Can Mississippi afford to raise teacher pay and eliminate the income tax?
Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive early access to weekly analyses.
Remember mid-January, when seemingly all legislative leaders could do was sing the praises of public school teachers as they proposed historic pay raises?
House and Senate leaders garnered broad praise from public education groups in January for passing proposals that would not only offer short-term raises, but increase the teacher pay scale in the long run.
But since then, lawmakers have largely focused their time and energy into cutting or eliminating the state’s income tax, which generates billions in revenue that helps pay those teacher salaries, among many other critical public services.
Teachers across the state are having trouble separating the teacher pay raise and income tax cut proposals.
“The song lawmakers have always sung was that we can’t fund MAEP (the state’s public education funding formula) because we don’t have the money. Now they’re pointing to all this extra money to justify cutting the income tax? It’s not adding up,” said Cagney Weaver, a national board certified teacher at Biloxi Upper Elementary. “I really do think there are good intentions in wanting to pay teachers more and we’ll see what happens with those bills. But why aren’t they talking more about how cutting the income tax could gut the state budget and keep them from paying us down the road?”
As bickering between House and Senate leaders over tax cut proposals continues to worsen, lawmakers face a critical deadline on March 1 to decide what to do with the teacher pay raise bills. And educators, watching closely this week, worry that teacher pay could potentially get caught in the middle of the tax cut fight.
“There’s such a long way to go before anything meaningful gets done for teachers,” Weaver said. “And what reason have lawmakers ever given us to feel optimistic about any of this?”
READ MORE: The Mississippi Republican income tax bet
One year ago today, House and Senate leaders were publicly fighting over a major tax cut proposal. They faced the first major deadline to handle bills originating in the opposite chamber, and because of the bickering, many bills died a quiet death without a vote or even debate. Among the legislation caught up in the fight: a pay raise for public school teachers.
Today, House and Senate leaders are publicly fighting over a major tax cut proposal. They face the first major deadline to handle bills originating in the opposite chamber, and because of the bickering, Capitol observers fear many bills will die a quiet death without a vote or even debate. Among the legislation caught up in the fight: a pay raise for public school teachers.
But for a last-second save last year by Senate leaders, the teacher pay raise would have died on deadline day because Speaker of the House Philip Gunn was upset with a lack of Senate support for his tax cut plan.
READ MORE: Hosemann doesn’t like Gunn’s tax proposal. Is Capitol gridlock looming?
A lot of this session looks and feels the same as last year. Both chambers passed their own teacher pay raise bills once again — although this year’s proposals are much larger and would change the pay structure moving forward. The Senate plan would increase annual spending on teacher pay by $210 million, while the House plan would increase annual spending on teacher pay by $219 million. Either proposal, if passed, would represent one of the largest public school teacher salary investments in decades.
But as lawmakers in both chambers mull cutting or eliminating the state’s second-largest revenue source, are those investments sound ones that can be guaranteed long-term?
Gunn, like last year, is expending great political energy to completely eliminate the income tax cut, which could result in $1.5 billion less per year in collected revenue. Hosemann, in response to Gunn, introduced a much smaller income tax cut, but one that could still result in $317 million less per year in collected revenue.
Hosemann says Gunn’s plan is fiscally irresponsible in the long run, and Gunn says Hosemann’s plan doesn’t go far enough. The rancor among House and Senate leaders about their dueling tax cut proposals is growing by the hour.
READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Great Mississippi Tax Cut Battle of 2022
That fighting has many Capitol observers fearing this deadline day will mean the death of many bills. Teachers worry about their pay raise bill, though it appears unlikely teacher pay will die this week. But it’s very possible lawmakers could opt to kill one of the two pending teacher pay proposals — a prospect that puts many educators on edge.
And even if the pay raise does survive this week, Mississippi teachers will remain anxious over the financial uncertainty of a looming tax cut. All of these thoughts and sentiments are just part of the long-standing feeling among so many public school teachers that lawmakers aren’t in their corner.
“If Mississippi cannot afford to fully fund public schools and pay teachers at the Southeastern average, we cannot afford an income tax cut. It’s that simple,” Nancy Loome of public education advocacy group The Parents’ Campaign wrote last week. “… Legislators are telling teachers that they can’t afford to bring teacher pay to the Southeastern average, telling parents that they can’t afford to fully fund their public schools, and telling children that they can’t afford to honor the Building Fund that would help to fix their schools’ moldy classrooms and broken bathrooms.”
