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State Sen. Brice Wiggins, a candidate for Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District seat, used money from his state office campaign account to pay for congressional ads, which is prohibited by Federal Election Commission regulations.

When asked about the issue by Mississippi Today last week, Wiggins said he was unaware of it and would check. He later provided a written response saying, “We found on Dec. 3 that congressional ads for a few weeks were incorrectly charged to a credit card of the (state) Committee to Elect Brice Wiggins.”

“We corrected this Dec. 3, and the $1,170.07 cost is being reimbursed to the state campaign along with a $10 reimbursement for a Facebook post I made myself on Nov. 2,” Wiggins wrote. “An amendment to the FEC filing is being made.”

Wiggins also wrote: “My intent is to always be transparent.”

But while Wiggins’ annual state campaign finance report covering 2021 shows Facebook ad expenditures that would appear to be for his congressional campaign, the report does not show any reimbursement to the state campaign.

Wiggins announced his run for Congress on Oct. 25, and changed his Facebook page name from “Senator Brice Wiggins” to “Brice Wiggins for Congress.” This would also appear to be at odds with FEC regulations.

FEC regulations prohibit transfer of “assets,” from a state campaign to a federal one. FEC regulations state: “Transfers of funds or assets from a candidate’s campaign committee or account for a nonfederal election to his or her principal campaign committee or other authorized committee for a federal election are prohibited.” An FEC spokesman said the agency hasn’t issued an opinion addressing transfer of social media accounts, but has addressed donor and other lists generated by a state campaign. Generally, the federal campaign would have to pay “fair market value” to the state campaign for such lists as they are assets and “any transfer for less than fair market value would violate the rule.”

Wiggins’ state campaign finance report shows donations and fundraising expenditures dated after his congressional campaign announcement.

Wiggins wrote: “As to contributions made to the state Senate account after October 25th, they were made by the individuals and companies listed on the filings. As seen on previous years’ filings by the (state) Committee to Elect Brice Wiggins, donations and expenses occur throughout the year.”

Wiggins confirmed the name change for the Facebook page, but then declined to answer any further questions on campaign finance issues, saying, “You have our statement. That’s it.”

While violations of FEC regulations and laws can carry penalties and fines, the agency typically exercises little enforcement unless infractions are major and allows campaigns to correct the problems.

Campaign finances have already been a big issue in the 4th District race. Longtime incumbent Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of campaign fund misspending and other issues.

A congressional watchdog agency’s report, which prompted the House Ethics investigation, claims Palazzo misspent campaign and congressional funds, used his office to help his brother and used staff for personal errands and services.

Allegations have previously been reported that Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile wife nearly $200,000 through companies they own — including thousands to cover the mortgage, maintenance and upgrades to a riverfront home Palazzo owned and wanted to sell. A Mississippi Today report also questioned thousands in Palazzo campaign spending on swanky restaurants, sporting events, resort hotels, golfing and gifts.

READ MORE: Rep. Steven Palazzo ethics investigation: Is the congressman’s campaign account a slush fund?

The watchdog report said it found evidence Palazzo used his official office and resources to help his brother’s efforts to re-enlist in the Navy and questioned Palazzo’s campaign paying his brother nearly $24,000 over 10 months as a “political coordinator” and letting Kyle Palazzo use the campaign’s credit card for food, gas, hotel rooms and other goods and services.

When Wiggins announced his run for Congress, he took aim Palazzo over the campaign spending allegations.

“We should all be angry that our own member of Congress is under investigation for misappropriating funds as well as using his position to provide unethical and immoral favors to family and friends,” Wiggins said on his campaign website at the time.

The post Brice Wiggins improperly used state campaign funds for congressional race appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A friend recently told me his 13-year-old son is in a bit of a quandary. The kid is already 6 feet, 2 inches tall, athletic and smart. Coaches from every sport at his school are pulling at him: baseball, football, basketball and soccer. A couple want him to choose a sport and specialize, this before he needs to shave.

The kid just wants to play. Everything.

But when the seasons overlap, the seventh grader has to choose. It doesn’t have to be that way. 

For Exhibit A, I give you: Arch Manning, the No. 1 Class of 2023 football recruit in the nation. On a recent trip to New Orleans, I watched Arch and his No. 1 ranked Newman Greenies teammates play. Basketball.

