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HATTIESBURG – The auditorium grew quiet as members of the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees waited for people in the audience to take the mic at the University of Southern Mississippi. 

Tom Duff – a USM alumnus, one of the wealthiest Mississippians and this year’s president of the IHL board – broke the silence.

“This is kind of like church,” he quipped from the stage of the Joe Paul Theater. 

The comment illustrated the fervent tenor of Wednesday’s two listening sessions, the first step in the process IHL will use to appoint a successor to Rodney Bennett, USM’s tenth president who stepped down earlier this year. 

Out of about 400 attendees, nearly 55 students, faculty, staff and alumni addressed the trustees, using words like “advocate,” “passionate” and “grit” to describe the qualities they’d like to see in the next top administrator at USM. 

As far as many speakers were concerned, IHL doesn’t need to go far to find its next president. Several told trustees they wanted Joe Paul, the interim president, to lead the university permanently. He was repeatedly likened to Aubrey Lucas, who many consider one of USM’s most beloved presidents.

“We need someone who has Southern Miss in their soul,” said Toby Barker, the mayor of Hattiesburg. “We’ve had that in the last three months with Dr. Paul. You only need to look at the positive effect that Dr. Paul has had since arriving on campus.” 

Several speakers used metaphors to convey their aspirations for the university and its next president. 

The president of the student government association told trustees she’d like a president who knows that “Southern Miss is a destination … not a layover.” A well-known supporter of the baseball team remarked that USM has “a good story to tell, but what we need is a storyteller for our president.” 

“I believe Southern Miss is at a crossroads,” said state Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg. 

In his nine years as president, Bennett had a historic tenure at USM. The first Black president of the predominantly white university, he grew freshmen enrollment and improved retention among the 14,000 student population, helped attain top-tier research status, and twice raised wages for the lowest-paid workers on campus.

While no one blamed Bennett by name, nearly every speaker suggested that USM had not seen its best days under the former president – a perception not always born out by data. 

Multiple speakers said they felt that enrollment had declined at the university since the start of the pandemic, but IHL’s numbers show the total student population has actually held steady from fall 2019 to fall 2021. 

Nonetheless, some speakers told trustees they’d like the next president to prioritize recruitment, specifically at schools like Jackson Academy and in the Clinton and Madison districts.

USM could increase recruitment by improving support for sororities and fraternities, many speakers suggested. At USM, significantly less students – about an estimated 1,600 – are members of sororities and fraternities compared to Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi, where Greek-affiliated students number more than 5,000. 

“The future president may not be Greek, and that’s totally understandable, but I would definitely encourage you all to seek the importance of our Greek community,” said Betsy Mercier, a recent graduate and the advisor for USM’s Delta Delta Delta chapter. 

As the smallest of Mississippi’s three top-tier research universities, multiple speakers said they felt USM has long received the short end of the stick compared to its peers – University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University – in terms of funding and prestige. 

“I knew that throughout my professional career, that I was – especially being in Mississippi, that because I did not have an Ole Miss birthright or a Mississippi State birthright, I was going to have to work longer and harder than everyone else,” Dave Estorge, a member of the alumni board, said. “I got a chip on my shoulder, always have.” 

Billy Hewes, the mayor of Gulfport, told trustees he believes IHL has an “institutional bias” against USM. He said he thought the board had chances in the past to give USM a leader like Mark Keenum or Robert Khayat, but that trustees chose not to. 

“Ten years ago we had that opportunity,” Hewes said. “You had some good candidates, including our interim president, who is showing an enthusiasm we haven’t seen in a decade. And so, it is incumbent on this board to find somebody who has those attributes, who can do for Southern Miss what we’ve seen done at other schools, and get us back to where we desire to be.” 

Many students, faculty and staff emphasized the importance of increasing diversity at USM. About 61% of students at USM are white and 27% are Black – that has barely changed since 2013, Bennett’s first year in office. 

Fred Varnado, the former director of continuing education, said he wanted the next president to “ensure there is diversity in the cabinet.” 

Tegi Jenkins-Rimmer, an alumnus and the assistant director of programming, put it this way: “What matters to me in a president now is the same thing that mattered to me when I came to Southern Miss years ago – a president who cares about faculty, staff and students who look like me.” 