As the Capitol grandstanding heats up, all teachers can do is wait to see if they’ll get the support they’ve requested for years.
“Every session is another letdown in some way,” Weaver said. “Our districts and schools do such a good job working with what we’ve got, but that’s not sustainable. The people in Jackson need to do better for us. It’s as simple as that.”
READ MORE: Want a $1,000 check? Lawmakers, flush with cash, could send you one instead of cutting taxes
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Republican legislators oppose Medicaid expansion, but want federal dollars to pay for prisoner healthcare
State Republicans have balked at expanding Medicaid, but are embracing legislation that would take advantage of the federal program to pay for healthcare for very sick incarcerated people — and likely create a money-making opportunity for nursing homes.
Senate Bill 2448, which passed the Senate with little opposition and is now with the House Medicaid Committee, would allow “medically frail” inmates to be paroled to “special care facilities.” These would be specially licensed nursing homes where Medicaid could help pay for their care.
Sponsor Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, says his bill would reduce costs for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, which spends about $77 million annually on healthcare for people in its custody. Medicaid won’t pay for healthcare provided inside jails and prisons, so the state pays the full cost of care for very sick and elderly incarcerated people. Currently, only a small number of Mississippians are granted medical parole every year, according to the Department of Corrections — just three were released in 2021.
When Mississippi Today asked for an estimate of the savings, Wiggins said he didn’t have the number offhand but could get it later. He did not respond to subsequent phone calls and text messages.
Wiggins said he continues to oppose Medicaid expansion, which would save Mississippi an estimated net $200 million by 2027. He declined to explain why.
“I answered your question on the legislation, which is fair,” he said. “And then you jumped into Medicaid. I’m not discussing that.”
Last year, a similar bill passed the Senate and died in the House.
House Medicaid Committee Chair Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, did not respond to a request for comment.
Some prominent proponents of Medicaid expansion in Mississippi are skeptical of the bill.
“If what we’re doing is offloading and giving parole to inmates so they can then get off the state’s dime, and putting them on Medicaid, when we’re not allowing working Mississippians who pay taxes to have the same benefit of healthcare coverage as these inmates who have committed crimes against society, who haven’t paid taxes in years, that’s just wrong,” said Richard Roberson, vice president of state policy for the Mississippi Hospital Association.
To Roberson, the politics around SB 2448 are puzzling.
“Any time you see something unusual from the Capitol that seems a little out of sorts like this one does, where you have Republicans passing a bill to expand Medicaid to inmates, that seems inconsistent with the ‘no to Obamacare,’ ‘no to Medicaid expansion,’” he said. “That typically tells me that there’s something under the surface somewhere.”
Senate Bill 2448 defines “medically frail” inmates as those who are “a minimal threat to society” because of their medical condition, who can’t perform daily living activities on their own, and who may have limited mobility because of their condition. Sex offenders and people on death row would not be eligible.
MDOC does not currently use the term “medically frail” to categorize incarcerated people, so the Department could not immediately say how many people might be eligible for parole if SB 2448 became law.
If the bill were to pass, people could be paroled to “special care facilities” that offer services like other nursing homes, including recreation and spiritual activities as well as medical care.
“It reduces the cost to the state,” Wiggins said. “It places these inmates in a place to receive medical treatment. And it’s a win-win all around.”
One additional potential winner of the legislation: nursing facilities. By getting licensed as “special care facilities,” they could welcome new patients with guaranteed funding.
Wiggins said a number of facilities around the state are interested in becoming licensed for the purpose, though he did not say which ones.
In 2013, Connecticut became the first state to contract with a nursing facility to house people paroled from prisons with serious medical needs. The facility, 60 West, now houses about 40 people paroled from prison, out of a total of about 85 residents. Other residents are considered “hard to place” for other reasons, such as prior criminal history or registered sex offender status.
David Skoczulek, vice president of business development at iCare Health Network, which operates 60 West, said the facility is “a financially viable model” — that is, profitable for the operator.
Skoczulek said he was vaguely familiar with the Mississippi proposal because a year or two ago, his company was contacted by someone in Mississippi who wanted to pursue a similar project. He didn’t remember the specifics, but said the Mississippian had an existing property in mind and wanted advice from iCare on turning it into a facility that could care for paroled prisoners, or possibly to pursue a joint venture.
