a Thursday email. 

Under the 287(g) program, there are three models: jail enforcement, warrant service officer and task force. The first two allow people to identify suspected immigrants ina jail and to make civil administrative arrests on behalf of ICE in the jail. 

Agencies can have more than one model. Those who have a 287(g) agreement are:

• Jail enforcement model: the sheriff’s departments in Harrison, Monroe and Stone counties
• Warrant service officer model: the sheriff’s departments in Harrison, Lauderdale and Stone counties
• Task force model: attorney general’s office, state auditor’s office, Stone County Sheriff’s Department

Lauderdale County Sheriff Ward Calhoun said he saw the agreement as an opportunity to help federal partners including ICE and help process immigration cases. 

With the jail warrant service program, Calhoun said up to five deputies who work in the detention center will be trained to serve administrative warrants. He called this department’s role in immigration enforcement minor and clerical. 

When asked if the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department would be interested in expanding to the different 287(g) models, Calhoun said that is not likely. 

“We just don’t think there’s that many individuals in the community that we’re aware of who are here illegally, so I don’t see a need for us to do anything any differently,” he said. 

Calhoun estimated that within the past three years, the sheriff’s office has been asked a dozen times a year to hold someone in its jail until ICE can pick them up.  

The task force model allows officers to enforce civil immigration law on the street when working with the agency. 

State Auditor Shad White said two agents from his office volunteered to be trained in immigration law enforcement and assist ICE in whatever way they can. 

“ICE agents and the Trump administration are working hard to stop illegal immigration, and they need every law enforcement officer willing to assist in their corner,” White said in a September statement. 

The first Mississippi agency to sign a 287(g) agreement was the attorney general’s office earlier this year. 

These agreements aren’t new but have exploded under President Donald Trump from 80 in 2010 to hundreds this year, Austin Kocher, an associate professor at Syracuse University who researches the immigration enforcement system, wrote in a Journalist’s Resource post. 

As of Dec. 9, over 1,200 active 287(g) memorandums are in force in 39 states and one U.S. territory, with another eight pending agreements, according to ICE. 

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement signed the first 287(g) agreement in 2002 under President George W. Bush, Kocher writes. President Barack Obama ended the task force model, partly due to lawsuits and Justice Department investigations that showed problems with its implementation. 

During his first administration, Trump expanded the 287(g) program and saw a large increase in participation, according to Kocher. President Joe Biden’s administration preserved some existing agreements but decided to halt new ones.  

Kocher wrote that this year during Trump’s second administration, the president issued an executive order to “aggressively – yet quietly – (expand)” 287(g) agreements. The administration is also reimbursing participating law enforcement agencies through the “Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

Kocher wrote that part of the explosion of new 287(g) agreements is driven by the revival of the task force model. He also noted more types of agencies are signing the agreements, such as the Mississippi attorney general’s office, financial service departments and fish and wildlife agencies. 

Existing holding agreements with Madison and Hancock counties reflect the recent surge in ICE activities.

As of Tuesday, online booking records for the jail list four people charged with violation of federal immigration law being held for ICE in Madison. Dozens were held there days after the inauguration of Trump and announcement of mass deportations. 

Through intergovernmental service agreements, ICE pays jails and prisons to hold the agency’s detainees in their facilities. Sometimes the jails hold them temporarily until they are sent to more permanent ICE detention facilities. In Mississippi, these detainees typically go to the Adams County Detention Center in Natchez or facilities in Louisiana. 

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department has had its agreement with ICE since at least 2020, and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department has had an agreement with ICE since 2018 and one with the U.S. Marshal’s Service since at least 2016. 

The jails hold ICE’s administrative detainees, which are people not charged with criminal violations,  according to language from Hancock County’s agreement. These are those in custody to ensure their presence through the immigration hearing process and until an immigration court or other judicial body decides whether they can stay in the country or be removed,

Last week, federal immigration agents arrived in New Orleans for “Operation Catahoula Crunch.” They arrested 38 people within the first two days of the crackdown, the Associated Press reported, noting how less than a third had criminal histories. The Department of Homeland Security announced several arrests of those with violent criminal charges. 

