Mississippi Today political reporter Bobby Harrison talks to House Constitution Chair Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, about the state’s initiative process and why the Rankin County lawmaker is optimistic that legislation will pass during the 2023 session to revive it. Shanks also weighs in on other issues, saying the Legislature can both cut taxes again in 2023 and provide one-time rebates to Mississippians.
Mississippi’s historic growth in state tax collections is slowing — at least for a month.
This past month the state collected $518.8 million in taxes and other revenue compared to $531.9 million in November 2021.
Does the November revenue report represent the start of a slowdown in Mississippi tax collections that have grown at an unprecedented rate for more than a year?
It is a fair question? After all, Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and others are citing the unprecedented growth in state revenue as a reason to enact a tax cut that will take about $2 billion yearly out of state coffers.
The November report recently released by the staff of the Legislature Budget Committee represents the first slowdown in monthly revenue collections for the state since July 2021 when tax collections were less than the amount collected a year earlier in July 2020.
Granted, folks who study Mississippi revenue collection trends are fond of saying that one month does not a trend make. The state saw increased collections for 16 months after that slowdown in July 2021. So, there is a good chance that the collections will bounce back in December.
But as sure as night follows day, the slowdown in Mississippi tax collections eventually will occur. History tells us that.
Revenue grew by 9.54% during the fiscal year that ended on June 30 and by an unprecedented 15.9% the previous year.
The result of the strong growth is that the state has a revenue surplus of $3.9 billion going into the 2023 legislative session that begins in early January. Having $4 billion in reserves is staggering considering the total state support budget, which consists primarily of general tax collections, such as the sales tax on retail items and the income tax, is $7.86 billion for the current fiscal year.
A small portion of those reserve funds, about $450 million, are COVID-19 federal relief funds and money from lawsuit settlements, but most of the funds are the result of a boon in state tax collections.
The net result of those large reserves is that state political leaders are feeling pretty good and bragging on their governance prowess.
“We are in a great financial position,” Gunn, R-Clinton, said recently, echoing similar comments of Reeves.
“We can’t neglect or ignore the fact that conservative spending led to this type of financial situation,” Gunn continued. “We have rejected the attempts to grow government over the last many years and this (revenue surplus) has been the result of that.”
That is all well and good except for the fact most states have had similar unprecedented surpluses. California, for example, a state that Mississippi politicians like to criticize for its liberal policies, had a whopping $98 billion surplus, though, it appears that the West Coast state’s tax collections already are slowing.
But before slowing, California provided one-time rebates of between $200 and $1,500 to individuals earning less than $250,000 and to households earning less than $500,000.
Multiple states, controlled by Republicans and Democrats, have provided rebates.
In Mississippi, the taxpayers have not yet reaped any direct cash benefits from the massive surplus. In the 2022 session, legislators approved the largest tax cut in state history – a $525 million cut to the income tax. But that tax cut will not be fully phased in until 2026. Taxpayers can receive a small monthly benefit from the tax cut starting in January if they change their payroll deductions. Otherwise, taxpayers will receive no benefit from the tax cut until they file their tax returns in early 2024.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has proposed the Legislature provide a rebate in the 2023 session. Reeves and Gunn are proposing the complete elimination of the income tax. Such a cut will take an additional $2 billion out of the state treasury on top of the $525 million tax cut made last year.
During much of the 1990s, thanks to the start and incredibly rapid expansion of casino gambling, Mississippi experienced a prolonged period of historic revenue growth.
But by the early 2000s, as a recession hit the country that was especially bad in Mississippi, the Legislature and then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove were having to cut budgets.
That is not to say that the Legislature and governor should not look for innovative ways to spend the surplus for the betterment of the state and its citizens.
A reasonable debate can be had on whether it is better to return funds to citizens or use the surplus to address the litany of problems facing the state. But it is safe to assume tax cuts that take more than $2.5 billion yearly out of state coffers will have a lasting impact, especially when revenue collections slow as they most assuredly will.
In my first week at Mississippi Today in September of 2018, I sat on the floor in the middle of the newsroom, federal financial reports from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program splayed in front of me. “I am investigating our state’s TANF program,” I wrote in an email to my editor. “Where is the money going and where is it not? We know the TANF program has not improved our rate of poverty: is that an unfortunate reality or the result of negligence? Even by design?”
Over the last four years, I’ve sought that answer.