“We need a president who is willing to give us a voice and a seat at the table,” she added. 

Heidi Moore, a first-generation student pursuing a masters in higher education administration, said she wanted to speak to trustees from “a different perspective, a poor perspective.” 

“There have been moments when Southern Miss has taught me I belong in one area and I don’t get to go anywhere else,” she said. “USM has also taught me liberation, critical thinking skills. I want someone who is so vulnerable, transparent, brave, courageous – someone who sees everyone.” 

USM’s next president will need to boost morale among faculty and staff, several speakers said. 

Maurine Pace, a staff member in the Office of Research Administration, said that nearly a dozen of her coworkers have left in recent years for remote, better-paying jobs with other university systems. 

“The crisis is here today, it’s not two years down the road – it’s here,” a faculty member said.  

Denis Wiesenburg, the president of the faculty senate, likened the relationship he’d like to see between faculty and the president to “a dance … with the administration being the prom committee.” 

Other repeated themes in speakers’ comments included donor relations, fundraising and economic development. One teaching professor said she’d like a president who would champion a technological innovation comparable to the development of Gatorade at the University of Florida. 

Mac Alford, a professor of biological sciences, said he had a different take on the importance of fundraising. The former faculty senate president said he wanted a president who would fight for more public funding, not for private dollars. To make his point to the trustees, he recalled a cabinet meeting when Bennett announced USM had been approved to increase tuition. 

“I realize that’s important in terms of the budget, but we are a public institution,” he said. “If we have public goals in this state, we need people in Jackson, and we need you people at the Legislature, arguing … the importance of this institution as a public institution. Because if we’re going to get 10% of our money from the state of Mississippi, we don’t need you guys. We need our own board.” 

According to IHL data, USM has increased annual tuition by more than $1,000 since fiscal year 2018, from $8,108 to $9,203 – nearly one-fifth the median household income in Mississippi. This trend is not unique to USM as each of the state’s eight public universities have had to raise tuition rates as legislative funding has not recovered since the Great Recession.

Chuck Scianna, a 1975 alumnus and founder of an oil drilling equipment company, said he viewed higher education as an “investment” and wanted a president with a similar corporate mindset. 

“That’s the way I look at it – as a business, not an institution,” Scianna said. “You’re a board of shareholders. Even though we are a public institution, public funds don’t make up 100% of our budget – not here, not anywhere.”

Scianna joked that since Paul became interim president, “I can’t get his hand out of my back pocket.” 

In remarks at both sessions, Duff, the IHL board member, said he wanted the community to know the board is committed to a “transparent” search process. He added the trustees will use the comments from the listening session to create a “draft profile” of the community’s ideal candidate – proof the trustees’ would take speakers seriously. 

“Oftentimes, IHL is painted by the media and the people as perhaps not caring,” Duff said. 

READ MORE: After controversial Ole Miss chancellor search, powerful lawmaker aims to limit governor’s IHL appointment power

As he spoke, IHL sent out a press release announcing the names of 15 students, professors and alumni who will advise the trustees during the search, including Hewes, Scianna and the SGA president. 

IHL has also hired Academic Search, a national firm that is familiar with USM, to assist with the process. 

“The enthusiasm and level of desire is evidence to each of us,” Duff said. “This is a very solemn and, candidly, a sacred responsibility on our part.” 

The trustees will hold another listening session Tuesday at USM’s branch campus in Long Beach. Members of the public are invited to submit comments for the next nine days at IHL’s website. 

Correction 10/4/2022: This story has been updated to reflect that freshman enrollment and student retention, not the overall student population, increased during Bennett’s tenure.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday it plans to spend $221 million on a flood control project known as One Lake, which would widen the Pearl River along Jackson, as long it meets environmental and other criteria.

Attorney Keith Turner said the Rankin Hinds Flood & Drainage Control District — the project’s local sponsor — submitted a revised proposal in July to the Assistant Secretary of the Army, which will review the new document before sending it back out for a final public comment period.

Turner said the new version of the plan, which isn’t yet publicly available, is largely the same as the drafted proposal. He said the new document proposes a slightly smaller footprint in dredging the Pearl River, which in turn would mean less impacts on wetlands and cheaper construction costs.

