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Valparaiso will visit Ole Miss for a basketball game Saturday, the first time the two teams have met since Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew hit the shot heard around the basketball world.

You know: The shot. It was March 13, 1998, at Oklahoma City, first round of the NCAA  Tournament. Ole Miss, a 4-seed, was a big favorite to beat 13-seed Valpo of the Mid-Continent Conference.

Even basketball fans who weren’t alive then likely have seen the shot replayed multiple times. TV networks play it several times every year when March Madness comes around. It has become one of the iconic plays in NCAA Tournament history. The networks still play announcer Ted Johnson’s excited call: 

“The inbound pass will be thrown by Jamie Sykes. Carter is pressuring … It’s to Jenkins, to Drew, for the win! GOOD! HE DID IT! BRYCE DREW DID IT! Valpo has won the game! A miracle … An absolute miracle!”

It surely seemed so: Valparaiso 70, Ole Miss 69. For most, it was the feel-good story March Madness is all about, the Cinderella team from a little bitty conference knocks off the favored giant. In this case, the hero was the coach’s son, providing the high point of Homer Drew’s long coaching career.

For Ole Miss, however, it just sucked. For some, nearly a quarter of a century later, it still does.

Carter, who was pressuring the inbounds pass, is Keith Carter, now the Ole Miss athletic director. He was a junior guard at Ole Miss, a terrific player who led the Rebels with 22 points and 11 rebounds in that game. But his numbers are not what Carter remembers most.

“I have probably replayed it in my head a million times over the last 25 years,” Carter said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “I always come back to this: Bryce had just missed an open 3-pointer on their previous possession that would have given them the lead. No way he was going to miss two in a row. You just could not let him have that second opportunity. We did.

“In my mind we were the better team, but we let them hang around and hang around and then a great player hit a great shot. That’s what happens in March Madness. But back then, I’m not sure I understood what that one shot meant.”

Rob Evans did. That was the last game he ever coached at Ole Miss after winning 42 games and taking the Rebels to two NCAA Tournaments his last two years in Oxford. Soon afterward, he took the head coaching job at Arizona State.

“I remember going to the locker room and telling my guys, ‘You are going to see that shot for the rest of your lives,’” Evans said by phone Wednesday from Dallas where he is a special assistant to the athletic director at SMU. 

In all, Evans spent 48 years as a college coach after four years as a college player. Says he, “That Valpo game was without a doubt the lowest feeling I ever had in basketball. For us to lose that game in those final seconds, everything had to go right for them and everything had to go wrong for us. And I will forever believe we had a team capable of going deep in that tournament, the Elite Eight or the Final Four.”

That was a fabulous Ole Miss team, one of the best in Rebel basketball history. Led by All American Ansu Sesay, the Rebels were in the nation’s Top 25 the entire season and finished the regular season ranked No. 10. They won at Kentucky. They swept Mississippi State. They thrashed LSU. Twice. They won the SEC West with a 12-4 conference record and finished 22-7 overall. They were a tough, physical team that played especially hard on defense. They were deep in talent. The backcourt was terrific with starting point guard Michael White and wing-man Carter. Sharp-shooting sixth man Joezon Darby provided instant energy and a scoring boost off the bench. Reserve point guards Jason “Buck” Flanagan and Jason Smith would have started for many teams. Center Anthony Boone was an enforcer inside and the team’s spiritual leader, gimpy knees and all. Freshman Rahim Lockhart provided quality depth inside.

They were basketball savvy, too. White is now the head coach at Georgia after successful runs at Louisiana Tech and Florida. Boone is the head coach at Central Arkansas. Lockhart coaches Jones College. Flanigan coaches at Holmes Community College. Sesay, after a long professional career, is an assistant coach at Texas Southern. Darby runs a highly successful basketball training academy Dallas. And Carter, of course, now hires and fires coaches.