Before we really get into this, I should answer the question I get asked several times a week. That is: Where will Arch Manning — son of Cooper, grandson of Archie and Olivia, nephew of Peyton and Eli — play college football? The answer is I don’t know. I don’t think he knows. I know Grandpa Archie, the one Arch calls “Red,” doesn’t know. If there’s any news in his recruitment, it is that he has trimmed Clemson from his list. The remaining four favorites are, in alphabetical order, Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas.

We are currently in a “dead period” of college football recruiting, which meant that no football coaching celebrities were at Saturday night’s Newman game. Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian have all taken in Newman basketball games this season, often bringing several of their staffers with them. Other coaches have done the same.

They have been there to be seen by Arch Manning, the quarterback prodigy who has everything you look for in a quarterback: strong arm, accuracy, athleticism, size, toughness, and quick-trigger decision making. This one also has the pedigree.

What these football coaches see before them on the basketball court is a role player, a kid who prides himself on being a good teammate. They see a sturdy, wavy-haired, competitive young man who comes off the bench and helps Newman win games by grabbing loose balls and rebounds, setting picks, making crisp passes and by playing good defense. In basketball, he is not the star. He is nonetheless a winner.

“To me, Arch is a breath of fresh air,” says his basketball coach, Randy Livingston, a former two-time national player of the year at Newman. “He enjoys being a high school athlete. He’s competitive. He loves to compete. I have known the family well since I was 12, so the family knows me and trusts me with him.

“Arch knows our system backwards and forwards. He knows the offense, knows the defense, and he rarely makes a mistake. He’s great with our younger players. He’s a great kid. We are lucky and blessed to have him. He and Will Randle (Newman’s highly recruited tight end and one of Arch’s best friends) both come off the bench and bring a real toughness to our team.”

Both play more minutes than some of the starters. Both are usually in the game at crunch time — that is, on the rare occasion Newman (23-4) has a crunch time.

For Exhibit B in this case against specialization for young athletes, I give you the Manning family. Archie Manning was a four-sport letterman at Drew High School only because they didn’t offer five. Or six. He played football, baseball, basketball and ran track.

“Doing both track and baseball sometimes got tricky,” Archie Manning said. “One day, we had a track meet and baseball game going at adjacent fields. We came in to bat just as they were lining up for the 880-relay. They hollered at me to come run the relay — and I did, in my baseball uniform.”

Archie Manning was a high school football, basketball and baseball star — so talented as a baseball shortstop he was drafted four times by Major League teams, the first time by the Braves right out of high school. The point is, he played all the sports to the detriment of none. Nobody tried to stop him. One year, a couple days after the football season ended, he scored 40 points to help Drew win a basketball game.

“Maybe I’m old-fashioned,” Archie Manning said, “I think playing multiple sports makes you more well-rounded. There are certain things you do in one sport that might help you in the others.”

Says Livingston, the Newman coach: “The more well-rounded you are, the better. Look at Joe Burrow. He was a high school basketball star. Back then, lot of people thought that would be his sport. My favorite sport growing up was football. That’s what I was going to be. To this day, I regret I couldn’t play it more. You just shouldn’t box a kid in. Let them play. Let them develop. You never know what the future holds.”

Livingston was junior high and high school basketball teammates with both Cooper and Peyton Manning. They won state championships together. They also played probably a thousand games of pick-up basketball, often in the Mannings’ driveway.

“It was usually me and Archie against Peyton and Cooper,” Livingston said. “I’m telling you, Archie could still play.”

Says Cooper Manning who remembers fondly those games, “The losers had to take out the trash.”

Cooper and Ellen Manning have advocated playing multiple sports to all their three children, including daughter Mae, a high school volleyball star, now at the University of Virginia. 

“I wanted them outside, running around, being active, using all their muscles,” Cooper Manning said.

That includes Heid Manning, Arch’s younger brother, the center who snaps the ball to his brother on the Newman football team.

“Heid played a lot baseball when he was younger, but he came to me one year and told me he wanted to play lacrosse,” Cooper Manning said. “So now he’s on the Newman lacrosse team and loves it. They’re good, too.”

