The Hinds County District Attorneys Office is asking a grand jury to consider new information gathered during its investigation into Nancy and Zach New, figures in Mississippi’s welfare scandal.
The state has also asked Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Faye Peterson to postpone the New case, which is set for trial on Feb. 7, to give the grand jury enough time to convene. The recent motion suggests the state expects a grand jury to hand down new criminal indictments against the News, which will likely have many parallels to the first.
Meanwhile, attorneys for the News wrote a scathing 12-page motion accusing State Auditor Shad White, who originally investigated the case, of attempting to try their case in the media.
“Auditor White’s statements went beyond the information contained in the indictments and instead amounted to character attacks and assurances that those charged were indeed guilty,” the attorneys wrote. “White’s emphasis on ‘influential people,’ ‘politically connected’ persons, and allegations of stealing from the poor for personal gain gave the story special pique and media saturation across Mississippi.”
Attorneys for another defendant in the scheme, former welfare director John Davis, made similar arguments in his case recently.
The News’ motion asks the court to suppress White from speaking to the media — even though there is already a gag order in the case — and also asks the judge to move the trial, known as a change of venue, “due to the relentless actions taken by the State Auditor to poison the jury pool.”
The auditor’s office declined to comment for this story.
A Hinds County grand jury first accused the News in 2020 of each defrauding the state and embezzling over $4 million in federal dollars their nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center received from Mississippi Department of Human Services. A year later, a grand jury combined their charges into one case.
The News are also facing separate federal charges related to public school funds they allegedly bilked from the government for their private schools. Most recently, U.S. District Court Judge Judge Carlton Reeves set trial in that case for May 9.
The state criminal charges address just a fraction of a sprawling alleged scheme that resulted in $70 million wasted or misspent, according to auditors. Though the money was supposed to help the poor and prevent poverty, much of it enriched the friends and families of powerful officials.
In October, a forensic audit revealed new details about the state’s welfare spending, but because the News did not cooperate with the audit, the accountants could not parse out exactly what happened to $40 million the New nonprofit spent. The public still doesn’t know where millions went.
“The State of Mississippi has conducted a through (sic) investigation of the financial and corporate records of the Defendant Nancy New, her Co-Defendant, Zachary New, as well the various corporations in which those defendants hold either ownership or directorship interests or positions in,” the state’s latest motion reads. “…additional involvement of a Hinds County Grand Jury is necessary to address specific instances of potential criminal conduct … which may result in a superceding (sic) indictment.”
What makes the New case so complicated is the manner in which they kept their books. The News had several bank accounts for each of the family’s ventures — from Mississippi Community Education Center to New Learning Resources, most well known as New Summit School, to New Learning Resources Online to Spectrum Academy and private LLCs, such as 204 Key or Avalon Holdings, which shared a $6 million commercial loan with NLR, documents show. The nonprofit MCEC was the one receiving the welfare funds, but in their accounting, fund sources were co-mingled. Over the last two years, welfare agency officials and the auditor’s office have expressed their difficulty following the money.
“This has become a numbers case,” Nancy New told reporters in November of 2020, before a judge issued the first gag order.
Prosecutors allege the News took welfare money from their nonprofit to make personal investments of over $2 million into a biomedical startup that was trying to develop a new drug to prevent the damaging effects of concussions. The companies, Prevacus and PreSolMD, were started by Florida scientist Jake Vanlandingham. Brett Favre had endorsed and invested in the companies. The former NFL quarterback even hosted meetings at his house with welfare officials and the scientist, during which they came up with the deal.
Vanlandingham promised the News a 2% share “and getting paid regularly,” and Zach New told Vanlandingham to put the stock in the name of N3 LLC, public records show. Vanlandingham told Mississippi Today in 2020 that while he knew the nonprofit was associated with a public grant, he had no idea their money came from the federal welfare program.
After years of debate and hang-fire, a Mississippi medical marijuana program for people with chronic and debilitating illnesses inched forward Wednesday, with a Senate committee passing a bill along to the full chamber.
A vote by the full Senate chamber is expected Thursday. Passage there would send it to the House, where some political observers say its passage is less assured. Last week, House Speaker Philip Gunn said “candidly, that is not a top issue for us.” Gov. Tate Reeves has been critical of an earlier version of the bill as allowing patients too much marijuana and refused to call a special legislative session for it this summer and fall. In a late change, the amount was reduced slightly, but it is unclear if that would prevent a Reeves veto.
“The more we tinker with this, the longer we debate it, the longer the delay for the people who voted for this and the patients who need this program,” Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven — who has worked for months crafting the measure — said as he fended off attempted amendments in committee.
Lawmakers are attempting to reenact a medical marijuana program after voters overwhelmingly passed one in 2020, only to have it shot down on a technicality by the state Supreme Court. But the Legislature in this conservative state has struggled for years with the issue, despite growing voter sentiment — and even a citizen-passed ballot initiative — that the state join most others in legalizing marijuana for medical use.