Ole Miss was a 10-point favorite over Valpo. Thanks to Carter, who made 4 of 7 3-pointers and tied Drew for game-high scoring with 22 points, the Rebels led most of the way. They were up by four points at halftime and still led by two points going into the final seconds. And then, as Evans put it, everything had to go right for Valpo, wrong for Ole Miss. Sesay rebounded Drew’s miss and was fouled with 4.2 seconds remaining and the Rebels leading 69-67. Sesay could have put the game away, but Sesay, normally a proficient free throw shooter, missed both. Carter battled for the rebound but the ball went out of bounds on the sidelines in front of the Ole Miss bench. Only 2.5 seconds remained. Nearly 25 years later, Carter has vivid memories. 

“The official said it went off of me, but I am almost certain I did not I touch it last,” Carter said. “And then when they let them in-bound the ball from the end of the court instead of in front of our bench, which would have been a more difficult angle to make that pass. Still, you have to give them credit for making the play.”

Said Evans, “If the ball just stays in bounds after the missed free throw, we win.”

Still, Valpo had to go the length of the court. That’s hard to do in 2 and half seconds, less time than it took you to read this sentence.

Carter, a high leaper, fronted the in-bounds pass by Sykes. Carter jumped high, as Sykes faked as if to pass. Then, as Carter came down, Sykes rifled a ball down the floor to teammate Bill Jenkins, just over the finger tips of a leaping Lockhart. Jenkins quickly shoveled the ball to Drew, who swished a running 20-footer at the buzzer

“When he shot it, I knew it was in,” Evans said. “Buck (Flanagan) was covering Bryce and took his eyes off him just a split second when the pass was coming down the court. That’s all it took.”

Said Lockhart, “It felt like a death in the family.”

In four months, it will have been 25 years since Drew’s deed was done. In the ensuing years, both Carter and Evans have become friends with Bryce Drew, who now coaches at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix after an NBA career and a stint as the head coach at Vanderbilt.

“Such a good guy, such a good family,” Carter says of Drew, who married a Jackson native, the former Tara Thibodeaux, an accomplished dancer and choreographer.

As it turns out, Evans’ grandson and Bryce and Tara’s son, Homer Drew’s grandson, are teammates on a youth basketball team in Phoenix. What are the odds?

One more note: A man named Bryce Drew (no relation to the more famous Bryce Drew), is now the Manager of Human Relations at Ole Miss. Says Keith Carter, chuckling, “This Bryce Drew is a really good guy, too, but I gotta tell you, it took me a while to get past his name.”

The post It’s Valpo vs. Ole Miss for the first time since ’98. Remember? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The new temporary face of Jackson’s water rehabilitation introduced himself Wednesday night to residents at Forest Hill High School, a recurring backdrop for the city’s drinking water shortcomings.

About 40 residents lined the long lunch tables in the high school’s cafeteria as the night began with Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba catching the audience up on the latest federal intervention.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice appointed Ted Henifin, a veteran water and sewer system professional, to head the third-party management team that will steer the city’s drinking water rehabilitation over the next year. The goal, as the DOJ explained in its order, is to stabilize the water system while the city negotiates a longer-term solution with the Environmental Protection Agency.

As Mississippi Today reported last week, the order gives Henifin’s team broader authority than what Jackson would be allowed normally. For instance, the new management won’t have to comply with state procurement laws that dictate how to advertise and award contracts with public funding. It also has added power to pass rate increases on customer’s water bills, and, because it’s not a government body, it won’t be subject to public record laws.

At Forest Hill High, which often feels the brunt of water pressure issues because of its elevation and its distance from the treatment plants, audience members in the the large cafeteria asked about what these changes meant for their daily lives.

The first person to step up, Johnny Dickerson, wondered why he was seeing high prices on his water bills despite unreliable service.

“You got a $1,000, maybe $1,500 or $2,000 water bill, but you haven’t been using the water,” Dickerson said. “The water comes out brown and soapy, and you say boil it, but how are we going to pay a $5,000, $2,000, $1,000 bill for something we ain’t using?”

Lumumba, recognizing that Dickerson’s experience has been common among Jacksonians, replied that the issues with water meters haven’t been about their accuracy in measuring consumption, but rather communicating those measurements to the city’s offices to send out accurate bills. Residents often see high bills that have accumulated over months, rather than getting monthly bills, the mayor explained.