The post In age of sports specialization, the Mannings beg to differ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House Clerk Andrew Ketchings said he acted on his own to remove the statue of racist former governor and U.S. senator Theodore Bilbo from public view in the Mississippi State Capitol.

Bilbo, known for his extreme racist rhetoric and views, had been memorialized with a statue in the Mississippi Capitol since the 1950s. Various Black legislators and others have for many years called for the removal of the Bilbo statue, saying it was inappropriate that such a vocal white supremacist was one of two governors to be memorialized with statues in the Capitol.

“Because of everything he stood for, I think this should have been done years ago,” Ketchings told Mississippi Today and the Associated Press on Wednesday. “It was way past time to do it.”

The Bilbo statue is now locked in a closet behind the elevator on the House side of the Capitol and wrapped in a fire retardant. Ketchings declined to open the room.

Mississippi Today reported last week that the statue of Bilbo was no longer in room 113 of the state Capitol, the largest House committee room, as it had been since the early 1980s. Last week, no one would publicly take responsibility for the move. Legislative leaders, including House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, said they did not even know the statue was missing.

“It was purely my decision, 100%,” said Ketchings, who added he did not inform any of the legislative leadership of his plan.

Ketchings said he has since told the House leadership he moved the statue. He said House leaders did not seem inclined to try to restore the statue to public view.

Instead, he hired a crew with state funds through the Department of Finance and Administration to move the bronze statue on a weekend in October. The cost, he said, was between $4,000 and $5,000.

READ MORE: Where’s Bilbo? Statue of racist former governor missing from Capitol

The bronze statue is allegedly life-sized, standing 5 feet 2 inches tall. Ketchings said it is not unusual in his position as House clerk to make decisions over maintenance issues in rooms of the Capitol controlled by the House.

In his capacity as House clerk in recent years, Ketchings has refurbished the chairs and replaced the carpet in room 113. One reason he did not move the statue earlier is that he could not find a suitable storage place. The statue would not fit through many of the doors in the building, Ketchings said.

Bilbo died of throat cancer in 1947 in the midst of efforts by his colleague to not seat him in the U.S. Senate after his most recent election victory. Soon after his death, a joint resolution adopted by the Mississippi Legislature in 1948 established a commission to memorialize Theodore Gilmore Bilbo who “worked unceasingly and often alone to preserve Southern customs and traditions and in so doing sought to preserve the true American way of life…and particularly his efforts to preserve this state and nation by his successful fight against the enactment of national legislation, which would have destroyed the United State of America, if the same had been enacted.”

READ MORE: The Bilbo statue was first moved by Gov. William Winter in the 1980s

The resolution calls for the statue to be placed “in a prominent place on the first floor of the new Capitol building.”

Ketchings said he does not know if the resolution is still binding, but opted to keep the statue on the first floor as the resolution mandated.

On the same day that the statue was moved, a bust of Thomas Bailey, who served as governor in the 1940s, was transported from room 113 back to the state Department of Archives and History, which owns the bust.

There are no other statues in the Capitol other than a bust of Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy in a second floor Senate committee room. Gandy served in various public offices in the state and is one of the few women in Mississippi elected to statewide office.

All the governors, including Bilbo, have portraits in the Capitol.

The clerk is elected by the House members to oversee the day-to-day operations of the chamber. Ketchings has been the House clerk since Gunn was elected speaker in 2012, becoming the first Republican presiding officer of the chamber since the 1800s. Ketchings previously served as a House member representing Adams County and also served in the Gov. Haley Barbour administration.

For years the statue was displayed prominently in the Capitol rotunda, but according to various accounts in the early 1980s during Capitol renovations then-Gov. William Winter had it moved to room 113.

At the time, room 113 was not used as much as it is today. Multiple House committees meet in the room. In addition, the Legislative Black Caucus and the Republican caucus also meet there.

Bilbo served two terms as governor. After that he was elected in the 1930s to the U.S. Senate where he fought against anti lynching laws and advocated for the deportation of Blacks to Africa.

During a filibuster to try to block Senate passage of an anti lynching bill, Bilbo said, ”If you succeed in the passage of this bill, you will open the floodgates of hell in the South. Raping, mobbing, lynching, race riots, and crime will be increased a thousandfold; and upon your garments and the garments of those who are responsible for the passage of the measure will be the blood of the raped and outraged daughters of Dixie, as well as the blood of the perpetrators of these crimes that the red-blooded Anglo-Saxon White Southern men will not tolerate.”