“It’s probably not a perfect bill, but we tried to be conservative, take the intent of (voters’) Initiative 65 and keep it within that framework,” Blackwell said. He said he and other legislative leaders looked closely at other states’ programs to learn best practices and what to avoid. The Senate Public Health Committee held hearings over the summer on the issue.
“We did a number of things to prevent us becoming Oklahoma,” Blackwell said. The Sooner State has a medical program that has become a de facto recreational one and has had problems with people abusing the system and black market and organized crime infiltration.
Blackwell said it is estimated about 24,000 Mississippians will qualify for medical marijuana use in the first year of the program, increasing to about 125,000 within five years.
Angie Calhoun, founder of the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance and a proponent of Initiative 65, said she was satisfied with the version of the bill approved by committee on Wednesday and cautiously optimistic about its passage into law.
“I think Sen. Blackwell has done an amazing job with this, and I know he’s done a lot of hard work,” Calhoun said. “As he said, the longer we postpone this, the longer patients who are suffering have to wait.”
She said she and her group have tried to talk with Reeves, but have “been unable to get a response.”
Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill in committee Wednesday to allow outdoor growing, which she said would help Mississippi farmers more easily get into the business, which she said is a “new cash cow.” She also unsuccessfully tried to amend the measure to require “equity” and give preference to minorities with new cannabis businesses in Mississippi.
State Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, has worked with Blackwell on the measure for months and is leading the House movement for its passage there.
“I think we’re ready to get it through the House,” Yancey said. “I anticipate a conclusion soon to this long process. I’m very proud of Sen. Blackwell and the yeoman’s work he has done on this. I am looking forward to patients having another option besides opioids.”
Allows patients to receive up to 3.5 ounces of marijuana a month. Initiative 65 would have allowed up to 5 ounces a month. An earlier draft of the new bill would have allowed up to 4 ounces, but was reduced in late negotiations. Gov. Reeves had voiced opposition — and threatened a veto — over the 4 ounces. He had proposed cutting that amount in half, then later allowing maximum dosing only by physicians, not other practitioners.
Allows people to receive medical marijuana for the 22 conditions listed in Initiative 65, such as cancer and epilepsy, and adds hepatitis, Alzheimer’s disease and spastic quadriplegia. It also allows it as treatment for chronic, debilitating pain. Conditions can be added to the list only by the Department of Health, not doctors.
Allows physicians, certified nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants and optometrists to certify patients for cannabis use. A patient has to have an in-person assessment, a “bona fide relationship” with the practitioner and a follow up assessment within six months. Only physicians can certify minors for use. For people aged 18-25 — most susceptible to abuse of the drug, Blackwell said — a doctor plus another practitioner have to sign off on certification.
Creates a “seed-to-sale” tracking system of marijuana production and sales, with strict reporting requirements for practitioners and cannabis businesses. It also provides criminal penalties and imprisonment for violations. It requires growing to be done indoors, which Blackwell said makes regulation easier and prevent black market and organized crime problems other states have seen.
Applies the state sales tax (currently 7%) to retail sales of cannabis. Applies a 5% excise for cultivation. Money collected goes into the state general fund.
Allows the governing boards of cities or counties to opt out of allowing medical cannabis by a vote within 90 days of passage of the act. If they opt out, citizens can opt the city or county back in by referendum.
Prohibits any lawmaker or their spouses from having an interest in a cannabis business in Mississippi for one year. He said that with a part-time, citizen Legislature such a prohibition shouldn’t be permanent, but would prevent a conflict for lawmakers voting to enact the program.
Cannabis businesses can be located in any areas with commercial zoning, but cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school, church or daycare, and dispensaries cannot be closer than 1,500 feet to each other. Cities or counties can require cannabis businesses to get licenses, permits or registration.
Will not prevent any employer from firing or refusing to hire someone who is using medical cannabis, or from having drug testing policies. Landlords are not required to allow medical cannabis production or use in rental property.
Prevents people losing custodial or visitation rights with their children for use of medical cannabis, and says users shall not be denied the right to purchase or possess a firearm. This has been an issue in other states, and federal firearms regulations prohibit marijuana use.
Creates a tier system of cultivators and fees. This starts with a “micro-cultivator” of 1,000 square feet or less, with a one-time license fee of $1,500 and an annual renewal fee of $2,000 and goes up to a “tier 6” grower of 100,000 square feet or more, with a license fee of $40,000 and an annual renewal fee of $100,000. A similar tiered system and fees apply to dispensaries.
Requires the Health Department to begin issuing cards to patients within 60 days of passage of the measure, and requires start of licensing of growers within 120 days and dispensaries within 150 days.