In total, the project is estimated to cost $340 million, Turner said.

The $221 million, or 65% of the project’s costs, comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and is part of $800 million going to the Corps. Sen. Roger Wicker, who has backed the project for years, said that money also includes $700,000 to finalize a pending study on One Lake.

Turner said he has no timeline on when the Corps will finish reviewing the updated proposal, but said “beginning of 2023 is when we hope to see it out for public comment.”

Support for the long-discussed project gained traction in 2020, after a Pearl River flood damaged over 400 homes. The levee board, the project’s sponsor, said that One Lake would have prevented damage in 92 percent of the 222 homes that were impacted in Northeast Jackson, Downtown Jackson and Flowood.

But advocates and some officials downstream of Jackson question the downstream impacts that damming the river could have, and point to alternative flood control measures such as voluntary buyouts and raising levees.

The post Feds to spend $221 million on One Lake project, Army Corps announces appeared first on Mississippi Today.

NFL legend Brett Favre, who has become a central figure in ongoing coverage of the Mississippi welfare scandal, has hired former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann as his lead counsel, Axios first reported on Monday.

Favre has been a subject of Mississippi Today and national reporting this year for being the inspiration behind at least $8 million in welfare misspending. In recent weeks, several sponsors have reportedly distanced themselves from the the Hall of Fame quarterback and native Mississippian.

Text messages first reported by Mississippi Today this year show Favre communicated regularly and directly with welfare officials about using federal grant money to construct a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi, his alma mater and where his daughter played volleyball.

A Mississippi Today investigation earlier this year also chronicled how Favre and his business partner in a pharmaceutical startup company offered stock to former Gov. Phil Bryant in exchange for the governor’s help advancing the company. That venture also received more than $2 million in welfare funds.

READ MORE: ‘You stuck your neck out for me’: Brett Favre used fame and favors to pull welfare dollars

While he has not been charged with a crime, Favre is facing civil charges in an ongoing lawsuit the state is bringing against several people and companies that received welfare funds. He repaid the state $1.1 million that he personally received from a welfare-funded nonprofit under an advertising agreement, which allegedly included speaking engagements he never attended.

Mississippi Today first reported last month that Favre and the nonprofit appear to have entered the advertising arrangement as a way to channel more funds to the USM volleyball project.

“I only agreed to represent Brett Favre after I did my independent due diligence and was convinced that he did nothing wrong,” Herschmann told Axios. “Brett enthusiastically tried to help his alma mater, a public university, that needed and wanted his help.”

Herschmann continued: “To be clear, Brett had no idea that welfare funds were being used or that others were involved in illegal conduct.”

Click here to read the full scoop from Axios.

The post Report: Brett Favre hires former Trump attorney as welfare scandal grows appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read the story behind the cartoon.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Settled appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch has quietly settled Mississippi’s claims against insurance companies over Katrina damages for pennies on the dollar compared to a similar federal case and those settled by her predecessor.

In 2015, former Attorney General Jim Hood and outside attorneys filed a lawsuit to recoup state funds that were awarded to homeowners when the insurance companies did not meet what Hood argued was their legal obligation. After Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast in 2005, insurance companies refused to pay or paid only limited amounts on many claims of homeowners, saying their damage was caused by water not wind and their policies did not cover flood damage.

The state created the Homeowner Assistance Program to help make those homeowners “whole.” Through that program, the state paid $2.03 billion to homeowners for damages. But, according to the lawsuits, many of those damages should have been covered by insurance companies that denied paying damages or limited payouts, citing water damage when in reality the damage was caused by wind. That could have saved the state tens of millions in public funds to be spent on recovery efforts or elsewhere.

In a similar federal case, where the federal flood insurance program accused State Farm of failing to pay for wind damage and instead foisting it off on the National Flood Insurance Program, State Farm agreed to pay the federal government $100 million. But Fitch settled the state’s wind vs. water case with State Farm — which held the most policies of any insurer on the Coast in Katrina — for $12 million.