The post House clerk Andrew Ketchings takes credit for moving Bilbo statue out of public view appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi House members are developing a framework of how they want to spend $1.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds, but seem content on waiting until the end of the session to reveal specifics.

Senate leaders, on the other hand, have released their plans on how to spend the American Rescue Plan funds and have begun passing them.

The dueling strategies will almost certainly lead to end-of-session negotiations between a handful of leaders from both chambers, and it will likely be weeks before Mississippians learn how lawmakers will decide to spend the historic amount of federal funds.

The House is passing bills, but for the most part they are not placing the exact amount of funds in the bill. House Pro Tem Jason White, R-West, said those exact amounts will be worked out in conference between House and Senate leaders at the end of the session.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed its largest ARPA bill — a measure to use $750 million of the money to create a state match for city, county and rural water association infrastructure projects. The state would match local governments’ spending of the ARPA funds they are receiving directly from the federal government. Federal law allows the ARPA funds to be used for local governments’ water and sewerage infrastructure.

Senate Bill 2822 would provide a dollar-for-dollar match to counties and large cities for qualified water, sewerage and stormwater projects. For smaller cities that are receiving less than $1 million in direct ARPA money, the state would match qualified projects $2 to $1. For rural water associations with 250 or more customers, the program would provide grants of up to $2.5 million for qualified projects.

READ MORE: Senate unveils plan for spending $1.8 billion in federal pandemic stimulus

Sen. John Polk, chair of the Senate subcommittee handling ARPA spending, said the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, with help from the Department of Health, would vet and approve applications for projects, based on a grading scale. Polk said this grade would include whether a system is under federal orders to improve or having problems such as high lead levels, and it would give greater weight to projects “ready to go within six months.”

Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, said the state fund should focus first on water and sewer systems in the worst shape, and in communities that can least afford upgrades. Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said those under federal orders to upgrade should get top priority.

Polk said the grading system — and $2-to-$1 match for smaller cities — would address those issues to some extent but, “We have to keep it fair for everyone. Every area has needs.”

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said, “I think this bill, along with the appropriations bill to follow, is the most important thing we will pass this session. We need to look at this as one-time money that we will probably never see again.”

Blount asked Polk whether the proposed ARPA spending would be enough to fix water and sewerage problems and needs in Mississippi.

“I do not,” Polk said. “I know, for instance, the rural water associations told us they would need about $700 million to cover all they need.” But, Polk said, “I’m not convinced that this is a state problem” and that local governments should do a better job of keeping up water and sewerage infrastructure.

READ MORE: Lawmakers wanted input on spending $1.8 billion in pandemic stimulus. They got $7 billion in requests.

The Senate passed on to the House several other ARPA spending bills on Tuesday, including a measure that would provide up to $10 million for infrastructure projects at private colleges, one that would provide death benefits for first responders who die from COVID-19. The chamber also passed Senate Bill 2721, an ARPA workforce bill that would provide training, loan repayment and enhanced pay for nurses and other health workers.

In the House, White said the focus of the spending of the federal funds should be on helping local governments with their water and sewer needs and helping health care entities that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is a pandemic. We have the money because of the pandemic, so we ought to spend at least some it to help with the pandemic,” he said.

White said he does not know of an area where the one-time funds can have more of an impact than on local water and sewer needs. He said he envisions $400 million to $600 million being put in that area in the first year. White also said he does not necessarily believe all of the funds should be spent during the 2022 session.

Legislation that has passed the House:

• Would create a funds to help rural water associations with their infrastructure. It would require no matching funds.
• Would create a program to help municipalities and counties with their water and wastewater infrastructure, requiring a 20% match from the local governments.
• Would create a funds to deposit funds to aid the city of Jackson with its water and wastewater infrastructure. The city, to receive the funds, would have to commit to providing regular reports to the state on how the money was being spent.

The outdated Jackson water system is under scrutiny from federal officials who have expressed concern about the quality of the city’s water. Plus, the system routinely breaks down during extreme cold weather.

Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said negotiations are ongoing on the amount of state support the city will receive. But he said communications between city officials and legislative leaders in determining the amount of help the city will get are currently positive.