Nola.com reported that people arrested in the New Orleans area through the operation have been taken to the Hancock County jail. 

As of November, data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University showed that over 70% of ICE detainees don’t have criminal records. For those who do have criminal charges, many committed minor offenses such as traffic violations.

During previous legislative sessions, Mississippi lawmakers have introduced immigration bills to give local and state agencies enforcement powers and to financially support those efforts. 

A pair of bills from the recent session proposed creating a fund to support immigration efforts of law enforcement agencies that enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE and to create an immigration enforcement unit under the Department of Public Safety. They did not make it out of committee.

Others have proposed making immigration a state crime so local law enforcement would have the authority to enforce immigration and help federal agents. White, the state auditor, is supporting a bill to do this in the upcoming session, and he said Sen. Angela Burks Hill, a Republican from Picayune, has taken the lead on immigration bills. 

The Constitution grants the sole authority to enforce immigration to the federal government, not states. Some who have wanted to crackdown on immigration at the state level have made the opposite argument against local and state sanctuary laws aimed to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. 

“The staggering expansion of 287(g), and specifically the revival of the aggressive task force model, means that the Trump administration is building an army of deportation officers out of state and local law enforcement agencies at a scale that we have never seen before,” Kocher wrote. “Full stop.”

If you have a news tip about the immigration enforcement presence in the state, please contact us on Signal at +1-601-281-8952. You can also email us at info@mississippitoday.org or tips@mississippitoday.org.

Deep South Today convened reporters from its three newsrooms — Mississippi Today, Verite News and The Current — for an online town hall meeting Dec. 4 to examine how hundreds of millions of opioid settlement dollars are being spent across the region.

The hour-long conversation, attended virtually by dozens of Deep South Today members, offered a behind-the-scenes look at how investigative journalists are tracking the opioid settlement spending and uncovering whether communities are benefiting from this once-in-a-generation influx of money.

The panel featured Katie Jane Fernelius of Verite News, Alena Maschke of The Current and Allen Siegler of Mississippi Today — all of whom have closely covered the settlement spending in their communities. The three journalists have shared notes and are planning collaborations, highlighting the benefit of Deep South Today’s multi-newsroom model.

The panel was moderated by Adam Ganucheau, executive editor at Deep South Today. Deep South Today CEO Warwick Sabin and Deep South Today Development Manager Elizabeth Hambuchen also gave remarks.

Here are some key takeaways from the conversation.

1. The opioid settlement money arrived with few rules.

Siegler opened by explaining how national opioid settlements left broad spending discretion to states and local governments — and very little oversight. That lack of structure is shaping everything that follows, underscoring the importance of investigative journalism.

2. Spending can look dramatically different depending on where you live.

Maschke and Fernelius described a patchwork of approaches across Louisiana, while Siegler outlined Mississippi’s early uneven rollout. Some communities are prioritizing treatment while others are diverting funds to needs unrelated to the opioid crisis.

3. Fault lines are emerging.

The journalists pointed to various officials’ deliberations about whether funds should support treatment, law enforcement, prevention programs or budget backfilling. Some uses — including a few “scandalous” examples in Louisiana and Mississippi — are raising accountability questions.

4. Lack of transparency is a major challenge.

All three journalists shared how difficult it’s been to follow the money. Siegler had to file 147 records requests across Mississippi for basic spending information, often facing long delays or incomplete data. Similar barriers exist in Louisiana, where public reporting remains inconsistent.

5. 2026 will be a decisive year.

All three reporters said the next year will determine whether settlement dollars meaningfully expand recovery services or quietly disappear into government budgets. The journalists said they expect more scrutiny and additional reporting, and they highlighted ways in which the public can get involved in the debate.

Michael Cormack, deputy superintendent of Jackson Public Schools, is leaving the district to lead a network of charter schools in Atlanta. 

