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Citing low water pressure due to broken pipes near campus, Jackson State University sent an email Monday morning asking students to wait to move into dorms until later this week or this weekend.

Residence halls are scheduled to open tomorrow, Jan. 4, at 4 p.m. 

The request comes after freezing temperatures strained Jackson’s ailing water system over the holiday, causing water line breaks throughout the city and near JSU’s campus. 

“As an update, the City of Jackson continues to make repairs to broken water pipes near campus,” the university wrote. “While we anticipate these repairs should be completed before classes begin on January 9th, our water pressure on campus remains low at this time. For your convenience, students who can are encouraged to arrive in the latter part of the week or weekend.” 

This is the second consecutive semester that JSU has asked students to delay moving into dorms due to water issues on campus. Last fall, in the weeks leading up to the citywide water crisis, JSU postponed move-in for 750 students for two days, citing “unprecedented water pressure issues” affecting water flow on the upper floors of student housing. 

Many students went home during the water crisis last year. Students who stayed on campus had to use portable showers and toilets, and there was no laundry service. 

The city’s water issues have caused periods of low to no water pressure at JSU as far back as 2010. The campus, west of downtown and far from the water treatment plants, relies on some of the oldest pipes in the capital city. 

In recent years, the Jackson State and the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees have explored moving the campus off the city’s water system, which currently supports heating, cooling, potable and non-potable water, and fire protection systems.

These efforts have, so far, seen little to no success. 

During last year’s legislative session, IHL requested more than $17 million in funds for water-related projects on JSU’s campus. The Legislature did not fulfill those requests.

JSU has requested federal pandemic dollars to pay for a plan to build its own water system, but the state has said the award is not guaranteed. A spokesperson for the Department of Finance and Administration said it has not yet awarded these funds. 

A bill proposed last session by Rep. Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia, sought $8 million for JSU for costs associated with building a separate water system. It died in committee.

Four Mississippi universities have their own water systems, according to the Institutions of Higher Learning. They include Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Mississippi State University, and the University of Mississippi. 

The University of Mississippi Medical Center uses its own water source for about 90% of campus with the remaining coming from the city, IHL’s spokesperson, Caron Blanton, wrote in an email earlier this year.

Correction 1/3/22: This story has been updated to reflect the email sent by JSU was sent on Monday, not Tuesday.

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Mississippi lawmakers, traveling to Jackson from every county and corner of the state, convened the 2023 legislative session on Jan. 3 at noon.

No matter how you strike it, what lawmakers accomplish over the next 90 days could impact the state for years to come. It’s not hyperbole to say that generational transformation is possible for our state this session. Mississippi Today journalists will be in the halls of the Capitol every single day, asking tough but fair questions of our elected officials and letting you know what happens.

For all the problems the state faces, lawmakers are sitting on a revenue surplus of about $4 billion — more unencumbered money than the state has ever had on hand to spend. Legislators have broad flexibility on how to spend it, and many leaders disagree vehemently on specifics. This certainly sets up dramatic debate and a wild few weeks at the Capitol.

PODCAST: What to watch for in 2023 legislative session

We already know this is Speaker of the House Philip Gunn’s final legislative session after serving three full terms, and there are already signals that his long-held power may already be waning. On the Senate side, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann faces some political crosswinds from within his own party that will play out between now and Feb. 1, the deadline to qualify for 2023 elections. With the strength of leadership in question in both chambers, we’ll keep an eye on how policy making might be affected.

Here are some other key issues, among many others, we’re watching closely this session:

• Mississippi is in a health care crisis. Dozens of rural hospitals across the state are on the verge of closing or significantly cutting back health services, and hundreds of thousands of residents cannot afford basic health care. One potential solution that is gaining momentum in recent weeks is expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, as 39 other states have done. For more than 10 years, legislative leaders have rejected the program that would flow tens of millions more federal dollars into the state coffers and provide health care to working, poor Mississippians.

• Several cities and counties are struggling to keep water flowing to residents. Jackson, the state capital, in particular, has been at the center of national media coverage as residents of the state’s largest city continue to not have reliable water services at home or businesses.

• All the while, several key legislative leaders want to completely eliminate the state income tax, which accounts for more than one-third of the revenue the state collects. Opponents of the move, including several Republicans, say the state cannot afford to lose that much annually with so many government services already underfunded. Some who oppose the tax cut want to instead send tax rebate checks directly to Mississippians.