“They were interested in getting it pushed along in the legislature,” Skoczulek said.
Other states have also followed Connecticut’s example in expanding medical parole to send inmates to nursing homes. That’s the model Wiggins’ bill would emulate.
Skoczulek said iCare frequently provides information and advice to people in other states seeking to replicate the success of 60 West. The company also operates a similar facility in Massachusetts.
The Mississippi Health Care Association, the state’s largest organization of nursing homes, has not taken a position on the bill. The organization declined to comment for the story.
The Mississippi State Department of Health, which would be responsible for licensing the special care facilities, said it had not been contacted by any interested facilities. The agency also said it had not seen an analysis of the bill’s costs and savings.
After the 1970s, tough-on-crime policies and harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws led to an explosion in the number of incarcerated Americans. Now, those policies mean more people are growing old in prison.
According to a 2012 ACLU report, the number of incarcerated Americans over age 55 quadrupled from 1995 to 2010. By 2030, they could comprise a third of all prisoners. Providing healthcare for an older, sicker prisoner is expensive: In North Carolina, officials estimated the average cost of caring for someone over age 55 was four times that of someone under 55.
Mississippi currently incarcerates 507 people aged 65 or older, according to MDOC.
To save money, some states have expanded compassionate release policies to send people home, where Medicaid and Medicare can help pay for all of their care.
Mississippi also has a compassionate release policy. People who are 60 years or older or have a severe medical condition with no chance of recovery– a condition that is “incapacitating, totally disabling, and/or terminal in nature”– can qualify for early release.
But as in many states, Mississippi’s policy is little used. According to MDOC, 10 people were granted parole under the policy in 2019, followed by seven in 2020 and only three last year.
If saving money for the state’s prison system is the goal, there’s another measure that experts say would be even more effective: expanding Medicaid eligibility for all Mississippians.
In states that have expanded Medicaid coverage, incarcerated people are nearly always eligible because of their limited incomes. Medicaid won’t pay for healthcare provided inside jails and prisons, but it can reimburse states for care that takes place off-site and requires at least a 24-hour stay in a hospital or nursing facility.
If a healthy 35-year-old incarcerated in Kentucky gets appendicitis and requires a two-day hospital stay, for example, Medicaid can help pay for his care. That saved the state $16.4 million in 2014 and 2015, according to the Pew Charitable Trust.
In Mississippi, the state picks up the entire tab. MDOC spent $24 million on off-site care in fiscal year 2020.
Dan Mistak, acting president and director of Health Care Initiatives for Justice-Involved Populations at the non-profit Community Oriented Correctional Health Services, said SB 2448 would likely affect only a small number of incarcerated people, limiting the potential savings for Mississippi.
Not only would broader Medicaid expansion allow MDOC to get reimbursed by for a greater share of medical expenses, it could also help reduce the number of people who wind up in the criminal justice system, Mistak said. Expanding access to mental and behavioral health care and substance use treatment programs could mean fewer people sent to jails and prisons.
“What this legislator seems to be trying to do is patch this up at the very end of this, at the most expensive side, rather than go upstream and say how do we improve people’s health, and keep them out of prisons,” Mistak said.
Some states have found that paroling incarcerated people to nursing homes is not as simple as passing a law. In Colorado, officials have struggled to find nursing homes willing to accept medical parolees because of their criminal records.
And initially, Medicaid refused to reimburse Connecticut for parolees’ care at 60 West, citing the fact that some residents lived in a secure unit with no medical justification. But the federal government later certified 60 West for reimbursement.
If a facility resembles a prison, Medicaid won’t pay for a person’s care there.
“If I had you tour both nursing homes right now and didn’t tell you what the mission was, you would have no idea you were in anything other than a standard nursing home,” Skoczulek said. “There are no guards, no gates, no shackles, no lights out, no any of that stuff… We have to preserve resident rights.”
Wiggins, a former prosecutor, told Mississippi Today paroling “convicted felons” to medical facilities was better than paroling them to their homes to be with their families.
“They gotta serve their time,” he said. “And they would be considered an inmate.”
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Podcast: Legislative tax cut fight heats up
Mississippi Today’s political team discussing the growing tension over dueling House and Senate income tax proposals. Many fear all legislation is in jeopardy because leaders can’t agree on tax cut details.
Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.
The post Podcast: Legislative tax cut fight heats up appeared first on Mississippi Today.
108: Episode 108: Vigilante Justice Part Two
*Warning: Explicit language and content*
In episodes 107 & 108, We discuss real life cases of vigilante justice and the ethics involved.
All Cats is part of the Truthseekers Podcast Network.
Host: April Simmons
Co-Host: Sabrina Jones
Theme + Editing by April Simmons
Contact us at allcatspod@gmail.com
Call us at 662-200-1909
https://linktr.ee/allcats – ALL our links
Shoutouts/Recommends: Getting help.
Credits:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/real-life-vigilantes/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/gary-plauche
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Plauch%C3%A9
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Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/april-simmons/support
Mississippi Stories: John Damon
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey brings back Canopy CEO, John Damon to discuss the current mental health challenges facing our nation, avenues to get help for both adults and children, and ways to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.
Damon’s clinical and executive leadership experience spans more than 25 years. Joining Canopy in 1993, he has been the Chief Executive Office since 2013. Damon is a Fellow of the fifth class of the Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He is a board member of the Mississippi Business Group on Health. He was selected as a Top CEO by the Mississippi Business Journal. John currently serves on the Mississippi Children’s Justice Commission. John has also served on other committees including the Governor’s Healthcare Task Force, the Mental Health Task Force (chair), Mississippi’s Children’s Mental Health Task Force, and the Mississippi Autism Advisory Committee.
John holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Mississippi College, a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Reformed Theological Seminary, and earned his doctorate in Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from Jackson State University. He completed his residency in Child Psychology at University of Mississippi Medical Center. John and his wife are proud parents of five children.
Watch Marshall’s previous interview with John.
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Want a $1,000 check? Lawmakers, flush with cash, could send you one instead of cutting taxes
When Mississippi politicians brag of their good stewardship of state funds leading to an unprecedented revenue surplus, they sound kind of like the turtle sitting on top of the fencepost bragging about how good a climber he is.
“Mississippi continues to be in the best fiscal shape and the best financial shape in its history,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in his January State of the State speech. “Mississippi ended the year a billion dollars over revenue estimates. This was not an accident. We kept our businesses open.”
The turtle talked as if he got on top of the fencepost all by himself. The politicians talk as if they created the revenue surplus by themselves. Just as the turtle had help, so did Mississippi politicians.
But still in his budget proposal, Reeves bragged, “Despite a global pandemic and recession, Mississippi’s economy is booming. While Democrat-led states shutdown and locked down, Mississippi opened up.”
Others have made similar comments.
The truth is that many Republican-led and Democratic led states have huge budget surpluses, thanks to a confluence of COVID-19 pandemic-related circumstances, such as a massive influx of federal funds, rising wages, rising prices and an overall red-hot economy. The budget surplus was so strong in deep blue California, for instance, that politicians gave people a stimulus check ranging from $600 to $1,100 and are talking about providing another one. They have enough of a surplus to do it. Other states — red, blue and purple ones — are doing the same.
Here in Mississippi, the Legislature could provide all people currently earning a paycheck a one-time rebate of $1,000 and not impact the ability moving forward to continue services at current levels.
As the state’s Republican leaders debate the size and scope of tax cuts they want to provide, an alternative proposal might be to give all working people a one-time rebate instead of a recurring tax cut that could negatively impact the economy for everyone down the road.
READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Great Mississippi Tax Cut Battle of 2022
Because of an unprecedented surplus in state funds that most likely will be more than $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, it would not be a heavy lift for legislators to provide the rebate.
The issue with the tax cut proposals being debated in the Legislature is not that the state cannot afford them at the current time; it’s the uncertainty about the impact of the tax cuts 10 or 15 years from now.
At some point, Mississippi lawmakers learned a new gimmick when taking up tax cut proposals — the phase-in. For instance, the tax cut passed in 2016 (the largest in state history) will not be fully phased in until fiscal year 2028. Reeves, who was lieutenant governor in 2016 when the tax cut was passed, will be finishing his second term as governor, assuming he is reelected, when the tax cut is fully enacted.
Even as that tax cut is far from being fully enacted, Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and others are talking about tax cuts centered around eliminating the income tax, which accounts for about one-third of the state general fund revenue. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and his Senate allies are proposing a more modest tax cut.