Cormack was Superintendent Errick Greene’s first hire in 2019, according to an announcement the district released Monday. He led academics at JPS, brainstorming initiatives like Project 75, which focuses on reading, and working with school leaders to improve student achievement. 

Project 75 aims to boost the percentage of third graders in JPS who pass the state assessment on the first attempt from 55% to 75%. Cormack presented his plan for the initiative to the school board in August, but it kicked off in earnest in mid-November. Cormack told Mississippi Today he will continue working on Project 75 until his exit in March, and he’s confident the district will continue the initiative in his absence.

Under Cormack’s leadership, the district’s state accountability rating improved from an F to a C and graduation rates increased. The district’s announcement called the time of Cormack’s tenure one of the “most significant periods of sustained academic and organization improvement in its history.”

“Dr. Cormack’s impact on Jackson Public Schools has been profound,” Greene said in the announcement. “His relentless focus on instructional excellence, organizational effectiveness, and leadership development has strengthened our schools and improved outcomes for our scholars. We are grateful for his service to JPS, and proud to see him elevate and expand his impact even farther.” 

Cormack drew from his experience as a classroom teacher in the Delta for his work at JPS and his former position as CEO of the Barksdale Reading Institute, which closed in 2023. 

“I fundamentally believe that reading is freedom,” Cormack told Mississippi Today in a previous interview. “Part of my job is to make sure our scholars have the ability to be and do whatever their potential takes them.” 

He will assume his new position as CEO of KIPP Atlanta Schools on March 16. KIPP is a national charter school network with hubs across the country, including schools in Memphis, New Orleans and Houston. 

“Thank you, Jackson Public Schools, for the privilege of serving our scholars and community,” Cormack said in a statement on LinkedIn. “I carry that work and those lessons with me as I step into this new role.”

Mississippi Auditor Shad White is going on offense in 2026. 

That’s what he said when he unveiled his agenda for the upcoming legislative session. The aggressive posture is necessary because he said state senators tried last session to limit his ability to audit nonprofits and attempted to cut his budget, with the latter proposal spilling into public view in a tense standoff at a committee hearing.

The senators responsible for those proposals, both fellow Republicans, retired this year. But the chamber is still led by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is seen by many as a chief rival for the Republican nomination for governor in 2027. 

In addition to fending off potential efforts to limit his powers, White has called for lawmakers to adopt proposals from a legislative agenda built around three planks: immigration enforcement, government waste and ethics reform.

White spoke to Mississippi Today about how his proposals would work, his feuds with state senators, his potential run for governor (he’s still considering it) and whether he’d like to see lawmakers punish Lane Kiffin.   

This interview, conducted in early December, has been edited for clarity and length. 

Mississippi Today: As far as the bill that you mentioned last year that would have restricted some of your powers, Sen. David Parker obviously will not be back this session. Have you heard any rumblings about whether there’s still an appetite for that among others?

Shad White: I have not, but you know, I didn’t really hear any rumblings that that was going to happen last year, right up until the moment the bill dropped. We discovered that bill on a Friday night. So I would say that the politicians who don’t like me in the auditor’s office don’t make it a habit of warning me beforehand they’re going to do something like that

MT: Moving on to your legislative agenda, you propose making illegal immigration a state crime. Are there any specific gaps in federal enforcement that you’re trying to fill? Are there certain enforcement mechanisms that Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn’t using where you think the state could do better?

White: No, I think ICE is doing a great job, and I think you can see it in Operation Swamp Sweep, which is happening in New Orleans, Louisiana and parts of Mississippi. I think it’s very clear also that ICE is in need of manpower. So, if you just look on social media or see job postings, you see that ICE is actively trying to recruit law enforcement officers.

So, one thing that I think state and local authorities can do to help with ICE’s mission is to sign up to become a task force partner with ICE, which is what my office has done, and I believe several others around the state have done. But two, I think the other thing that state and local authorities can do is assist ICE in enforcing illegal immigration laws if it were illegal under state law. 