Dickerson cut the mayor off, saying it didn’t make sense that his bill would be so high if he wasn’t using the water. Frustrated, the man walked off before Lumumba could respond.

Other audience directed their questions at Henifin and the specifics of the new order. Brenda Scott, former mayoral candidate and president of the labor union for city employees, asked what will happen to Jackson’s water plant workers as Henifin’s team and contractors take over operations.

Lumumba said that no city employees will lose their job in the process. Henifin said the contractor will interview employees to see if they’re qualified to work on the team’s projects, in which case they would join the contractor and no longer be a city employee. The mayor added that if not chosen, water plant workers will be relocated within the public works department.

Contracting and water rates

Henifin addressed some of the details in the DOJ order the media has highlighted.

As far as the procurement process, he said Monday that the ability to bypass state law was included because of how long the process can often take, and the new management team only has a year to make a long list of improvements. Henifin added that he will uphold the principles of that law, such as fairness, transparency, and equity. He also said it will be a priority to hire small minority contractors, and there will be a workshop in January for those businesses looking to make bids.

Asked about water rates, Henifin initially said Monday during a press conference that he didn’t think Jackson could afford to do so because of the city’s high poverty rate. On Wednesday, he echoed that he wasn’t in favor of raising rates, but that he couldn’t rule it out.

The DOJ order requires Henifin to write up a funding strategy for the water system within 60 days. If that plan recommends raising rates, the order gives Henifin the ability to do so even if the City Council disapproves.

Replacing water lines

Asked about the city’s plan to upgrade its distribution system, Henifin detailed some of the next steps for making needed water line replacements.

“Here in Jackson you’ve got about 110 miles of small diameter pipe, which is unusual. Most large water systems have eliminated that,” he said. “Current engineering would say that a 6-inch diameter is the smallest water pipe you want to run down the street, and you’ve got a 100 miles of less than 6-inch pipe. You’ve got a lot of other pipe out there, there’s 400 and some miles total, but almost the first line in every study done (of Jackson’s system), the first recommendation is eliminate the small diameter pipes.”

Henifin estimated that it costs about $2 million to replace a mile of water lines, meaning to replace the 100 miles of smaller-than-recommended water lines would total $200 million.

He added that he expects by this summer the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which recently received $20 million from Congress to aid Jackson, will begin work on 10 miles of line upgrades.

Looking down the road, with the current funding available, he said it’s realistic for Jackson to do about 20 miles of line replacements a year, making it a 5- to 10-year process to replace all the small diameter pipes.

‘This wasn’t in my plan‘

Before coming to Jackson, Henifin had just retired in February from a 15-year stint as general manager of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, which he said handled wastewater from 1.8 million Virginians. He had looked forward to taking a break, calling the job during the pandemic a “crushing” experience.

While no longer officially working, he took on a role as a senior fellow with the nonprofit U.S. Water Alliance, where he helped small communities access money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure act.

The nonprofit, as part of an equity initiative, soon connected with Jackson, which at the time was in the middle of a citywide boil water notice. Henifin began advising the city directly and started making regular visits in September. Eventually, when the DOJ began deliberating the city’s future, Henifin offered to take on the role as third-party manager.

“This wasn’t in my plan,” he said. “But as I saw I could offer connections, play off some of my experience, and I really felt the connection with the people I was working with, and I really felt for the 160,000 people in Jackson not having dependable drinking water, and I thought, maybe egotistically, maybe I could make a difference.”

Overall, Henifin, a University of Virginia graduate, spent about 40 years working in Virginia in different government roles, including in Hampton, a city with a similar population size as Jackson.

The DOJ order gives Henifin’s team a $2.98 million budget for a 12-month period. That total includes $400,000 for Henifin’s salary, travel and living expenses; $1.1 million for staff pay and expenses; $1.4 million for contractor and consultant support; and $66,000 for other expenses, such as phones, computers, and insurance.

The order prioritizes 13 projects for the third-party team, which range from making equipment upgrades at the treatment plants, to doing corrosion control, to coming up with a plan to sustainably fund Jackson’s water system for the years to come.

The post Jackson meets the man tasked with fixing its water system appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The scheduled execution of death row inmate Thomas Edwin Loden Jr. will be allowed to proceed, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. 