“Absolutely, they are good,” he said.

The House has also passed legislation that would provide local law enforcement and firefighters (including volunteers) $1,000 in premium pay for their efforts during the pandemic. And hospitals could receive grants of up to $250,000 to help with treatment of coronavirus patients. Those funds could be used to help pay their health care staff.

Plus, a program would be established under legislation that has passed the House to develop a plan to expand nursing programs at community colleges. The Senate is proposing similar spending for nursing programs.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Tracking Mississippi’s historic influx of federal cash

The post House, Senate take different paths on spending historic federal funds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Prime Shrimp, a New Orleans company, joins as the podcast’s sponsor on a busy week in Mississippi sports. The Cleveland boys discuss the upcoming Super Bowl, Joe Burrow’s Magnolia State roots, a new head coach for the New Orleans Saints, Arch Manning, a busy time in Mississippi high school sports. Oxford native Davis McCool joins to talk about Prime Shrimp (and Ole Miss baseball).

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: A new sponsor joins on Super Bowl week appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A Hinds County judge has reassigned the criminal case of retired Mississippi welfare director John Davis to a special judge who happens to be Davis’ former colleague, according to a court order posted Tuesday.

The new judge, former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jess Dickinson, ran the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services while Davis served as director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

The two agencies that Dickinson and Davis ran interacted closely; the offices used to be one in the same until the Legislature separated CPS into its own department in 2016. But CPS still gets funding from the welfare agency.

In fact, Child Protection Services, which oversees the state’s foster care system, relies on MDHS sharing a portion of its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to satisfy its budget each year.

TANF is the federal welfare fund Davis allegedly defrauded.

The connection between Davis and Dickinson raises questions about a possible conflict of interest. But because of a gag order in the case, the parties will not say what prompted the reassignment or the likeliness that Dickinson will reassign the case again.

The Mississippi Supreme Court appointed several special judges, including Dickinson, in 2020 to help Hinds County clear its backlog of cases, which is how Dickinson wound up presiding over his contemporary’s case.

Reached Tuesday evening, Dickinson told Mississippi Today he had not yet learned that Davis’ case had been assigned to him within a batch of cases Hinds County is transferring to him.

The State Auditor’s Office has accused Davis of perpetuating a scheme that funneled $70 million in federal funds away from the needy between 2016 and 2020. Prosecutors charged Davis criminally for just a fraction of the misspending. They say he allegedly defrauded the state by paying his close associate, former pro-wrestler Brett DiBiase, for work he didn’t conduct and conspiring with nonprofit founder Nancy New to use embezzled welfare funds to send DiBiase to rehab.

From 2016 to 2019, Davis’ department transferred $42.5 million of its TANF funding to child welfare services, according to figures it reported to the federal government.

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Davis as welfare director in January of 2016 and Dickenson as the head of CPS in September of 2017.

During Dickinson’s tenure, his agency was plagued by budget shortfalls and threats of takeover from the federal government. CPS failed, year after year, to comply with the terms of a court settlement in a long-running federal lawsuit. The 2004 complaint accused Mississippi of failing to protect children in its custody. The plaintiffs maintain that foster children continue to be abused and neglected as recently as 2019, according to media reports.

The fact that Mississippi could have used the money Davis’ agency and its contractors allegedly wasted to strengthen supports for families and reduce neglect inextricably links the welfare scandal to the condition of the foster care system in Mississippi.

Most of the alleged misspending — such as a million-dollar promotional gig for Brett Favre, a new $5 million volleyball stadium, $2 million in personal investments in a pharmaceutical startup, a horse ranch for Marcus Dupree, and more — occurred within a program called Families First for Mississippi.

Families First was highly publicized as the programmatic arm of a judicial initiative, called Family First, which was supposed to prevent kids from being taken from their homes. But for tens of millions of dollars, it delivered very little.

Davis announced his retirement in July of 2019, just a couple weeks after a few of his employees took a tip about agency misspending to Gov. Bryant, who relayed the information to another one of his appointees, State Auditor Shad White. Dickinson retired in January of 2020 at the end of Bryant’s administration. The next month, agents arrested Davis and three months later, the auditor released a report questioning $94 million of his agency’s purchases, mostly from the TANF fund.