And so that’s really the point of that plank of the legislative agenda – to make this a violation of state law and therefore give all state and local law enforcement the chance to add to the manpower that ICE already has to make our country safer and to make sure that folks who are here illegally are held accountable.

MT: And do you know if this is being done in any other states right now?

White: I don’t know if it’s being done this session. Most of these ideas that we’ve gotten, we’ve taken from either other states or the federal government. So I believe that illegal immigration is a state crime in other states. 

(Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa have passed laws to create state-level crimes related to immigration or transporting undocumented immigrants.)

MT: As far as the fee on money sent abroad, you describe the fee that Mississippi should impose as a heavy one. Do you have a specific rate that you’re wanting to propose? And do you have a revenue estimate?

White:  I think that’s the sort of detail that you would hope would get worked out in the legislative process. I think the federal fee that was imposed in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill is a 1% fee. And then the Oklahoma fee changes based on the size of the remittance.

What I would do if I were a legislator, or as this bill gets down to a final negotiation, if it gets that far, I’d look and see what the federal government’s doing, what Oklahoma is doing, and then impose something based on those remittances.

I do think that the primary purpose of placing a fee on those remittances is actually deterrence rather than generating revenue, though generating revenue is a nice secondary benefit. So, whatever the fee is, it needs to be big enough to provide a deterrent against illegal immigration.

Folks need to know if they’re coming here to Mississippi illegally, and they’re going to send money back home, that money is going to be heavily, heavily taxed.

MT: Does the policy proposal have a way to ensure that legal immigrants are not bearing the brunt of those fees?

White: Yeah, I think that Florida had a proposal this past year that would have required some sort of immigration or legal status check when somebody goes there to submit the remittances.

In fact, I’d go maybe even a step further than Florida and say that if you’re a Western Union and someone comes in and they cannot provide documentation that they are here legally, you probably just shouldn’t serve them at all, period.

MT: On the government waste front, I think you say Mississippi spends more than Louisiana, Arkansas, and Iowa on vehicles and travel. What inefficiencies have those states solved that Mississippi hasn’t?

White: What we find in procurement is that states that are doing better than Mississippi have more centralized procurement and they’re benefiting from an economy of scale. So, for example, you’ll see some states that have consolidated lots of back-office functions and lots of back-office procurement processes under a single agency. That’s something that’s been debated here in Mississippi and I think that’s a good idea.

The way you might approach it here in Mississippi as it relates to vehicles is rather than having each individual agency go out and purchase vehicles, you could have agencies coordinate that through DFA (Department of Finance and Administration) and there might be a larger Enterprise solution for the entire state. So maybe it is DFA carrying into a large contract with a rental car company to save money on the maintenance of those vehicles.

Those are the kinds of things that I think are happening in other states and the kinds of things that we should be debating here in Mississippi. The bottom line really for me is that we know we’re inefficient relative to those other states and so we need to do something to make sure that we’re not spending this much.

MT: Not to goad you into picking on any particular agency, although I’ll certainly give you the opportunity if you want to, did your office identify any particular agencies that have the worst inefficiencies with this?

White: Well, what we did when we came up with those estimates is that we looked at the agencies that were highlighted in Project Momentum. And so those were the agencies that are listed there. Most of them are executive agencies with appointed heads, and then in addition to that, there’s the Mississippi Department of Education and DFA.

The reason we looked at those specifically is we wanted to look at agencies with a singular head who could make a decision quickly about whether or not they wanted to change a policy internally as opposed to agencies that were run by a board, where action is sometimes slower. 

Now, the one exception is the Department of Education and we threw them in simply because they spent so much money. It’s such a huge part of the state budget that we felt we couldn’t leave them out of Project Momentum. So, I won’t call out any individual agency, but I will say that the numbers we got show that we’re spending more than other similar states.

MT: Speaking of state revenues, now that some time has passed since Gov. Reeves signed into law a bill setting Mississippi on path to becoming the first state to eliminate an existing income tax, what do you think of the policy?