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate denied a stay for Loden as part of a lawsuit challenging Missisisppi’s lethal injection protocol. Loden’s execution is set for Dec. 14 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. 

“Loden contends that since he is a plaintiff in this underlying lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s lethal injection mode of execution, the same procedure Mississippi intends to use to put him to death, he should not be executed before a decision on the constitutionality is rendered,” Wingate wrote.

“Loden, however, cannot convincingly argue that his involvement in this 1983 lawsuit has somehow expanded his rights and provided him a shield against execution,” he wrote, adding that granting a stay would likely delay Loden’s execution for years. 

Wingate ruled in a civil lawsuit brought by death row inmates Richard Jordan and Ricky Chase against Mississippi Department of Corrections officials that Loden and others have joined. 

In his order, Wingate scheduled a hearing for Jan. 19, 2023, about whether to issue an indefinite stay of execution for the plaintiffs and other intervenors in the case. 

Stacy Ferraro, one of Loden’s attorneys, argued against the state’s October request to set Loden’s execution by citing the pending lawsuit and saying Loden had not yet exhausted his appeals, according to court documents. 

Loden, 58, has been a death row inmate for over 20 years. In 2000, the military recruiter kidnapped, raped and killed 16-year-old Leesa Marie Gray in Dorsey in Itawamba County. 

The lawsuit before Wingate argues that the state’s three-drug cocktail for lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment because the compounded or mixed drugs the state uses could be “counterfeit, expired, contaminated and/or sub-potent” and result in people being conscious during the execution, according to court documents. 

Jim Craig of the MacArthur Center for Justice, who represents the plaintiffs Jordan and Chase, filed a temporary restraining order in October asking Wingate to withdraw the motion to set an execution date for Loden and not to execute him until the lawsuit is resolved. 

The Attorney General’s Office has argued that a case challenging the execution process doesn’t prevent Loden’s execution from proceeding because it is not challenging his death sentence, just the method of execution, according to court documents. 

In 2015, Wingate issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from executing anyone using the three-drug combination, saying in a written order that the inmates were likely to successfully argue that “Mississippi’s failure to use a drug which qualifies as an ‘ultra short-acting barbiturate or other similar drug’ as required” by state law violates both that law and the U.S. Constitution’s due process guarantees. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled that decision less than a year later.

The court wrote that the federal court can’t force state officials to follow state law, and the plaintiffs weren’t able to show their due process rights were violated. This sent the case back to the district court. 

The Mississippi Department of Corrections plans to put Loden to death by lethal injection. 

Under a law that went into effect in July, prison officials can choose from four execution methods: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas and firing squad. Before Wingate’s ruling, department spokesman Leo Honeycutt confirmed lethal injection was the method Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain and two deputy commissioners selected. 

In his order, Wingate mentioned the state could select another execution method, but that would “surely be attacked in a new lawsuit.” 

That law updated a 2017 version that said if lethal injection was not possible due to a legal challenge or unavailability of drugs, an incarcerated person could be put to death by gas chamber. If that option wasn’t available, electrocution was the next available method followed by firing squad. 

Lethal injection remains the state’s preferred form of execution, according to the legislation. 

The post Federal judge greenlights Mississippi execution appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and other GOP Senate leaders want to use a huge revenue surplus to give Mississippi taxpayers one-time rebate checks.

Republicans Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn still want to phase out the personal income tax, as a follow-on to the massive income tax cuts passed last year, which are still being implemented.

Each side says it wants to give back to taxpayers and its approach is the conservative, prudent thing to do. The issue is likely to bring heated internecine Republican debate in the new year, as it did last legislative session.

“Last year, we passed the largest tax cut in Mississippi history,” Hosemann said. “Phase-in for this $525 million cut begins this year and will result in a 4% flat income tax by 2026. This year, the Senate will propose a tax rebate. Both efforts will put significant tax dollars back into taxpayers’ pockets at a time when citizens are dealing with crippling inflation and an uncertain economy.”

But Gunn said, “No. We are not in favor of a tax rebate. We want permanent, long-term tax relief … My position has always been for elimination, or at the very minimum more tax elimination … (A rebate) is just a one-time payment.”