Before leaving office as attorney general in 2020, Hood settled three of the lawsuits – against insurers Metropolitan, American Security and Balboa. The three lawsuits, covering 652 policyholders, were settled for a total of $6.78 million, or $10,410 per policyholder. Since then, Fitch has settled five of the lawsuits, including the largest against State Farm and Allstate, for a cumulative $21.9 million, or $1,441 per policyholder.

When asked about the settlement discrepancies, Michelle Williams, Fitch’s chief of staff, said in a statement: “I cannot answer some of your questions because we still have pending litigation and your questions involve litigation strategy. But, I will note that the Federal/NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program) case involves different issues, different facts, and different laws from our state case even though the underlying event of Hurricane Katrina is the same.”

One case, against PRIME Insurance, is still pending finalization.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said he supported the settlement of the lawsuits to bring stability to the insurance market in the state.

“I am glad they got settled,” he said. “I have a stable market unlike what is happening in Florida, Louisiana and Texas” with their insurance markets.

Despite Williams’ and Chaney’s defense, some question whether Fitch should have gotten better settlements for the state.

“Because she is a Republican, Attorney General Fitch is probably cozier with the insurance companies than were her two predecessors,” said David Baria, a Bay St. Louis attorney and former Democratic state lawmaker who last week won $10 million in punitive damages against USAA insurance company in a similar case where the insurance company was accused of using deceptive practices to avoid or delay paying a claim.

While the Jackson County jury awarded the estate of Sylvia Minor $10 million in punitive damages and $1.5 million in compensatory damages, Fitch settled the state case involving hundreds of other homeowners with the same USAA for $1.4 million.

Private attorneys contracted with Hood to assist on the case, who receive a percentage of any settlement but nothing if they do not prevail, declined comment on the settlements.

But Baria, who was not involved in the state cases, said a person could compare what the jury awarded in his case and what was awarded in a similar federal case ($100 million) “and “reach your own conclusion” about whether the Fitch settlements were too low.

Chip Merlin is founder of the Merlin Law Group, one of the largest national firms representing policyholders in disputes with insurance companies. His firm handled hundreds of Katrina policyholder claims, including many in Mississippi, all of which have been resolved. Like many others across the country, Merlin was keeping tabs on pending cases, including the state of Mississippi’s lawsuits over the Homeowner Assistance Program.

Merlin said, “I was as surprised as anybody else,” when he learned from recent news reports that most of the outstanding state litigation had been quietly settled starting more than a year ago, with the Mississippi AG’s office issuing no press statements or releases or posting on its website. Merlin said this shows a great lack of transparency for cases brought on behalf of the public.

“I almost fell out of my chair,” Merlin said. “How come we didn’t know about it? That’s a public lawsuit … That impacts the public treasury and there should be some explanation why elected officials thought this was in the best interest of Mississippi.”

Merlin said he can’t opine whether the $12 million settlement with State Farm and other settlements were fair for taxpayers because “we don’t know enough about it — that’s the problem.”

“It’s just very weird the state would settle a year before and nobody know,” Merlin said. “… It calls for the attorney general to say something. I’ve never heard of a settlement involving a public entity being secret … It’s supposed to be on behalf of everybody for the state. If it wasn’t favorable to the state, then the matter should continue on. If it was favorable, you would think elected officials would explain why.”

In terms of transparency, Merlin said it is also unusual that there is a strict non-disclosure clause in the state settlements since the agreements involved public/state funds. Similar language was not in the contracts negotiated by Hood.

Citing pending litigation, Fitch’s office refused to comment on the need for the non-disclosure clause. The attorney general’s office required Mississippi Today and the Sun Herald, which first reported on the State Farm settlement, to submit public records requests to ascertain the settlement amounts. Normally, the AG’s office sends out news releases when settling or winning lawsuits.

As to some companies who settled before Fitch took over for more money per policy, Merlin said: “If similar conduct was going on, then the issue is why did you get so much more against the other companies and less against State Farm?

“I do have to applaud the former attorney general for bringing the litigation in the first place,” Merlin said. “Many times attorneys general don’t bring these actions. It might be difficult, suing big insurance companies.”

Merlin also commented on Mississippi’s Homeowner Assistance Program, which he said was well run and helped thousands of families.