All of the tax cut proposals have one thing in common: They would be phased in over time. In other words, it would be a phase-in on top of the current phase-in.
READ MORE: With Senate set to pass its income tax cut, House hasn’t budged on its desire for elimination
A phase-in, they reason, reduces chances of a large negative impact on revenue. During recent debate on the Senate floor, Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, explained the logic of the phase-in.
McDaniel said that if the Legislature had acted 13 years ago to phase out the income tax, the state could now be rid of that worrisome tax and still have more revenue now than it did 13 years ago — presumably revenue primarily from the sales tax on retail items.
What politicians often do not explain is that revenues normally always go up as wages, inflation and presumably the number of people paying taxes go up.
But the fact remains that in red Mississippi or in blue California, it takes a lot more money than it did 13 years ago to run a household or to provide governmental services.
Mississippi, to be sure, has a lot of money right now. Many believe that money should be used to address the state’s many needs.
But if leaders are determined to return funds to taxpayers, there are at least two ways to do so. It could be done through traditional tax cuts that remove revenue from the state revenue stream permanently, or it could be done through a one-time rebate of, say $1,000, that could be done without impacting future recurring revenues of the state.
If the surplus continues in coming years, additional rebates could be provided while not mortgaging the state’s future or without knocking that turtle off his fencepost.
READ MORE: The Mississippi Republican income tax bet
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Bill would make it easier to remove racist language from Mississippi property deeds
Legislation that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate would make it easier to remove racist language from Mississippi property deeds.
State Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, who also is an attorney, said he authored the legislation after representing clients who were purchasing some land in Pearl River County, when, through his research, he discovered old language in the deed prohibiting African Americans from owning or living on the land.
“I told them the language was not enforceable,” said Owen, who said the African American family still felt uncomfortable having the language in the deed for their property.
Owen said he decided to introduce the bill to make it inexpensive for families in similar circumstances to remove the racist language.
“People take great respect in the property they own,” Owen said. “It means something to them.
“This is just a simplified way for people to show the property they own was once held by individuals who believed they should not own it because of their skin color. It shows that has been removed from the chain of title by the property owner.”
Owen said people purchase property and want to pass it on to their children and such discriminatory language makes them uncomfortable. Owen said his clients who led to his introduction of the legislation expressed the desire to remain unnamed.
In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled such language as discriminatory and unconstitutional, making those deeds unenforceable. Federal laws have been passed to fortify the Supreme Court ruling.
During earlier debate on the House floor, Rep. Randy Boyd, R-Mantachie, and others questioned why the bill was needed since the language is unenforceable. Boyd questioned whether it was “a lawyer’s bill,” giving attorneys an opportunity to make money.
Owen said under current law it takes an attorney to file the motion in chancery court to remove the language, making the process costly. Under his bill, an attorney would not be needed. The landowner could simply fill out a form that is in the bill and a chancellor could sign off on the form without holding a hearing.
Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, who is an attorney and member of the Legislative Black Caucus, said he thought it would be good to provide a simple mechanism to remove the language.
“I have run across similar language, and I just did not bring it forward,” Clark said. “It is unenforceable. But I could see where real estate attorneys who wanted to be safe would feel they are obligated to” not remove the language from the deed on their own.
Clark voted for the measure. A similar measure passed in Texas.
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Senate wants to spend $300 million on emergency bridge, road repairs
The Senate has unanimously voted to add $300 million to the state’s Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Program.
The proposal, which could speed repair of more than 200 bridges statewide that are closed and/or posted for structural problems, now heads to the House.
“Right now, we have millions of dollars in federal relief funds flowing through our economy,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. “Our cities, counties and constituents have asked us to dedicate our resources to better maintaining our infrastructure. We are listening and hope to send this legislation to the governor posthaste.”
But the legislation is also likely to get hung up in House and Senate debate over major income tax cuts and other spending decisions.
Senate Bill 3167, authored by Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, would direct $300 million of $1.1 billion in surplus state revenue this year into the program. The Legislature passed the emergency repair program in 2018, with hundreds of state bridges in dangerous disrepair, and initially funded it with $250 million in borrowing. Lawmakers spent another $89 million on the program last year.
The ERBR Program is run by the Mississippi Department of Transportation and an advisory board of industry and local government leaders.
READ MORE: Full coverage of the 2022 legislative session
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