What followed was the largest public fraud case in state history.
Officials stole or misspent tens of millions of these federal dollars that could have been used to provide food, child care, workforce training or cash assistance to tens of thousands of vulnerable families. We first broke the story in 2020 about the role that former NFL quarterback Brett Favre played in two pet projects that received welfare funds.
But it wasn’t until I got my hands on some private text messages earlier this year that Mississippians learned just how involved their governor was at the time.
“I will open a hole,” then-Gov. Phil Bryant texted Favre, days before millions of welfare dollars began flowing to the athlete’s pharmaceutical venture.
Our series, The Backchannel, provided a groundbreaking glimpse into the inner workings of state government and altered the course of the ongoing investigation, pressuring officials to acknowledge just how high up the corruption went.
Mississippi Today is relentless in its pursuit of answers. But the reporting isn’t cheap. In the last four years, I’ve filed more than 140 public records requests, which have cost thousands of dollars, and traveled everywhere from Marks to Kiln to tell Mississippi’s story.
Most of all, keep reading. You keep reading, and we’ll keep going to uncover the truth.
Now through December 31, the Maddox Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s education program, and additional supporters will match your new recurring donation dollar-for-dollar, combined up to $54,000. That means your $25 turns into $100 to continue telling your stories.
Maddox Foundation was founded by Dan Maddox in 1968. He and his wife, Margaret Maddox, had a commitment to young people, a love of nature and a vision for making their corner of the world a better place. Maddox Foundation President Robin Hurdle has continued their legacy, which lives on through the current work of the foundation.
Maddox Foundation, located in Hernando, has made many signature investment grants into youth development. These investments include renovating and supporting the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA; putting an internet-connected computer in every public classroom in Mississippi; creating innovative places for children to learn and play; establishing the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi; and funding the Education Director position and the MTV exhibit at the Grammy Museum Mississippi.
The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation (JLFF), based in Berkeley, CA, supports organizations that advance social justice by promoting world-changing work in investigative journalism, the arts, documentary film and democracy. As a small foundation, JLFF’s investment in NewsMatch allows the Foundation to make a difference across the entire field of local investigative journalism.
The Hewlett Foundation’s Education program supports media outlets that strengthen the information ecosystem around our country’s K-12 education systems. They believe that local communities are a key part of improving teaching and learning opportunities for every student.
La calificación, que se asigna dos veces al año a unos 3,000 hospitales generales de atención aguda en todo el país, se basa en cómo los hospitales y otras organizaciones de atención médica protegen a sus pacientes de errores, lesiones, accidentes e infecciones. El puntaje proviene del desempeño de los hospitales en más de 30 medidas nacionales de los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid (CMS), la Encuesta de hospitales Leapfrog y otros datos.
El hospital más grande del estado y el único centro médico académico obtuvo una C por cuarto año consecutivo.
Ningún hospital de Mississippi recibió una calificación F y un hospital recibió una D: Merit Health Biloxi. Cada grado se basa en el desempeño de los hospitales en cinco categorías: infecciones, problemas con la cirugía, problemas de seguridad, prácticas para prevenir errores y médicos, enfermeras y personal del hospital.
“Tomadas en conjunto, esas medidas de desempeño producen una calificación de una sola letra que representa el desempeño general de un hospital para mantener a los pacientes a salvo de daños y errores médicos prevenibles”, afirma su sitio web.
Según el grupo, 250,000 personas mueren cada año por errores prevenibles en los hospitales.
Aquí está el desglose de las calificaciones de los hospitales de Mississippi:
Graphic by Bethany Atkinson
Andrés Fuentes
Andrés Fuentes es periodista de FOX8-TV en Nueva Orleans y traductor de Mississippi Today. Antes de que el nativo de Nueva Orleans regresara, era periodista para WLOX-TV en Biloxi, Mississippi.
Larger regional hospitals in Mississippi – where the sickest patients often get their care – are full, and state health officials are begging Mississippians to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu to protect themselves and the health care system.
“It’s the inability to transfer (patients) to a higher level of care – our Level 1 and Level 2 hospitals are really being swamped,” State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said Thursday. “… We’ve been having a lot of transfers go out of state.”
Hospitals in neighboring states are also in similar situations and not able to accept transfers.
As of noon, some hospitals in Tennessee were not accepting transfers, said Jim Craig, senior deputy and director of health protection at the Mississippi State Department of Health.