“Mississippi did a great job of getting the money out and taking care of citizens,” Merlin said, “especially compared to Louisiana … I’ve been around to a lot of storms and a lot of states, and nobody ever says the good things, but Mississippi officials did a fantastic job with that.”

State Farm recently agreed to pay the federal government $100 million to settle long-running litigation in federal court, involving two former employee “whistleblowers.” A jury in the case had found that State Farm defrauded the National Flood Insurance Program by charging it for flood damage to a policyholder’s home when the destruction was caused by wind. State Farm’s policies covered wind damage but not flood, which is covered by NFIP. The whistleblowers claimed the company shifted wind damages it should have covered to the federal flood program.

After Katrina, Mississippi received billions in federal block grant funds for Katrina recovery. The state created the Homeowners Assistance Program to provide homeowners grants for flood damage. Thousands of homeowners, who had long been told they did not need federal flood insurance, saw destruction or major damage to their homes by Katrina’s unprecedented flooding.

Mississippi, with its litigation, claimed insurers let the state Homeowner Assistance Program pay people for wind damages that should have been covered by their private insurance policies. The state was suing for damages and money collected from the litigation would go into state coffers.

Hood claimed insurance companies caused Mississippi to pay millions of dollars the state could have otherwise used for other recovery efforts.

“State Farm took advantage of our program by causing HAP to pay for wind losses that State Farm should have covered under its homeowner policies,” Hood said at the time. “Remarkably, State Farm and other insurers walked away from Hurricane Katrina and experienced record profits in the years following, while Mississippi continues to suffer.”

State Farm spokesman Roszell Gadson had little comment when asked about the company’s $12 million settlement with Mississippi. The company has denied wrongdoing in any of its Katrina litigation.

“While State Farm is pleased to have reached a settlement in this matter, the settlement is not an admission that State Farm did anything wrong,” Gadson said. “That is all we have to share.”

According to the lawsuit originally filed by Hood, the state paid State Farm policyholders through HAP $522.1 million, or on average $76,673 per policyholder. By comparison, State Farm paid $98.7 million or on average $14,494 per policyholder.

The largest case settled by Hood before he left office was with Metropolitan Property. Hood settled that case for $4.75 million. Metropolitan paid 429 customers, on average, $8,796. HAP paid $39.2 million, or on average $90,488. Hood settled American Security for $1.35 million. HAP paid 115 American Security policyholders $71 million or $57,070 per customer. By comparison American Security paid $1.2 million or $5,491 per policyholder.

Chaney said the settlement amounts Hood garnered were higher because at least one of the companies wanted to settle quickly so that the lawsuit would not hinder its efforts to merge with another company.

Chaney said all of the settlements were negotiated by Maison Heidelberg, a Jackson attorney who was one of the attorneys hired by Hood to work on the case. Chaney said the methodology used by Hood in filing the original lawsuits were flawed. He said the lawsuits filed by Hood claimed that the insurance companies were not providing proper payouts for 70% of the claimants when in reality it might have been only 700 or 800.

“Then you had people getting $150,000 grants … (through HAP) and coming back and trying to double dip and get money from the insurance companies,” he said.

Heidelberg, along with other private attorneys involved in the cases, declined comment.

The post AG Lynn Fitch settled Katrina insurance cases for pennies on the dollar compared to others appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We call Mississippi’s only PGA Tour tournament the Sanderson Farms Championship. This past week, it might as well have been renamed the World Open.

The leaders were from all over the planet. Mackenzie Hughes, a 31-year-old Canadian, won the Sanderson rooster trophy and the $1,422,000 check that came with it. Sepp Straka finished second, losing on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Straka, from Vienna, has the distinction of being the first Austrian to first qualify for the PGA Tour and then win on it.

Lefty Garrick Higgo finished third. He’s from South Africa. Dean Burmester, another South African, was fourth all alone. Emiliano Grillo, from Argentina, led a group in a tie for fifth.

The Sanderson Farms Championship was played one week after the Presidents Cup matches, in which a team of Americans won easily over a team of international golfers. It seemed clear Sunday the international team could have used Hughes and a few more of the globetrotters who got a lot richer at Country Club of Jackson.

Hughes, from Hamilton, Ontario, shot rounds of 71, 63, 68 and 69 for a 72-hole total of 17-under par 271. He began Sunday one shot off the lead of American Mark Hubbard, who finished with a 74 and wound up in the fifth place tie.