Creates a nine-member medical cannabis advisory committee to monitor the program, with three members each appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker.
Mississippi continued to disproportionately subsidize in-state tuition for white, wealthier students at the expense of working class students of color last school year, according to the annual report released Thursday by the Post-Secondary Education Financial Assistance Board.
Last year, Mississippi continued to spend almost half of its limited financial aid budget on programs that mainly benefit students whose families can already afford to pay for college, according to the report.
Of the 24,797 students who received state aid last school year, 20% were from poor families that make less than $30,000 a year. Nearly 50% of recipients came from families with an annual income greater than $75,000. In Mississippi, the median household income is $45,000.
Broken down by race, the gap is starker. Seventy percent of students who received state aid were white while 20% were Black. Those percentages are nearly identical to OSFA’s report last year.
The demographic breakdown also remained unchanged for each of the state’s three financial aid programs. The Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students, or HELP, grant — the only state aid program that takes need into account — continued to be the most racially equitable. The vast majority of recipients of theMississippi Eminent Scholars Grant, or MESG, were white students.
A significant reason why working class students of color are disproportionately shut out from state financial aid has to do with the programs’ eligibility requirements.Low-income students who are eligible for the Pell Grant are automatically excluded from the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant, the most common aid award. HELP and MESG both have relatively high ACT requirements for Mississippi, where the average score is a 20. The minimum ACT score for HELP is a 20, and a 29 for MESG.
Overall, the number of students receiving state aid fell by 1,525. MESG was the only program that saw growth in the number of recipients.
Jennifer Rogers, director of the Office of State Financial Aid. Credit: Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America
At its meeting Thursday, the Post-Secondary Board touched on potential reasons for this decline. Jennifer Rogers, who directs the Office of Student Financial Aid, said she had expected to see the number of recipients increase. Her office, which oversees state aid programs, had started accepting ACT superscores last year, making it easier for students to qualify. COVID may have affected that. She said it could also be that the state is “maxed out” on the number of students who meet the eligibility criteria for the three financial aid programs.
The board also discussed OSFA’s budget. Last session, for the third year in a row, the agency needed to request an additional appropriation from the Legislature. But for the coming fiscal year, Rogers said her office did not need to ask for deficit spending.
That could impact prospects for the Mississippi One Grant, the new financial aid program that the board proposed last year. In writing the One Grant, the board wanted to create a program that would stay on budget to avoid asking the Legislature for more dollars.
The One Grant has yet to be taken up this session. If passed, it would increase the disparities already present in Mississippi’s state financial aid.
“What I’m hearing is this session is very full and it’s gonna be difficult to address this and get it worked out and get a bill passed,” said Jim Turcotte, board chairman. “I do think that there’s an agreement that we need to do something different because the programs as they are are not sustainable over time."
In less than 45 minutes Wednesday afternoon, the House approved legislation that would provide the largest tax cut in the state’s history and one of Mississippi’s largest teacher pay raises.
Both bills now go to the Senate, where members are working on their own tax cut and teacher pay raise bills. While the House passed both bills in only the second week of the 2022 session, it is likely that the final outcome for both proposals will not be known until much later in the 90-day session.
Still, House Speaker Philip Gunn said his chamber’s members sent a strong message on Wednesday.
“These two items were top agenda items,” said Gunn, a Republican from Clinton. “We intended to roll both out early. We are glad to get them passed in short order. I think both had overwhelming support.”
Indeed, they did. The Mississippi Tax Freedom Act, touted by the speaker for two years, passed 97-12, with all the no votes coming from a minority of the 43-member Democratic caucus. Nine Democrats either did not vote or voted present. The START Act (the Strategically Accelerating the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers) passed 114-6, with six members of the 77-member Republican caucus voting against it.
House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, who presented the tax bill to the House members, pointed out that passing both bills on the same day sent a message that the Legislature could enact the historic tax cut and still meet the needs of the state.
House Education Chair Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, said the teacher pay proposal would provide a raise of $4,000 for all teachers — and more than $6,000 for some teachers — starting July 1. He said the increase is needed because pay is the top reason young people are not entering the teaching profession.
“We are competing with other states for our teachers,” Bennett told members.
Of the tax bill, Lamar said, “I believe it is time for historic, transformative, game changing legislation. This is absolutely transformative.”
The tax bill would phase out the state income tax in an estimated 10 years to 12 years, reduce the sales tax on food from 7% to 5.5% this July and ultimately reduce it to 4% and cut the car tag tax by 35%. To partially offset the massive cut, the bill increases the sales tax on most retail items from 7% to 8.5%.
When fully phased in, it is estimated that the bill will cut taxes $1.5 billion in today’s dollars. The current state-support budget is about $6.6 billion.
Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, unsuccessfully offered an amendment to the tax bill that would have given low-income “working families” an additional tax break. They would have been eligible to receive from the state 15% of the earned income tax credit they receive from the federal government. The earned income tax credit provides funds to low-income working families, based on a number of conditions such as their income and their dependents.
Lamar said he did not rule out working with Summers later in the process to incorporate her proposal once he receives more information on the program.
Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said he supported the tax cut bill because “it is an opportunity to give people some relief on buying their groceries and car tags. In Washington County, the biggest complaint we get is on the cost of car tags.”
Plus, he added the passage of the bill is an opportunity to work on “building consensus” in the House. Hines said the bill needs “to be tweaked,” but there is time in the process to do that.
Lamar said there is money to do both the teacher pay raise and tax cut because of last year’s unprecedented 15.9% revenue growth and anticipated double-digit growth for the current fiscal year.
While there was little debate of the proposal on the House floor, One Voice, a nonprofit advocating for working families, said of the proposal: “Working families in the state will still be left to shoulder an even greater burden of replacing lost revenue from the tax cut with increased sales taxes on everyday items. These families already pay, on average, a larger share of their income in sales and property taxes than wealthier households.”
The teacher pay raise proposal, costing about $219 million, would move the starting teacher pay in Mississippi from $37,000 to $43,124 annually compared to $39,897 for the region and $41,163 for the nation, according to information provided by the House leadership.
The bill also provides a $2,000 salary hike for teacher assistants.
The Mississippi Legislature is a gubernatorial signature away from doing what it has not been able to accomplish since the early 1990s: pass a plan to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts.
The Mississippi Senate, by a 33-18 vote Wednesday, approved the congressional redistricting proposal that was passed earlier this session by the House. The plan now goes to Gov. Tate Reeves, who can choose to sign it into law or veto it.
(Editor’s note: The new congressional map can be found at the bottom of this story.)
After both the 2000 and 2010 U.S. censuses, the state’s congressional districts were redrawn by the federal courts after the Legislature could not agree on a plan because of partisan bickering.
There also were partisan differences this year, but the Republicans’ grasp on the legislative process is firm enough to stifle any Democratic objections.
In the Senate, as was the case in the House last week, Democrats opposed the Republican plan to expand the African American majority District 2 almost the length of the state from Tunica County in northwest Mississippi all the way to the Louisiana border in southwest Mississippi. District 2, if the plan is signed into law, will encompass 40% of the landmass of the state.
Senate Pro Tem Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, who presented the Republican plan, said the proposed District 2 maintained “communities of interest” since the district would run along the Mississippi River on the western side of the state.
“We were trying go with what the courts drew (in the past) as much as possible,” Kirby said, adding the plan is fair and that no incumbent congressmen gets everything he wanted in the proposal.
The state’s longest serving U.S. representative, Bennie Thompson, who also is African American and the sole Democrat in the delegation, had proposed that all of Hinds County be included in his District 2. But the Republicans rejected that proposal.
Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, said Thompson, who is from Hinds County, should be able to represent all of his home county like the three white, Republican incumbents are able to do.
Of the Republican plan, Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, said, “it makes a person like me (an African American) wonder.”
Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point, offered a plan that was rejected by the Republican majority that would have included a portion of fast growing DeSoto County and all of Hinds in Thompson’s District 2.
All of the proposals strived to maintain a District 2 with a Black population around 60%. Turner Ford’s proposal also increased the Black voting-age population of District 3, located primarily in east Mississippi, from the low 30 percent level to 37%.
“It represents an opportunity for those individuals who are part of the Black voting-age population to have more influence and a greater voice in Congressional District 3,” said Turner-Ford, who is Black.
All of the chamber’s 16 Democrats opposed the plan offered by the Republican majority. Two Republicans — Melanie Sojourner of Natchez and Chris McDaniel of Ellisville — voted against the Republican plan. Sojourner represents portions of southwest Mississippi that are being moved from District 3 to District 2 under the Republican plan.
Marlan Baucum of Laurel stands at the edge of his property line discussing his belief that a disposal well not far from his home has contaminated drinking water in the area, and is the cause of his wife’s cancer, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
LAUREL — Driving down his curving, wooded street on the edges of Laurel, Marlan Baucum points to each house where a neighbor had cancer.
He knows of 10 people on his street who have been diagnosed, four of whom have already died. Most have had leukemia, but one neighbor had esophageal cancer — the same type as his wife.
First diagnosed in January 2016, Deidra Baucum underwent chemotherapy and radiation, then lost a large portion of her esophagus in the process of removing the tumor. Though she is currently in remission and has continued to work, she must sleep sitting up, takes medicine at least eight times a day, and regularly struggles with aspiration pneumonia.
“Over at UAB, the doctor was staging the cancer and told me that something else was causing her cancer. He couldn’t check a single box for the normal causes of this type of tumor,” Marlan said. “And when he did the second (procedure), he told me, ‘I’m going to give you my card. Your wife needs a lawyer.’”