Available intensive care unit (ICU) beds around Mississippi are dwindling, with 65 beds available statewide – a trend similar to the past two winters, said Edney.
As of Thursday, only 27 ICU beds were available at larger hospitals.
“That’s 27 beds for everything – trauma, strokes, heart attacks. Not just flu and COVID,” he said. “We want to protect those beds as best we can.”
As of 1 p.m. Thursday, the University of Mississippi Medical Center – the state’s only Level 1 trauma center – was at capacity, meaning beds are full, said a spokesperson for UMMC.
St. Dominic Memorial Hospital in Jackson is also experiencing issues with capacity.
“St. Dominic’s is working diligently to explore every possible solution to meet the care and safety needs of patients in the communities we serve,” said Meredith Bailess, the hospital’s marketing director.
Edney, along with State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers, urged Mississippians to get their bivalent COVID-19 booster, which includes a component of the original virus strain and a component of the omicron variant to provide better protection against the current dominant strain of the virus.
“This (bivalent booster) is a very important booster vaccine to provide protection not only against infection but also protection from those hospitalizations and protect us from deaths,” said Byers. “It’s extremely important for us now, especially the most vulnerable people in our population, to make sure everyone who is eligible is up to date with the bivalent booster vaccine.”
Mississippi is seeing “very high” flu activity, and Edney and Byers also encouraged people to get their flu shots.
Mississippians can make an appointment for COVID-19 and flu vaccines at the health department website. Vaccine appointments are also available at the federal website vaccines.gov.
People can get the updated COVID-19 booster even if they have not gotten an earlier booster shot. That means that if you got two doses of Pfizer, Moderna or Noravax, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson, you qualify for the new booster as long as two months have passed since your last dose. You are also eligible if you got a booster dose more than two months ago.
“Do what you can to protect yourself and your family so you don’t wind up in the health care system when it’s under stress,” said Edney.
Obviously tax cuts will be all the rage this next session (it’s an election year!). For the record, I don’t like paying taxes — but I understand that there are some services that we as a society depend on. And those services need to be paid for. (Two sentences that end with prepositions — my English teacher is going to come back from the grave.) We’ll see. Will they give us a rebate check or eliminate the income tax? (Not a good idea, IMHO — but I’m not a Koch Brother, so there.) Just remember, when you hear, “starve the beast,” you might be the beast.
Members of the Mississippi Ethics Commission postponed on Thursday adopting “a final order” to support their controversial conclusion that the Mississippi Legislature is not bound by the state’s open meetings law.
Long-time Commission Chair Ben Stone proposed placing in the final order that while the open meetings law does not specifically cite the Legislature, the Mississippi Constitution clearly mandates that the Legislature conduct its business in the open.
While Stone said the Ethics Commission is authorized to rule on open meetings issues related solely to the law and is not authorized to interpret the constitution, he said he believes the language related to the constitution could still be included in the final order.
“We are not allowed to interpret it, but we are able to cite it and put it in our opinion,” Stone said at the start of the specially called meeting that was conducted via Zoom. “The Legislature is not going to close its doors regardless of what we do here today.”
The eight-member commission adjourned Thursday without making a final decision, but scheduled another meeting for Dec. 14 in an attempt to resolve the issue.
The issue arose in response to a legal challenge by the Mississippi Free Press to the Ethics Commission of whether House Speaker Philip Gunn is violating the state’s open meetings laws when he holds meetings of the Republican Caucus behind closed doors. According to various sources, as reported by Mississippi Today, legislative business is routinely discussed in the closed caucus meetings.
The Republican Caucus consists of 75 of the 122 members of the Mississippi House. A majority constitutes a quorum that is needed for the House to conduct business.
Many members stuck to that opinion in Thursday’s special meeting.
“We believe the Legislature should be open, is required to be open,” said Commissioner Stephen Burrow, but the issue is “outside the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission.”
He said it is up to a courts, not the Ethics Commission, to make the final decision on whether the Legislature is mandated to be open.
Commissioner Samuel Kelly said he believed legislators “clearly intended to keep themselves out” of the open meetings law. The law specifies certain bodies that should be open. It lists that certain legislative committees shall be open, but it does not cite the Legislature as a whole. By the same token, in citing specific entities that shall be exempt from the open meetings law, it also does not mention the Legislature.