“I’m over the moon,” Hughes said afterward. “I had some moments today where I was tested and was able to pull through. It’s kind of my M.O. to scramble and save some pars. I had to do that a little bit today on the back nine.”

Actually, he had to do it a lot. Hughes missed the green 24 times in the 72-hole tournament. He scrambled for par successfully on 22 of the 24. None was more important than the all-universe par he made on the 72nd hole of regulation to force the playoff.

The 18th hole at CCJ is a 480-yard par-4 with an uphill shot to the green. Playing in long shadows with the sun setting, beautifully, behind the clubhouse, Hughes pulled his drive left into the rough and then had to hit a low shot, beneath the limbs of a pine tree, into the green. His shot skittered over the green and back to within a couple feet of a luxury suite. He faced a 34-yard shot back to the hole, and chose to putt.

“You don’t practice putts that long,” Hughes would say. “I just told myself I was going to somehow two-putt that hole.”

His approach putt, from over 100 feet away, was perfectly judged distance-wise and left him a two-footer to get into the playoff. He tapped it right into the center of the cup.

The sudden death playoff was pre-arranged to start on No. 18. Both parred the 18th, Hughes again scrambling from a bunker fronting the green. So, they played the 18th again and, for Hughes, the third time in a 45-minute span was a charm. He hit a perfect drive, then a 165-yard approach shot to within eight feet of the cup. After Straka missed his 18-footer for birdie, Hughes poured his into the center of the cup. He was already celebrating as the ball approached the hole.

“I knew when it was a foot away, it was going right in the middle,” Hughes said. “That’s the best feeling in the world.”

That best feeling in the world became even better when his pregnant wife and two young sons headed onto the green to celebrate with him.

“That was the coolest part of the whole deal,” Hughes said. “Words can’t describe how good that feels because I love them so much.”

Mackenzie Hughes and his wife, Jenna Shaw, were newlyweds in October of 2016 when Hughes, a rookie still in his first month on the PGA Tour, won the RSM Classic and the first place prize of early a million bucks. If Hughes thought it would always be that easy, he was badly wrong. He had not won again until Sunday, and there’s a story there.

“My oldest son Kenton (soon to be 5) has seen all my trophies but he had never seen me win one,” Hughes said. “He’s old enough to understand it a little bit now and he’s always asking when I am going to win another trophy and when does he get to have a trophy. So this one might have to stay in his room for a while.”

Mississippi’s PGA Tour tournament, which began in Hattiesburg 54 years ago, has been played in the past during April floods, in brutal July heat and was at least once interrupted by a tornado. This year’s sun-kissed event was played under cloudless skies in immaculate autumn weather on what many golfers said are some of the best putting greens in the world.

Nevertheless, the tournament, which has donated more than $10 million to Children’s of Mississippi Hospital since 2013, has faced an indefinite future because of the recently completed sale of Sanderson Farms. That future looked a little brighter after a statement from J. Clinton (Clint) Rivers, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Wayne-Sanderson Farms, the company’s new name.

“We are a newly formed company – literally as of two months ago – and we have a bright future ahead of us,” Rivers said. “For many of us this is our first experience with this event, and I couldn’t think of a better experience. The children’s hospital is a great charity for us to be involved with, and we are proud to be associated with them. I have been asked several times this week about the future of the championship, and I have only one thing to say. See you next year.”

That will come as welcome news to both the children’s hospital and to Mackenzie Hughes, a Canadian who has learned to adore central Mississippi and the state’s capital city.

“I love this golf course,” Hughes said. “I’ll be back for many, many more years.”

The post Canadian Mackenzie Hughes wins Sanderson, as globe-trotting players dominate appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s Alex Rozier, Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison discuss the future of Jackson’s beleaguered water system, will it be fixed and what that fix might look like. It seems the federal government through the Environmental Protection Agency is on board for the long-haul fix. Will the state be?

The post Podcast: Can federal, state and local officials work together to solve Jackson’s water woes? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

According to the USDA ERA, 15% of Mississippi households in 2020 were experiencing food insecurity. In 2018, one in four Mississippi children walked around hungry. Hunger is an invisible problem that affects so much and so many.