The doctor didn’t know that nearly two years earlier, the Baucums had already filed suit against multiple oil companies for property contamination from a disposal well less than a quarter of a mile from their house.
That lawsuit has been in limbo for years as the parties have fought over the appropriate jurisdiction of the case: the courts, or the Mississippi Oil and Gas Board.
The crux of the Baucums’ legal fight is simple: The Baucums believe that the government agency tasked with protecting Mississippians has failed to do so. And the oil companies who own the well have relied heavily on the Mississippi Oil and Gas Board, which the Baucums believe are overly friendly to the companies.
“I feel helpless sometimes (watching Deidra get sick), sitting there thinking, ‘What the hell else can I do?’ And my satisfaction is doing this,” Marlan said. “Making sure that people know what has happened to her, what has happened to our property, and what the test results show.”
A now-defunct well site near Marlan and Deidra Baucum’s property in Laurel, where they believe disposal well waste from oil drilling contaminated the water table in the area, and caused Deidra’s cancer, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Drilling for oil is a highly regulated process — or at least it’s supposed to be.
When oil is drilled, up to 20,000 feet underground, other harmful fluids are brought to the earth’s surface that must be disposed of — usually by collecting them and injecting them into the ground at a disposal well nearby. Disposal wells are constructed of multiple layers of casing and concrete that extend hundreds of feet down into the ground, which are protected by limiting the pressure at which an oil company can inject fluids. It’s a process that has been regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, but most states have a local governmental agency that manages the wells on the EPA’s behalf.
The Mississippi Oil and Gas Board had held this responsibility since the early 1990s, but Baucum alleges the board hasn’t properly held oil companies accountable. He laid out his concerns in a memo sent to the EPA, Mississippi Department of Health, and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
The Baucums have made two main claims:
Claim #1: Oil companies can apply for exemptions to inject into aquifers if regulatory agencies determine that those aquifers are unlikely to be a practical source of drinking water, but the Oil and Gas Board has never required a company to seek one for any of the 400 active injection wells in Mississippi.
When asked for a response, Jess New, executive director of the Oil and Gas Board, explained that no injection zones in Mississippi require this type of exemption. The EPA did tell Mississippi Today that aquifer exemptions are frequently not necessary, but the Baucums doubt that all injection zones have been sufficiently tested before being declared unusable for drinking water.
In the case of the well next to the Baucum’s property, records show that the Oil and Gas Board accepted testimony from a single oil company engineer as sufficient evidence that the aquifer was already not suitable for drinking water and conducted no other testing.
While investigating this claim, lawyers for the Baucums found records — which were reviewed by Mississippi Today — that show the aquifer in question is a current source of drinking water for Mississippians who live in the city of Waynesboro and parts of Clarke County.
Claim #2: The Oil and Gas Board allowed oil companies to inject the toxic oil byproduct at a higher pressure than the limit they agreed to in their original permit to build the well near the Baucum’s home. This could have a number of other environmental consequences, including widespread water contamination closer to the surface, that the Baucums and their attorneys are still in the process of testing.
Throughout the 20 years that the well near the Baucums’ home was being used to dispose of oil byproducts, 86% of the monthly reported injection pressures were either above the maximum limit or recorded as zero while the company was still injecting thousands of barrels of byproduct into the well, according to records from the Oil and Gas Board. The Baucums believe this is a likely indicator of faulty reporting.
When asked about this, New replied that “the board is aware of the monitored injection pressures.”
The Oil and Gas Board, established in 1948, is a five-member body that is tasked with permitting all oil and gas activity in the state and protecting the public from improper usage. Board members are appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.
Marlan has repeatedly shared concerns about the qualifications of board members, including the political appointment process. Jim Herring, a Canton attorney on the board, previously served as the chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party. Lew Yoder, a Laurel attorney on the board, served as a local GOP chairman in both Jones County and Oxford.
The Oil and Gas Board has 32 full-time employees, managed by New. New was formerly an attorney with Brunini, the Mississippi law firm that represents Petro Harvester, the current owner of the well in question. New is also the son of Nancy New, the subject of a massive ongoing welfare and private school funding fraud case, and served as the attorney of record on multiple of her business enterprises.
“I think too many people look the other way. It’s the good ol’ boy system that has been alive and well in Mississippi for way too long,” Marlan said.
Marlan first noticed that something seemed amiss in 2013 when he went to inspect a part of their property north of the well site. He saw rusted tanks, drilling fluids stored in open, unlined pits, drilling debris strewn around, and patches of ground soaked with oil — all extending onto their property.
Photos of the well site in 2013 when Marlan first noticed an issue. (Photos provided by Marlan Baucum)
He reported his concerns to the Oil and Gas Board and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, but felt that the regulatory agencies weren’t taking his concerns seriously. After his neighbors told him they saw workers burying oilfield waste in the ground nearby, he decided to file suit in April 2014.