Reeves recently vowed to push for income tax elimination as long as he is governor, and hasn’t addressed the rebate proposal.

The state is entering its annual legislative session and budget setting with about $3.9 billion in unencumbered money, of which about $1 billion is recurring tax revenue. For scale, the state in fiscal 2022 collected $2.5 billion in personal income taxes. No percentages or amounts of potential rebate checks have been publicly discussed, but lawmakers could cut taxpayers some hefty checks.

READ MORE: Mississippi lawmakers pass the largest tax cut in state history

Hosemann and Senate leaders say the national and state economies are in turbulent, inflationary times with recession possible, and that much of the state surplus is from unprecedented federal spending that isn’t likely to continue or recur. They warn that fully eliminating the income tax in such uncertain economic times is foolhardy. Many state business leaders, including the state’s chamber of commerce, shared this trepidation last legislative session.

READ MORE: Inside the income tax cut battle between House and Senate leaders

Gunn and Reeves say Mississippi’s economy is on a roll that will continue, and that eliminating the personal income tax would help the state compete for economic development. Gunn points to nine states with no income tax, including Florida, Tennessee and Texas, as having thriving economies and growing population.

But no state has ever phased out an individual income tax. Alaska, the only state to eliminate an existing income tax, did so in one fell swoop. The states without income taxes typically have other taxes or excises on which to depend, such as oil in Alaska and Texas and tourism in Florida. Tennessee’s sales and excise taxes are more than 30% above the national average, and 7th highest in the country relative to personal income.

For Mississippi, the shift would be seismic: Individual income taxes generate about a third of the state’s tax revenue. Opponents of major cuts or elimination say the state has too many long-neglected needs in health care, education and infrastructure to upend the state’s tax structure, and it should be spending any windfall to address these.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he will introduce a tax rebate bill in the 2023 session, as he did last session. Hopson and Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, said lawmakers need to monitor the economy and huge tax cuts already being implemented before making further sea changes to state tax structure.

“The ultimate objective for those of us who are conservatives is to ensure we put as much money back in people’s pockets as possible,” Hopson said. “However, there are certain services, certain levels of service citizens expect from government … We are looking at some short-term measures to put money back into taxpayers’ pockets to help them with the high cost of goods and inflation … We really haven’t even implemented the last cuts we passed. A tax rebate is more prudent.”

Harkins said major tax policy changes should be made cautiously and over time, but a rebate can be based on a “snapshot,” such as the current budget surplus.

But House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said, “There’s no question which one is preferable between a multi-year, permanent tax cut versus a one-time slush fund payment. Ultimately, (elimination of the income tax) is better for the economy and ultimately better for working Mississippians. It’s really not even debatable which is better for hard-working Mississippians.”

The 2023 session comes in an election year. Typically, lawmakers try to avoid tackling major, contentious issues or policy during election-year sessions. It appears the tax elimination-rebate debate will be on tap, but some lawmakers and legislative leaders might not be as eager for the wrangling.

House Speaker Pro Tem Jason White, R-West, considered a likely successor for the speakership in 2024 with Gunn’s planned departure, said the state has many needs and demands for the “pile of money” collecting in state coffers. He noted the state faces federal intervention if improvements aren’t made in prisons, with state foster care and mental health and that hospitals across the state are struggling to stay afloat.

“We have a chance to fix some of that,” White said. “I’m not saying we’re not wanting to put more money in taxpayers’ pockets … The House has passed two bills to do that, and we have a four-year plan that has started a phase out of the income tax … We have got some things we should try to fix while we’ve got a surplus before we ask our Senate colleagues to take that next step.”

The post Phase out income tax or cut taxpayers checks? GOP lawmakers, governor disagree appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Deion Sanders has left the building, the Mississippi High School Football Championships are in the books and the holiday bowl schedule is set. The Cleveland boys recap the wild ride that was championship weekend and take a look at where Mississippi’s college teams are headed for bowl season.

Stream all episodes here.

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A Mississippi Version of the classic, A Christmas Carol.

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Mississippi State Auditor Shad White announced his office’s annual report on the state’s federal spending Tuesday, with a special focus on the Mississippi Department of Education’s bidding process to secure computers for school children.