On this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor At Large Marshall Ramsey is joined by Langston Moore, who serves as the Regional Director for Society of St. Andrew — Mississippi, an organization that gleans leftover food from farmers and gets it into the hands of those across the state who are feeding the hungry.

From January to July of 2022, 715,814 pounds of food has been gleaned and distributed providing 2,863,256 servings of nutritious food. Hunger continues to be an issue in Mississippi and Moore shares how SoSA MS is fighting it one saved vegetable at a time. To donate to SoSAMS, you can text 42828 or email mississippi@endhunger.org. Or you can mail a check to PO Box 5362, Jackson, MS 39296.

The post Mississippi Stories: Langston Moore appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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The average state of Mississippi employee has worked for the state for almost 10 years and earns less than the average of all Mississippi workers and woefully less than their counterparts in the four contiguous states, according to information compiled by the state Personnel Board.

While Gov. Tate Reeves, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, Speaker Phillip Gunn and other political leaders boast of unprecedented revenue collections and surpluses, the buying power of state workers is going backward. The governor, in particular, touts the strong fiscal condition of the state while seemingly ignoring issues like the salary levels of state employees.

“Inflation has risen every month in the last 18 to 20 months.,” state Personnel Board Executive Director Kelly Hardwick said this week on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast. “… And so, looking at it, you know, a dollar that an employee was spending a year ago is worth about 90 cents now, 91, somewhere around there. So how do you counterbalance that? And that’s by increasing the salaries.”

Providing such a raise would require legislative action in the 2023 session. During a recent legislative meeting, Hosemann broached the idea of a pay raise. At the meeting, Hardwick told legislative leaders that in the coming weeks he would offer them suggestions on pay increases – such as one-year raise of around 5% or smaller multi-year raises.

The fact of the matter is that because of Mississippi’s record tax collections and surpluses, legislators have the money to provide a meaningful raise – even more than 5%. The question is whether they have the will to do so.

The irony is that those record tax collections are attributable in a large part to inflation. Because of inflation, salaries – in the private sector, at least – have risen, providing the state more tax revenue. And because of inflation, the cost of retail items has risen, meaning the state’s 7% tax on retail items generates more revenue.

One of the retail items impacted the most by inflation has been groceries. And the state’s regressive 7% tax on groceries, the highest of its kind in the nation, means inflation is helping to fill Mississippi coffers more than those of any other state. There is an argument that those grocery tax collections should be returned to those most impacted by the regressive tax, such as the poor and middle class – and perhaps even to state employees in the form of a pay increase.

Besides inflation, there also is the point that Mississippi state workers earn less than those in the private sector, according to numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hardwick said that should not be happening because the private sector includes the types of jobs that do not exist in the public sector, such as service and retail jobs that are normally lower paying.

“If you did the math, compared apples to apples with the private sector, they (state employees) should be making about $50,000,” Hardwick said.

When comparing Mississippi state workers to those in neighboring states, Arkansas is the closest at $50,394 per year – almost $7,000 more than in Mississippi. Louisiana state workers on average earn $52,592 while Tennessee’s is the highest at $61,261.

Still, state workers in Mississippi must be working harder. There are currently 23,561 state employees under state Personnel Board regulations compared to 26,525 in 2018. It should be pointed out that in addition to the workers who fall under the purview of the Personnel Board, there also are public school teachers, public universities and colleges staff and faculty. Adding all of those together, there are nearly 85,000 state workers, including a tiny fraction in the offices of elected officials who work at the pleasure of their bosses. Workers with state Personnel Board purview have civil service protection and cannot be fired without cause.

The startling number is that over the last 10 years the state workforce – those with civil service protection such as prison guards, administrators at Medicaid, direct care workers at Mental Health, social workers in Child Protection Services – has decreased by 24% or by 7,500.

Thus far the Legislature has chosen not to offset those reductions in the workforce by providing significant raises to make the state workers more competitive with employees in the private sector and with those in neighboring states.

Whether that will change in 2023 remains to be seen. But Hosemann and other legislative leaders are talking about it.

The post State employee pay trails neighboring states, private sector appeared first on Mississippi Today.