The well site in question no longer has this visible evidence of contamination that Marlan documented. Barrels were removed, pits filed, and tanks repainted a few months after the lawsuit was filed. Marlan refers to this as a “cosmetic clean-up,” since he believes it did not fully remediate the property and remove the effects of the contamination.
When Marlan walks around the property these days, some trees fall over at his touch. He says a toxicologist told him they shouldn’t be used for lumber and need to be destroyed since many of the harmful chemicals they’ve identified will be trapped in the wood. Several trees are turning black around the roots, which he says scientists at Mississippi State told him were dying from exposure to brackish water.
“I’ll never forget telling him, ‘Dr. Jones, we don’t have brackish water in Jones County,’ and he said, ‘You do now.’”
Recent testing of the groundwater — via a monitoring well drilled by the Baucums — showed dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals, including radium-228, benzene, mercury, beryllium, barium, and a highly acidic pH. The levels of radium-228 and mercury were both nearly 13 times the EPA’s maximum level for drinking water.
John Ryan, the geologist who oversaw the drilling of this monitoring well, listed in his affidavit several known health impacts from the chemicals identified in the water. Those included lymphoma, bone cancer, leukemia, aplastic anemia, as well as permanent damage to the brain and kidneys.
“I believe unequivocally that these chemicals of concern were sourced from the well site itself,” Ryan said in testimony.
Sue Brantley, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University who was contacted by Mississippi Today to review the results, said it seemed likely these chemicals came from surface contamination and called the results “very worrisome.” Since Mississippi sources approximately 75% of its drinking water from groundwater, Brantley reasons these chemicals could endanger people who use the drinking water supply.
Deidra’s health issues began to surface in late 2015.She struggled to swallow, which led to the discovery of the tumor in January 2016. Over the next five months, Deidra underwent radiation and chemotherapy to shrink the tumor.
“I found out on Jan. 7, and I had surgery on June 7. It went so quick, that looking back now I can get more clarity on what we went through, but it went just so fast,” Deidra said. “You know, ‘You need to go here and do this, you’re going over to this appointment, going to that test.’ … But I’ve not been bitter, I’ve accepted it for what it is, and we’ve learned to reshape our lifestyle.”
While Deidra’s health deteriorated, Marlan and his attorneys worked to collect evidence linking her cancer to the environmental contamination.
“He has worked so many hours,” Deidra said. “He has been a very big advocate for me, and by way of helping me, it will lead to helping others. But he is relentless, and a very strong support for me for what I’ve been through. I call him my cheerleader.”
They believe — and argue in their lawsuit — that Deidra’s cancer resulted from the contamination at the surface. Runoff water and particles picked up by the wind will often settle in the soil and release vapor which can be easily inhaled.
“She used to (garden) years ago, before she got sick,” Marlan said. “We were always out there. You go out there now, you won’t see the flower beds. You won’t see anything. Outside of cutting the grass, I don’t let them do anything else. The flower beds have died and the grass has grown over. I don’t do anything like that anymore, I don’t take the chance.”
Laurel resident Marlan Baucum, easily pushes over one of the many dying trees on his property. Baucum believes a disposal well not far from his home has contaminated the water table in the area, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Deidra and Marlan, both from Laurel, have been together since they were 19. They live in the house that Marlan was raised in, which is also where they raised their son Bryant. They are very involved in the community through their church, and faith has played a crucial role in their lives as they endured Deidra’s cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“I just took it that there was a greater purpose (for my illness), and one day I’ll find out what that purpose is,” Deidra said.
Two months after doctors removed the tumor and Deidra entered remission, the Baucums amended their suit in August of 2016 to include a personal injury claim. Two months later, Petro Harvester — the current owner of the well — stopped injecting at the site.
After they filed the lawsuit, the oil companies (the Baucums sued all of the previous owners of the well and the current one) fought for an administrative remedy that would let the Oil and Gas Board decide the case first before a judge and jury.
After years of back and forth about whether the case should be heard administratively or before the courts, the Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously ruled in August 2021 that both claims should proceed in circuit court because the Baucums had never consented to the presence of the oil companies in any way, and the Oil and Gas Board did not have the authority to award monetary damages.
While awaiting the jury trial that is likely to occur this year, one of Marlan’s major concerns — that the oil companies rely on friendly rulings from the board — played itself out when the Oil and Gas Board held a hearing on the integrity of the well.
Attorneys for the oil companies filed a petition with the Oil and Gas Board to increase the injection pressure for the well in question. Attorneys for the Baucums tried unsuccessfully to have the petition dismissed, arguing to the Supreme Court that the oil companies were attempting to “enlist the aid of the Mississippi State Oil and Gas Board to circumvent” the court’s previous ruling.