While Davis allegedly conspired in what officials are calling the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history, Dickinson struggled to keep operations afloat at an already cash-strapped agency with a dwindling budget.

Now, Dickinson could have a great impact on what happens to Davis.

Senior Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Tomie Green signed the order that placed Dickinson over the case. It contains all of one sentence.

The case is reassigned to Dickinson, the order signed Jan. 31 reads, “on the basis of Mississippi Supreme Court’s Orders providing relief to the 7th Circuit Court District due to backlog created during the Coronavirus pursuant under 2021-22 Cares Act.”

The original judge in the case, Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Adrienne Wooten, most recently moved the trial to March 8, a full two years after his February 2020 arrest. But counsel for Davis and state prosecutors both requested another continuance on Jan. 28.

An administrative assistant for Wooten said she could not provide a reason for the reassignment. The district attorney’s office declined to comment. Judge Green and Davis’ attorney Merrida Coxwell did not return Mississippi Today’s calls Tuesday.

Prosecutors, attorneys for Davis and the auditor’s office have previously cited a gag order in the case as preventing them from answering questions from the press.

A new indictment filed in January against Nancy New, who partially ran Families First, alleges that the four $40,000 payments her nonprofit made to the luxury rehab facility in Malibu where DiBiase was receiving treatment were actually bribes for Davis. Prosecutors allege the $160,000 extinguished debt Davis had, and in exchange, he agreed to extend the New nonprofit’s TANF grant. The accusation suggests Davis personally benefitted from New helping DiBiase, a new theory in the case.

Davis has not been charged with bribery.

The post New judge in John Davis’ welfare embezzlement case is his former colleague appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House leaders passed legislation Tuesday that would restore a ballot initiative process, which allows citizens to bypass the Legislature and place issues on the ballot.

The constitutional resolution passed 92-26 (needing 78 to pass), and now goes to the Senate. Once the resolution passes both chambers in the same form, it will go to voters to ratify in the November 2022 general election.

The effort is needed because the Mississippi Supreme Court in May 2021 struck down the initiative process that had been in effect since the early 1990s.

The proposal passed Tuesday is different than the one that existed before May 2021. This proposal would allow voters to place issues on the ballot to change or amend general law. The initiative adopted in the early 1990s and that was struck down by the Supreme Court last year allowed voters to amend the state Constitution.

Under the new proposal, the Legislature would not be able change general law for two years after voters approved it unless for an emergency, and even then it would take a two-thirds vote of each legislative chamber to do so.

READ MORE: House committee makes first move to restore ballot initiative process

House Constitution Chair Fred Shanks and various other legislative leaders said they would prefer the process be used to amend general law because it is more difficult to change the Constitution. Changing the Constitution requires the approval of voters.

House members voting against the resolution Tuesday were primarily Democrats who support the initiative process, but opposed for various reasons the form of initiative offered by the House leadership.

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, offered an amendment that would give voters the right to appeal to the Supreme Court to try to block any change to the initiative in the first two years. The amendment failed, but Shanks said he might work with Johnson to add later in the process some form of an appeal of changes in the first two years.

The reason the legislation is being taken up because in a controversial May 2021 ruling, the state Supreme Court ruled the process invalid because language in the Constitution mandated the required number of signatures be gathered equally from five congressional districts. The state has only four congressional districts, losing one as a result of the 2000 Census.

READ MORE: Mississippi Supreme Court overturns medical marijuana program and ballot initiative process

The proposal that passed the House this week would require a pro rata share of signatures be gathered from whatever number of congressional districts the state has.

READ MORE: Will lawmakers be willing to give up some of their power by restoring ballot initiative?

The post House votes to restore a version of Mississippi ballot initiative process appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would give lawmakers a pay bump of $6,000 for the first year of a four-year term, and $4,500 a year for the other three years of the term.

Mississippi’s part-time legislators are paid a base of $23,500 a year — although most make between $40,000 and $50,000 a year in salary, per diem, reimbursements and other payments. Some lawmakers’ total compensation is around $70,000 a year.

The $23,500 includes a base salary of $10,000 a year, plus $1,500 a month for office expenses during months when the legislature is not in session — despite the fact that most lawmakers have other jobs and don’t have separate legislative offices in their district. Many rely on Capitol staffers to help with administrative work year-round.