White: I think it’s going to make Mississippi more competitive.

I was on the phone this morning with a friend who owns a business up in North Mississippi near Corinth in Alcorn County, and they live with the tax disadvantage every single day because they’re losing workers to Tennessee. 

I think that we have to also simultaneously cut fat from government, as this income tax elimination is being phased in, because you don’t want to wake up and have to cut emergency management to the bone. We don’t want to have to wake up and cut law enforcement and get state troopers off the streets. What you want to do is you want to cut unnecessary spending.

And so that’s one of the reasons why we focused on necessary and wasteful spending in the auditor’s office over the last two years – to provide a road map for the Legislature if they want to act on our recommendations. 

MT: You’ve mentioned that you’ve received push back over the years from state agencies in Jackson. As you outline your legislative agenda, are you gearing up for a big fight with state agencies? 

White: I don’t think so, to be honest with you. I think often the conflict is actually with the Legislature and some of the politicians in the Legislature. You know, some of these ideas that we got for cost savings actually came from interviews with people who work at those agencies.

For whatever reason, sometimes when we translate audits into policies and legislative ideas, for some reason, there’s a group of legislators who don’t want to do anything to make Mississippi government more efficient and would rather spend their time fighting the auditor’s office. So I hope that doesn’t happen again this year.

MT: As far as conflicts with individual lawmakers, you said that a similar version of your Ethics and Whistleblower Reward Act bill was killed by lawmakers previously. Which lawmakers were you talking about?

White:  I don’t know which lawmakers killed it because most of the time these bills just die on the calendar. They die due to a deadline. So you have no idea who behind closed doors is opposing it. But I can tell you, I believe that starting two years ago, we proposed this whistleblower reward bill and I was told by Senate leadership that they supported it and, of course, it never passed.

MT: Is this proposal a direct offshoot of the Mississippi welfare/TANF scandal?

White: I would not say that the whistleblower reward statute is a direct offshoot of that. I think it’s an offshoot of all the cases that we’ve had over the course of the last few years, where we would have loved for more people to come forward.

So to give you an example, I had people asking me for years, why don’t you investigate and indict this or that mayor? Well, we don’t take information to a prosecutor unless we have something that is criminal. 

Usually, the thing that stands in the way of us building a good investigation is that we look at documents and documents tell apart the story, but we really need somebody to come forward and testify about what they saw. Whether it’s a kickback or an improper relationship or a bribe or something like that.

That is usually the hold-up that prevents us from taking a set of facts and turning it into a slam-dunk investigation.

MT: Maybe this will get worked out later, but how large would the prize be? 

White: The federal statute says it could be up to 15% of the amount that the government recovers. So if I were in the negotiating room and talking about what number needs to go in the bill, that’s probably where I would start.

MT: You recently said that you will always fight to make the state stronger and safer, whether serving as the auditor or in some other role. Is there any update on your potential run for governor in 2027? 

White: I’ve made no secret that I’m seriously considering running for governor and part of the reason is that I see common-sense ideas like this that need to get done in Mississippi. I can do a few things as auditor to help usher those ideas in, so we can do spending analyses and audits on how taxpayer money is wasted and better uses of those dollars. But ultimately, that’s all you can do as auditor.

You can audit, and you can try to persuade people to adopt your policy recommendations based on the strength of your ideas. We know that other positions, such as the governor’s office, have much greater control. roll over some of these state agencies, and you can make some of these changes directly. You also get a much bigger bully pulpit to argue for the policy solutions that you think are best for the state. And so that’s one of the reasons why I’m considering that.

But I think at this point, more than a year-and-a-half out from an election, my focus is going to be to continue doing my job as an auditor and highlighting these ideas all about how to make the state better, and telling people about them and seeing who is interested in getting on board.

MT: Will you be introducing a legislative proposal to penalize Lane Kiffin? 

White: It’s not off the table. You can quote me on that.