The Supreme Court never responded. After three hours of testimony from geologists and engineers for both sides on Dec. 15, the Oil and Gas Board granted the petition to modify the well’s permit.
“Despite an admission from the operator that it routinely violated the permit … and despite the fact that the well has not been used for five years, the (Oil and Gas Board) granted the petition,” said David Baria, one of the lead attorneys for the Baucums. “(It) levied no fines, provided no admonishment, and made no changes in the operator’s permit … If this is how a watchdog charged with protecting our water supply operates, Mississippians should be concerned.”
When contacted for comment on this story, David Kaufman, an attorney for Petro Harvester, provided the following statement:
“Unlike the Baucums’ attorneys, Petro Harvester will present the facts of this case in court and before the regulatory authorities,” Kaufman wrote. “We will prove that the lawsuit claims lack any merit at all. The disposal well operations in question are heavily regulated and monitored and have never been found by the Mississippi Oil & Gas Board, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to have harmed human health or the environment, despite the Baucums’ claims over the years to the contrary.”
Deidra and Marlan Baucum with their dog Max, at their Laurel home. The Baucums don’t work their flower beds or garden these days. Their land and water is contaminated. It is their belief that a disposal well not far from their home that has contaminated the water table in the area, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
This has been a long fight for the Baucums, one that has taken almost eight years and over $200,000 in legal fees. They are eager for justice, though a court date has not been set.
“The government has drug their feet, if they’ve acted, they’ve not acted as quickly as they should — I have been very disappointed in the government,” Deidra said. “Marlan has had to pull and fight to get any type of government help.”
Marlan does believe that his family deserves to be properly compensated, but his goals for this case are much broader. He wants to see the well site and surrounding land/groundwater properly remediated, and to see the Oil and Gas Board fully realize its mission as an independent regulatory body.
“I think the system needs to change. I think there need to be more checks on these companies,” Marlan said. “There needs to be a full investigation into all of this, it needs to be thoroughly looked at from all angles so that these kinds of things don’t happen again.”
He and Deidra hope this case empowers other people to come forward and will provide them with a road map to take action.
“People have come to me and thanked me for pursuing this,” he said. “These oil companies think that if they delay, delay, delay, you’ll just get tired and fed up … But that’s not the case here. I think they miscalculated because ‘quit’ is not in my vocabulary.”
A day after the state Senate proposed the largest Mississippi teacher pay raise in decades, the House topped it with its own proposal that would increase all teachers by $4,000 to $6,000 a year and boost starting pay above both the Southeastern and national averages.
“This is a long-term solution, not just a one-time raise where you throw $1,000 at teachers,” said House Education Chairman Richard Bennett, author of the bill called the “START Act of 2022.”
The bill, which passed the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, will soon be considered by the entire House.
“We’ve worked on this for two years, worked with the (Southern Region Education Board), worked with teachers, looked at other states … This is an historic moment for our students and for our teachers,” Bennett said. “This will make us more competitive with other states and help address our teacher shortage.”
The House plan would increase starting teacher pay from $37,000 a year to $43,125. This would put Mississippi above both the Southeastern average of $39,754 and the national average of $41,163. The Senate’s plan would increase starting pay to $40,000, but would provide substantial increases at five-year intervals throughout a teacher’s career.
“Notably, Alabama and Louisiana, where many Mississippi teachers have moved for higher paying jobs, pay starting salaries of $41,845 and $42,547, respectively,” Bennett said.
The House plan would cost taxpayers $219 million a year starting next fiscal year, compared to the Senate plan, which would cost $210 million a year after a two-year phase-in. The Senate’s plan includes a year-two, $44 million across-the-board increase of $1,000 per teacher. The House plan includes a $2,000 increase for teachers assistants, who are not included in the Senate plan.
Both plans would “restructure” the teacher salary ladder or “steps” that determine pay for teachers at various levels of experience and training. The House plan would provide more immediate increases ranging from $4,000 to $6,000. The Senate plan after two years would provide an average increase of $4,700, but would provide for larger bumps in pay at each five-year interval in a teacher’s career.
Mississippi’s teacher pay by several metrics are the lowest in the nation. Mississippi public education advocates who watched the unveiling of the dueling teacher pay raise proposals this week said they’ve been pleasantly surprised as they began parsing the plans.
“This sounds like a great start,” said Nancy Loome, director of The Parents’ Campaign. “I would think there could be some sort of compromise, taking the best aspects of both plans — but it is great that there’s a movement to do something substantial … It looks like the House plan is more front-loaded, and the Senate more long-term.”
Kelly Riley, director of the Mississippi Professional Educators, said increasing starting and continuing pay “would make us more competitive, not just for recruiting teachers, but in the classrooms and as a state.”