• A broad coalition of Mississippi voters want but still do not have a ballot initiative process after the state Supreme Court struck it down in 2021. The process, which residents in most states have, allows voters to circumvent lawmakers in passing specific laws or policies.

To devote special attention to this potentially historic legislative session, we’re launching our annual special section called the Mississippi Legislative Guide. There, you’ll find the basics like how a bill becomes law, key legislative deadlines and how to find and contact your lawmakers. The centerpiece of the guide, of course, will be our newsroom’s comprehensive coverage of the 2023 legislative session.

We hope this will be a helpful resource as you navigate these next few weeks, but we want to know how it could be improved. If you have questions or suggestions for us, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you, as always, for reading. We appreciate your support as ever.

The post The eagerly anticipated 2023 legislative session begins appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As emergency federal pandemic funds for hospitals are dwindling, the health care crisis in Mississippi is progressing, according to a statement put out Tuesday by the Mississippi State Medical Association.

The physicians group is calling on lawmakers and state leaders to act quickly to offset the burden of hospitals in the state caring for uninsured patients. Mississippi, one of only 11 states not to expand Medicaid and provide health insurance for hundreds of thousands of residents, has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the nation.

When hospitals care for these individuals, they are not reimbursed by any insurance company and incur a deficit referred to as “uncompensated care.” In 2021, hospitals statewide sustained almost $600 million in uncompensated care costs, according to the Mississippi Hospital Association. That is almost double the amount from 2010.

The statement from MSMA referred to hospitals on the brink of closure and the coverage gap created by the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid.

“The fact is there is a sizable gap that exists for working Mississippians who cannot afford private health insurance, yet whose income is too much to qualify for Mississippi Medicaid. When these individuals need healthcare, hospitals are required to treat them regardless of their ability to pay … Such an economic strain on hospitals is one that even the most successful private business could not endure,” the MSMA opinion stated.

The group urged five quick actions:

• Raise the income eligibility for Medicaid.
• Offset taxes hospitals currently pay.
• Restructure health care delivery across Mississippi, which may include strategically located critical access hospitals, emergency care, etc. and a re-structured referral system to hospitals when higher levels of care are required.
• Consider Arkansas’ model to provide access to care for working Mississippians through the purchase of private insurance for qualified recipients.
• Enhance preventative care measures for all Medicaid recipients by implementing an “accountable care” payment model.

MSMA is the largest physician advocacy organization in the state, representing nearly 5,000 physicians and medical students.

Read the full statement here.

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Mississippi Today’s politics team breaks down key issues lawmakers could address in the 2023 legislative session. They also discuss how the statewide and legislative election year could affect the outcome of certain policy debates.

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When the Mississippi Legislature convenes at noon Tuesday, it will mark the final time for House Speaker Philip Gunn to gavel to order a regular session.

The 2023 regular legislative session will be the swan song for Gunn’s historic tenure as speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

The Clinton Republican has announced he will not seek reelection for a sixth term in the House in 2023. He will leave office as the first Republican speaker since the 1800s, as the third longest serving speaker in state history and as the guiding force of legislation in 2020 retiring the state flag that incorporated the Confederate battle emblem prominently in its design.

He also is one of the leading architects of a legislative rule that arguably gives the leaders of the House and Senate unprecedented power over the budgeting process.

The question is whether that rule — one of the Legislature’s most authoritative rules in recent history — will end with Gunn’s retirement.

That rule strips away nearly all, if not all, of the power for rank-and-file legislators to have a say in carrying out their most basic function: deciding how to appropriate state funds.

The rule requires a member wanting to offer an amendment to increase funding for a program or agency — such as the Department of Health to deal with the state’s ongoing litany of health woes — to specify from what agency the money will be taken.

On the surface, the rule seems logical and fair. After all, legislators should not be spending money the state does not have. But the rule, as it was crafted in 2012 when Gunn was first elected speaker by his colleagues, severely limits the pot of money a rank-and-file legislator can consider when making an amendment to increase funding for the Health Department, for education or for any other agency. The rank-and-file legislator, for instance, could not make the amendment to spend any of the $4 billion dollars in reserves the state currently has for a program the legislator believes needs more funds to deal with a crisis.

And to make the process more complicated, the money must be taken from a budget bill that is before the chamber at that time. It is important to understand that each chamber takes up and passes half of the more than 100 bills funding state agencies and commissions and then exchanges bills with the other chamber. The House will send their appropriations bills to the Senate and vice versa. If a member of the House wants to increase funding for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, for instance, and desires to take funds from the Department of Transportation to do so, the member cannot if the Transportation bill is in the Senate at the time instead of the House.