White said the department mishandled choosing a vendor, ultimately giving special treatment to the winning company. That critique, along with other missteps the report details, is something MDE has denied in a letter to the auditor’s office.

White called the 388-page report the most “important report in the state of Mississippi” on whether “federal money actually helped people.”

“From a small county to a big state agency, folks around the state need to know we’re watching these processes,” White said during a Tuesday phone call with reporters. 

The annual audit spanned the largest amount of federal funds the office has ever examined in a fiscal year since the 2008 financial crisis. It covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, including the $1.25 billion of Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act money allocated by the Legislature.

In 2020, the Legislature allocated $150 million of COVID relief money to purchase computers for remote learning at the beginning of the pandemic. The Department of Education was responsible for managing this process; school districts were required to contribute 20% of their own federal money for their computers, and the remaining 80% would be covered by the federal funds disbursed by the Legislature. The law also gave MDE the ability to select a vendor and make a bulk purchase for participating districts across the state. 

READ MORE: Is Mississippi up to the task of (properly) spending billions in federal pandemic dollars?

The report says the Department of Education let the winning vendor — an Illinois company called CDW — have influence over the criteria for proposals before they were released, and gave the company multiple weeks advance notice of what the criteria would be. 

“All vendors selected by MDE were allowed to provide input on the specifications,” MDE wrote in its response letter to the auditor’s office. “The scheduling of these meeting dates … were not solely driven by MDE but were set based on vendor availability. All meetings were scheduled as quickly and as often as practicable under the circumstances.” 

MDE dubbed the plan Mississippi Connects. White chastised the agency in 2020 because he said the department required schools to purchase computers from a preferred vendor list to receive the 80/20 match, something MDE also disputed. 

READ MORE: Mississippi is getting devices to every child. That’s just the first step.

In his latest report, White also pointed out that CDW scored better on one section despite being more expensive than other bids. MDE said in its response letter, which was dated in October of this year, the company received more points because of CDW’s promise to deliver the computers by a Nov. 20, 2020 deadline.

White, however, says that all vendors had committed to delivering the devices by the deadline in their cost estimates. 

The report also pointed out the Department of Education failed to properly monitor federal funds given to nonprofits that provides meals to hungry children and adults to ensure the money was, in fact, fulfilling that purpose. In their October letter, MDE also disputed this claim. 

Separately, the report highlighted $453 million that was improperly administered through unemployment, and up to $69 million that may have gone to fraudulent Medicaid recipients. 

The federal government will examine the state’s report — as it does every state’s annual audit report — to determine if any clawbacks for misspent funds are necessary. 

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Legislative leaders approved a starting budget proposal for the quickly approaching 2023 session that leaves the state with an unprecedented $3.9 billion in unencumbered money.

House Speaker Philip Gunn, who presides over the Legislative Budget Committee that approved the budget recommendation Tuesday, said a little more than $1 billion of the reserve funds are recurring. In other words, the funds will be available yearly for legislators to spend.

The overflowing state coffers are already spawning debate among legislative leaders about providing taxpayers with rebate checks or phasing out the personal income tax.

Overall, the state budget recommendation approved for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning July 1, is for $7 billion in state support funds or $2.04 billion less than what was appropriated for the current fiscal year.

The current budget includes one-time federal COVID-19 relief funds and other reserves. Most likely, the Legislature during the 2023 session will appropriate additional reserve funds for various building projects and for other primarily one-time expenses, significantly increasing the budget total for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget approved Tuesday by the 14-member Budget Committee, which includes both Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, is viewed as a starting point for the 174 members of the Legislature to use in developing a budget for the next fiscal year.

Despite the unprecedented revenue growth, though, legislative leaders continue to oppose expanding Medicaid, as 39 other states have done, to provide health care coverage for primarily the working poor. Or, on a lesser scale, to provide Medicaid coverage for mothers of newborns for one year instead of 60 days.

When asked about the state’s poor health outcomes, Gunn said, legislators are looking for solutions, but said, “I think we have to have some discussions about what role the government plays in that.”