Bennett said he has not seen all the details of the Senate plan — the bill has not yet been published — but he believes “ours is better.”
“The Senate plan is spread over two years, while the House plan invests roughly the same amount in just one year,” Bennett said. “Under the Senate plan, some experienced teachers with advanced degrees will see an increase of as little as $5 in year one, and as little as $1,005 over the full two-year phase in … The House plan provides a minimum of $4,000 in one year for all teachers.”
He also said that over 10 years, a new teacher would see thousands less in pay from the Senate plan, and noted that plan does not address teacher assistants’ pay.
Teacher pay is a top issue for this legislative session, with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, House Speaker Philip Gunn and Gov. Tate Reeves all voicing support for “significant” teacher salary increase this year.
When Bennett presented the plan to the House Appropriations Committee, some members questioned the cost — whether the state could afford such a recurring expense. He said the raise would be paid for with recurring revenue, not “one-time” money will not strain the relatively flush state budget.
Rep. Dan Eubanks, R-Walls, said he’s heard that Mississippi’s state retirement and other benefits are as good or better than surrounding states and questioned why the starting teacher pay should be increased to above the regional and national averages.
“The reason is we are not competitive with other states right now and we’re losing teachers,” Bennett said. “They’re kicking our butts.”
Speaker Philip Gunn’s latest proposal to phase out the state income tax and to reduce the sales tax on groceries was quickly passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.
The bill — a variation of which Gunn introduced last session and touted as the most important legislation of his political career — would also raise the general sales tax from 7% to 8.5% and decrease the tax on car tags by 35%.
While there are several differences in this year’s proposal and Gunn’s plan that passed the House last year and died in the Senate, the key distinction is that there are no longer increases on the sales tax on large items such as farming equipment, automobiles, manufacturing equipment and other items. These items are taxed at less than the 7% general sales tax rate. Last year’s plan offered by Gunn increased the tax on those items by 2.5% on each $1 as it did on the items taxed at 7%.
Rep. Trey Lamar, the House Ways & Means chairman and close Gunn ally, acknowledged the opposition from farmers, manufacturers and others to those increases in last year’s proposal. The only increase in this year’s bill is on the 7% sales tax that is levied on most retail items, and it goes up 1.5%.
The entire package will result in a tax cut of about $1.5 billion in today’s dollars when the income tax is totally eliminated in an estimated 10-12 years.
“It is a simpler bill than what we dealt with last year,” Lamar said, pointing out the bill would result in the largest tax cut in state history. He also indicated he might ask the full House to vote on the proposal as early as Wednesday.
In the committee meeting on Tuesday, Lamar spent about five minutes explaining the bill. No questions were asked. It passed on a voice vote with no debate.
Republicans hold more than the three-fifths supermajority needed to pass tax proposals without Democratic support. But there is the possibility some Democrats might vote for it.
“I am going to read it and see what it is about,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, who did not rule out voting for the package.
Last week on the opening day of the 2022 session, Gunn pledged that his proposal to eliminate the income tax would be his top priority. But Lamar pointed out as the Ways and Means Committee was meeting Tuesday that the House Appropriations Committee was meeting across the hall to pass an “historic” teacher pay raise.
Lamar said there is money to do both because of last year’s unprecedented 15.9% revenue growth and anticipated double-digit growth for the current fiscal year.
The tax cut proposal would eliminate the taxes on the first $40,000 of income for an individual, and $80,000 for a married couple in January 2023. The initial cut would save a married couple $2,600 and about half that amount for an individual.
Then the remaining income tax would be phased out during the coming years based on several factors, such as the size of state spending and inflation. It is estimated the phase out could be completed in as little as 10 years.
In addition, the 7% sales tax on groceries, the highest state-imposed tax on food in the nation, would cut to 5.5% in July and eventually cut to 4%.
“The end result will be a tax structure that rewards work and is fairer to everybody,” Lamar said.
Both Gov. Tate Reeves and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, have voiced support for tax cuts during the 2022 session. Reeves has proposed eliminating the state income tax, which accounts for about one-third of state general fund revenue, in as quickly as five years. The governor has said he would oppose any plan that raises the rate on other taxes, like Gunn’s plan would do.
Hosemann has not been specific other than to say there would be a Senate proposal. He did indicate last week that he is not as interested in phasing out the income tax as Gunn and Reeves are.
“I think you find our plan to be multi-dimensional,” Hosemann said. “We are not hung up one specific thing that says we eliminated something.”
The plan offered last year by Gunn placed a larger increase on sales taxes to offset the cut in the income tax and on groceries. Because of state revenue growth, Lamar said it was determined that as large of offsets were not needed.
In addition the 35% cut on the car tag was added because of complaints about the high costs of license plates. That tax is imposed by the counties. Lamar said the counties would be reimbursed by the state for the revenue they lose from the reduction in the car tag tax.