The open meetings law specifies that “all official meetings of any public body, unless otherwise provided in this chapter or in the constitution of the United States of America or the state of Mississippi are declared to be public meetings and shall be open to the public at all times.” The law does allow closed sessions of public bodies in certain instances, such as to discuss lawsuits or personnel issues.
The final decision of the Ethics Commission, which consists of political appointees made by the speaker, lieutenant governor, governor and chief justice of the Supreme Court, can be appealed to the courts.
Commissioner Maxwell Luter said he is “very concerned” about the precedent that would be established by saying the Legislature is not covered by the open meetings law. He also said that he feared that such a ruling would negatively impact the perception of the Ethics Commission.
As the Mississippi health care crisis worsens and threatens to imminently shutter hospitals in the Mississippi Delta, the state Department of Health is taking steps to prepare for the impending disaster.
The Mississippi State Department of Health, an agency that has been gutted by budget cuts and weakened services over the past decade, was not staffed nor funded to take on the full burden of replacing health care services lost if hospitals close.
But State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney recently told lawmakers the department, in anticipation of an increase of health care deserts in the Delta, has begun assessing how it can help.
“We’re studying where health care deserts are emerging or we think they’re going to be,” Edney told members of the Senate Public Health Committee on Nov. 21, adding that the Health Department increasing services is “usually not a good thing.”
“We’re the provider of last resort,” he continued. “We’re there for public health. When you see us in perinatal care, hypertension, diabetes management – that means these communities aren’t being served.”
While more than 38 hospitals across the state are at risk of closing, the Mississippi Delta — the poorest region of the state with already dismal health outcomes — is most susceptible to the crisis. In August, the Delta’s only neonatal intensive care unit in Greenville closed. Greenwood Leflore Hospital has eliminated labor and delivery and other major services over the last several months. Today, the Greenwood hospital’s future is uncertain after negotiations with the University of Mississippi Medical Center to enter into a lease agreement abruptly fell through last month.
Additionally, Sharkey Issaquena Hospital and several other Delta hospitals are in dire financial straits.
A recent report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Reform shows that over half of rural hospitals in Mississippi – or 38 – are at risk of closing. The state has the highest percentage of rural hospitals at immediate risk of closing in the nation, and hospitals as a whole are in a deficit of more than $200 million in 2022, according to the Mississippi Hospital Association.
A 2019 report from the consulting firm Navigant revealed a similar statistic as the one from 2022: half of rural hospitals were at risk of closure then, too. But the difference now is the severity of the situation, said Ryan Kelly, executive director of the Mississippi Rural Hospital Association.
“Hospitals that were bleeding slowly are now bleeding quicker,” said Kelly. “But the underlying problem is still the same.”
With no clear solutions in sight, Edney said the Health Department will do what it can to strengthen the “safety net” in these underserved areas.
“We’ve already got an action plan in place,” Edney told lawmakers.
But when Mississippi Today followed up with the state Health Department and submitted a records request for that plan, department officials responded “… as of now we have no plan on paper.”
Mississippi Today then asked for clarification and details of the plan Edney referenced. A Health Department spokesperson emailed a statement from Jim Craig, senior deputy and director of health protection.
“Our next steps in plan development will be to meet with Delta Community Health Center leaders and coordinate needs and efforts with our Field Services office that coordinates care in county health departments around the state,” the statement read.
Mississippi Today then asked for an interview with Craig or someone else with the department, and the reporter was told she could email questions.
The department said it is “currently evaluating” what services might be needed when responding to a question about whether the focus would first be on the Delta and maternity and infant care.
“Maternal and infant services are one of the service areas we are evaluating,” said Craig in the email.
The state Health Department has closed 10 county health departments in the past decade, nine of which were closed in 2016. It also reduced hours in “several” county health departments around the state, though department officials declined to provide a specific number.
The Health Department’s mission is to promote and protect the health of Mississippians. The agency does surveillance for diseases such as West Nile virus, flu and sexually transmitted infections, offers disease and injury prevention programming and information and other public health efforts. It also oversees drinking water testing, restaurant permits and inspections, on-site wastewater and sewage system regulation. It is responsible for licensing and regulating child care facilities, nursing homes, and other health care facilities.
There is no timeline for the implementation of the safety net Edney referred to, the department said.
Correction 12/8/21: A previous version of this story identified Ryan Kelly, executive director of the Mississippi Rural Hospital Association, by the incorrect name.