Gunn reiterated his opposition to expanding Medicaid and said he would not consider proposals to extend postpartum care from 60 days to a year until the Division of Medicaid endorsed the plan. Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder has said the expansion of postpartum care would cost the state $7 million per year, but has refused to take a position on it.

The Senate voted last year to extend postpartum coverage, but it died in the House.

“I don’t see the advantage of doing the postpartum thing,” Gunn said.

The speaker did say he supported spending up to $70 million of the about $300 million the state has left in federal COVID-19 relief funds to help shore up the state’s rural hospitals that have been struggling financially with many in danger of closing.

Gunn said he doesn’t foresee lawmakers pumping more money into the Mississippi Adequate Education Program – the public school funding formula – beyond the money from the teacher pay raise passed last year that will transfer into MAEP. Gunn is critical of the MAEP formula as “unattainable,” and has in the past advocated scrapping it.

“Ask the teachers out there whether they would rather have $250 million in teacher pay raises, or $250 million just go into the formula,” Gunn said. “I think I know which they would rather see.”

The formula was more than $300 million short of full funding last year.

Gunn credited the large reserve to “conservative” budgeting.

“We have rejected the push to grow government over the last many years,” Gunn said.

Most states, whether conservative or liberal, are experiencing strong revenue growth thanks in large part to federal COVID-19 relief funds pumped into states. In addition, high inflation and wage growth also have contributed to increased tax collections.

Gunn said he continues to advocate for the complete elimination of the state income tax. Hosemann and many in the Senate have advocated for a large one-time rebate to taxpayers.

Gov. Tate Reeves, who released his budget proposal in November, also is advocating for the elimination of the income tax.

The proposal adopted Tuesday would fill the state’s “Rainy Day Fund” with $579 million.

Some other highlights of the proposal include:

Increased spending on:

• State employee health insurance: $32 million.

• Child Protection Services, foster care and adoption: $12.3 million.

• Department of Public Safety, salary increases and forensics lab: $3 million.

• Department of Revenue, full funding of homestead exemption: $1.4 million.

The budget proposal includes about $16.5 million in spending cuts, including deleting more than 2,000 vacant state government positions, reducing travel and contractual services, spending down agency cash balances and eliminating one-time expenditures.

The legislative session begins in early January.

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United Furniture Industries — the Tupelo-based furnishings manufacturer that recently laid off its entire staff via email and text message – received more than $3 million dollars in taxpayer money through business incentive grants since 2009. 

The furniture company regularly got sums every few years — ranging from $200,000 to $1.3 million — in exchange for the promise to create jobs.

It was the largest employer in Monroe County. Now, its owner is missing and its former employees are filing lawsuits and hunting for new jobs.

“It’s a disgrace is what it is,” Jackson-based attorney Phil Hearn told Mississippi Today. Hearn is leading a class-action lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of workers.

United was an anchor of the furniture manufacturing hub of Northeast Mississippi — among the dozens of companies benefitting from decades of tax breaks to do business in-state. The companys buildings in Lee County were free from local and state property taxes, another incentive perk. It also likely saved massive amounts of money on its payroll taxes as part of a job creation rebate program and tax credits from a special program for upholstery companies. 

When then-Gov. Phil Bryant announced that United would get more than $1.3 million to support an expansion in 2013, he called the manufacturer “a valued business partner for the State of Mississippi.” 

In 2015, the company got $500,000 more with similar fanfare. Then, $200,000 the next year and another promise of 100 new jobs. Both the most recent grants were awarded through the state’s “ACE” program – commonly referred to as “deal closing funds” when competition is fierce. 

Every celebrated announcement touted jobs, partnerships and keeping Mississippians at work in the furniture industry.

But with one email to 2,700 employees overnight a few days before Thanksgiving, that long-standing partnership shattered. The company wasn’t just closing – it was already closed. No federally-mandated warning to employees that layoffs were coming. No announcement of a sale. No filing for bankruptcy.

Just closed. 

Hearn said in his three decades as an attorney handling employee rights cases, he’s never seen anything like this: a total disregard for labor laws, no planning, and limited information available to workers. 