Republicans took complete control of the Mississippi Legislature in 2012. The budgeting amendment was incorporated into the joint rules of the Legislature that year by the two new presiding officers — Gunn in the House and then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves in the Senate.

Interestingly, when reporters told the late Terry Brown, at the time the new Senate president pro tem, about the House plan to enact the budget rule, the Columbus Republican who had plenty of conservative bona fides flashed his mischievous smile and said the rule would not be taken up in the upper chamber. He said senators would not support a rule to severely limit their say in the process. A day later, presumably after meeting with Reeves, Brown was advocating for the amendment.

It passed both chambers and since then legislators have acted basically like lemmings when it comes to the budget process, passing what legislative leadership presents to them during the waning days of each legislative session.

In 2024 there will be a new speaker of the House. The favorite to replace Gunn is House Pro Tem Jason White, R-West. Incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann will be the heavy favorite to win reelection as presiding officer of the Senate.

Hosemann was not lieutenant governor when the budgeting rule was enacted, and during his first term as the presiding officer he has at times displayed more of a willingness to let the members of the Senate have a say in the legislative process.

With Hosemann still in office and a new speaker in place, members could flex their collective muscle to demand a change to the rule.

But first, legislators will serve another year under a process where they have little or no say in how state funds are spent.

The post Gunn ushered in budget rule limiting influence of rank-and-file members appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The city of Jackson said Friday morning that pressure at both treatment plants has “largely recovered,” and that workers have started sampling for bacteria in some parts of the city.

A press release explained that the city will be able to lift the boil water notice — which went into effect Christmas morning — by zip code, meaning that some parts of Jackson may be able to drink straight from their taps again before others.

To lift the notice in specific parts of the city, the meters in that zip code have to show at least 20 PSI, or pounds per square inch, of water pressure. Then, the city has to test for bacteria from water samples in that area, and it takes 24 hours to get those results.

On Thursday, the city began sampling for well system customers and one zip code on the surface system side, although officials couldn’t say on Friday morning which zip code that was. If the results come back clean, those residents will have the notice lifted for them later on Friday.

Officials said they expect to have pressure restored for all parts of Jackson between Saturday and Sunday, meaning the earliest the city can return clean samples and lift the boil water notice for all residents is between Sunday and Monday. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said Wednesday that his goal was to lift the citywide notice by Saturday.

The press release added that the heavy rain Friday morning has made sampling difficult but that conditions are expected to improve later in the day.

The city continues to distribute bottled water to residents. Below are the times and locations for those sites on Friday:

West Jackson:

2 p.m.

Metro Center Mall near old Dillards Loading Dock

South Jackson:

5 p.m.

Candlestick Plaza off Cooper Rd, Jackson, MS

Northwest Jackson:

5 p.m.

Corner of Northside Drive and Manhattan Road near Smillow Prep

Elderly or disabled residents seeking water delivery can call 311 or 601-960-1875.

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Health professionals and medical students gathered at the Hilton in Jackson to attend the first day of the 27th annual Mississippi Rural Health Conference 2022 on Nov. 17.

The first day of the two-day event included sessions with topics such as strategies for marketing and improving communication with hospitals and utilizing holistic approaches to improve rural health care in the Delta. 

“I am attending the conference because I really believe that this is an important part of our health care system,” Dr. Loretta Jackson-Williams, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said. “With so many of our patients being in rural areas and the number of rural hospitals that are experiencing financial difficulties, this event highlights those issues even more. I think highlighting opportunities and joys of living in smaller communities is really important.”

Recipients of the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program from colleges around the state were also in attendance to present needs assessment posters of their hometowns. 

“The job of a rural physician is to take into account what a community needs and go from there,” Will Sutton, a junior biology student at the University of Southern Mississippi, said. “If you want work in these communities, make relationships and help people, you have to know where you are going. So this helps us understand where we are from, so we can use that in future if we go back to work in our hometowns.” 

Several awards were giving out during the event’s annual business meeting and lunch. U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was not in attendance, was awarded with the national legislator of the year award, and Sen. Ben Suber, R-Bruce, was awarded as the state legislator of the year. 

The event wrapped around noon the following day with plenary sessions on the organization Mississippi Thrive!, foreign medical graduates in medically underserved areas in the state, hot topics in health care and networking breaks between sessions. 

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