Lawmakers do not receive the $1,500 a month office payment when the Legislature is in session. Typically, the first year of a term the Legislature meets four months, then three months each of the following three years.

Senate Bill 2794 would pay lawmakers the $1,500 in months when the Legislature is in session.

Lawmakers also receive about $150 per diem — living expenses — for each day they spend in Jackson (including those who live in or near it), and mileage reimbursement set at the federal government rate, currently about 58 cents a mile. All members are allowed at least four days a month at the Capitol, with chairmen allowed six days and vice chairmen five days. Extra days must be approved.

The Senate bill, which now heads to the House for consideration, was passed on a “morning roll call vote,” with only a few senators saying they wanted to be counted as a no vote.

The post Mississippi lawmakers propose more pay for themselves appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez says he can remember his parents “having him on the picket line when he was 10 years old” in Adams County because a local store would not employee Black cashiers.

But he said the same parents developed relationships with white power brokers in Adams County: a banker who helped his father obtain a needed loan for his business, and a real estate agent who helped his father purchase land along the Mississippi River that powerful white residents didn’t want an African American to own. His mother, Johnson said, developed relationships with white school administrators that advanced her career.

Johnson, the Democratic leader in the Mississippi House of Representatives, applies those values at the Capitol, where Republicans can pass any bill without a single Democratic vote. Even outside the Capitol, Mississippi Democrats wield little political influence and have struggled to organize and fight against a growing Republican landscape.

Often, Johnson said, he tries to balance his party’s platforms and stances on issues with his pragmatism about where the power really lies.

“I know we have possibilities in this state to do things we have not done,” Johnson said Monday during a lunch meeting of the Mississippi State University Stennis Institute of Government/Capitol Press Corps.

“I continue to work that way,” Johnson said. “I don’t do it because I am a Democrat. I don’t do it because I am a Black person. I do it because (Mississippi) is where I want to be … I hope it is the beginning of what I think are progressive ways to get things done around the state, to continue to work together to get things done.”

Johnson has earned respect among many lawmakers — and sometimes criticism from his fellow Democrats — for often working with House Speaker Philip Gunn and other Republican House leaders. He said even though he disagrees with Gunn on many issues, he considers him a friend.

READ MORE: Robert Johnson became a key ally of last Democratic speaker after voting against him

He pointed to Gunn’s massive tax restructuring plan as an example of where he has tried to work with Gunn. He and most House Democrats voted in January for Gunn’s proposal to phase out the income tax and increase the sales tax while reducing the tax on food and on car tags.

“Income tax, getting rid of income tax long-term, it doesn’t make much sense at all. But short-term, it gives me an opportunity to be in the room with Philip Gunn when we’ve got $1.8 billion (in federal COVID-19 relief funds) to spend, $1 billion in surplus funds, figuring out what we can do for people all over the state,” Johnson said.

He added, “As we move this state forward, we need to try to find places we can agree.”

Johnson questioned whether the Republican majority can ultimately agree on a plan to eliminate the income tax because of disagreements in how to undertake such a massive endeavor.

“I am betting they butt heads and nobody passes anything,” Johnson predicted, but added that at least Gunn’s plan cuts the state’s grocery tax and reduces by 50% the cost of car tags — both proposals that he said would benefit poor and working people.

Still, Johnson said he often becomes frustrated by what he says is a lack of progress in Mississippi. He believes state leaders are missing opportunities to help the state, such as not expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance for primarily the working poor. He said eliminating the income tax would not convince young, successful people to stay or move to the state. He said fixing the state’s infrastructure and addressing crime issues, especially in the city of Jackson, would be a much more effective ways to grow the state’s population.

“Jackson, the capital city, is the front door to the state of Mississippi,” Johnson said.

He said expanding Medicaid and fixing infrastructure could be done with existing funds, including $1.8 billion in federal funds, and go a long way toward addressing the problems in the state.

Still, even as he tries to work across the aisle to get things done, the frustrations mount. He said just about each week of the legislative session, he asks himself, “What the f— are we doing here in the state of Mississippi?”

PODCAST: Rep. Robert Johnson discusses key issues ahead of 2022 legislative session

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