“I’ve been with the company through several owners and names,” line worker Jeff Jones told the Daily Journal. “We’ve always bounced back. In the email they made it perfectly clear there’s no bouncing back from this.”

Jones worked for United Furniture for more than 30 years. 

Hearn said the state’s history of supporting the company gave employees a sense of security that made the sudden collapse even more shocking. 

“It can be difficult to evaluate some of these incentive programs for various reasons,” said State Economist Corey Miller. “A number of companies that get them get more than one incentive, and it’s difficult to untangle the impact of each one.” 

Miller said in the case of United, the company’s sudden fall doesn’t mean the millions the state put up to support the company were for nothing. 

“I don’t think they necessarily weren’t worth doing,” Miller said. “I haven’t evaluated the whole situation, but it’s possible because they were around for a while, people had jobs, that the state got some return on investment.”

United Furniture was created after a merger between three companies in 2000: Comfort Furniture, Parkhill Furniture and United Chair. Comfort Furniture, the leading of the three, was founded in Mississippi in 1983. 

Over the 2010s, the company regularly received state-funded support in grants through the Mississippi Development Authority. In addition to grants, the company was also certified to participate in the state’s Advantage Jobs Incentive Program, which allows companies to have up to 90% of payroll taxes withheld for up to a decade dependent upon the number of jobs it created.

In 2020, the revenue department projected the total cost of the program would be about $18 million and covered a dozen companies in 10 counties – including in counties that were home to United facilities. 

Another tax credit program, specific for upholstery companies such as United, allows them up to $2,000 job tax credit per position created since 2010 and covers up to 100% of their income tax liability. 

But any details about if United – or any one company – took advantage of either programs and to what extent isn’t public, according to the state Department of Revenue. 

By 2017, United had about 3,500 employees and facilities in Nettleton, Tupelo, Okolona, Sherman, Vardaman, Amory and out-of-state facilities in North Carolina and California. The company took over a Belden factory that belonged to a competitor, buying out the Lane brand for an undisclosed amount. 

But in July of this year, United announced it was laying off 300 people and closed its Amory plant because it was turning the facility into a distribution warehouse. After the layoffs, the company still had 17 facilities (including one in Vietnam) and about 2,700 employees. 

“Our team is committed to the long-term success of our company,” then-Chief Executive Officer Todd Evans said in a statement at the time. “That commitment requires right-sizing at the present time. We are confident that the product, sales, and operational plans that we have established will provide for a successful future.’’

But that success didn’t come. 

Miller, the state economist, said the United situation seems like more of an outlier — not an indication Northeast Mississippi’s furniture industry as a whole is in danger. 

There has been some slow down industry-wide, Miller said. Companies aren’t seeing the same high demands for home furnishings they were during the pandemic. But most companies aren’t at a crisis level. 

The larger economic impacts to the Monroe and Lee counties will depend upon how quickly workers are in new jobs, Miller said.

Nettleton-based furniture manufacturing company Homestretch Furniture hired 15 former United workers at a recent job fair. Ashley Furniture, another company with local manufacturing, has also recruited workers. 

MDA declined to make any comments specific to United or its past grants, but Deputy Director Laura Hipp said in a statement that the state agency will “work with local economic development partners on how the needs of the area can be supported.” 

Hearn, the attorney, said he’s seen entire families devastated: five brothers who all worked for United, a mother and two daughters – one pregnant – now without health insurance. 

His clients largely fall into two categories: eager for another furniture job because it’s all they know, or eager for a change because they’re terrified the same thing will happen at another plant.

His clients range from executive-suite workers to line workers and truck drivers.

“They all have one thing in common,” he said. “They’re scared to death.” 

Had United followed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) laws, it would have given employees 60 days notice before the massive layoffs.

The decision to shutter the company came from Stage Capital LLC, the company’s owners. Head of Stage Capital, David Belford, has been missing since the email closing the company went out. 

Hearn said he’s heard company rumors the millionaire – or possible billionaire – ran off to Paris. 

United is now facing three class-action lawsuits – which a judge could roll into one case – that accuses the company of failing to follow the WARN Act and still owing workers their last week’s paycheck.

“I’ve never seen anything so callous,” Hearn said. 

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