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Mississippi lawmakers are considering getting into the venture capital business, using your tax dollars to float startup businesses.

What could go wrong?

Well, if history is any guide — plenty. The last time the state tried this, millions of dollars were misspent and stolen, no new businesses got started, somebody went to prison, and the state spent years trying to untangle what went wrong.

Taxpayers would’ve been better off if someone had taken their money down to the boats and played craps with it.

First, the new proposal: With the American Rescue Plan Act, Congress earmarked $10 billion to reauthorize the State Small Business Credit Initiative. This initiative was first created in 2010 after the Great Recession, and funded with $1.5 billion in federal tax dollars to help stimulate small business entrepreneurship through loans and investments.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Our full tracking of Mississippi’s historic influx of federal cash

Mississippi got about $13 million back then and, like many other states, just created small business loan programs. Some states also used the money for venture capital, but Mississippi did not in part because it was a relatively small amount and also in part because of its past massive boondoggle mentioned above — but more on that later.

Now, Mississippi is set to receive about $52 million. And the Mississippi Development Authority is asking lawmakers to give the agency authority to stand up a private nonprofit and create a venture capital fund with part of the money. It’s asking for this authority because, as MDA’s Chief Operating Officer Jamie Miller explained to lawmakers, “the state constitution does not allow the state to have an equity interest in a private businesses.”

The plan would be for the new nonprofit venture to get some private venture capitalists to also pitch in, find the next Google or Amazon being cooked up in someone’s garage in Toomsuba, give it money to get rolling and bingo — we’re in the money.

Now, for the history: With business leaders long lamenting the lack of venture capital floating around Mississippi, lawmakers in 1994 decided to help out, under the auspices of MDA’s predecessor agency. They approved $20 million in borrowing, and the creation of a private nonprofit to funnel the borrowed tax dollars to Magnolia Venture Capital Corporation.

But by 1997, Magnolia Venture had blown about $4.5 million on overhead including what an investigation would deem “questionable and extravagant” spending by its CEO and board. The CEO — later convicted of fraud and money laundering — had paid himself $747,000 in salary and bonuses over 18 months, and awarded companies he owned or was affiliated with $1.2 million.

Magnolia did not help a single startup get started up, and its only capital investment was $600,000 to an already existing company. The lone private investor Magnolia suckered in promptly pulled out, and the state was left holding the bag on millions of dollars in interest payments.

When the latest proposal for MDA to stand up a venture capital (also known as “risk” capital, for good reason) got pitched at the Capitol, many folks who’d been around more than a minute immediately thought of Magnolia Venture.

But MDA Interim Director Laura Hipp said these are different times, and the ARPA funds would be subject to both federal and state scrutiny light years beyond that of the mid-1990s. A new program would require the federal venture dollars be matched with private investment (but the Magnolia Venture scheme ostensibly did, too) and MDA would closely monitor the workings of the new venture capital venture.

The proposal was offered in two “mirror” bills, Senate Bill 2772 and House Bill 1164. The House version was passed on to the full chamber by the Ways and Means committee last week with little discussion and no debate. But in the Senate, after much debate and some reminiscing about Magnolia Venture, the Finance Committee stripped out the venture capital/private nonprofit language before sending it to the full Senate.

The Senate debate over the bill created somewhat strange bedfellows. Both Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, and Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville — often at odds politically — decried the venture capital proposal as a bad idea.

Both shared the sentiment that the state “should not be in the business of picking winners and losers” by handing out tax dollars to fund speculative startup businesses.

Blount reminded his colleagues of Magnolia Venture, “a giant scandal that resulted in millions of dollars squandered.”

“The state has enough to do without getting into the venture capital business,” Blount said. “We ended up with a scandal before … Who would run this nonprofit? Would their salaries be public information, their records? Would they be subject to open meetings laws? Bid laws? … Are you familiar with Magnolia Venture Capital? Why should we do that again?”

McDaniel said such a program would “invite not only unfair competition, but corruption and cronyism.”

“I would never mean to imply anything improper or irregular is happening at MDA,” McDaniel said, “but if you look at history, any time government gets involved in private business affairs like this, you end up with misspending, strong arming, cronyism and corruption … Government creating an environment for growth, that’s one thing, and that usually means government getting out of the way, not risking the taxpayers’ capital.”

McDaniel said that, beyond the venture capital proposal, he has concerns over other parts of MDA’s plans to use the ARPA money earmarked for small business growth.

“My understanding is that some of the businesses could receive loan forgiveness up to 60% of the loans with this program,” McDaniel said. “We would be incentivizing reckless decisions and investing by businesses, with the damage falling back on the taxpayers. A loan with up to 60% forgiveness is probably a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Blount said: “Venture capital is by definition making risky investments. That’s not our job.”

The post Mississippi wants to dole out tax dollars as venture capital to startups. What could go wrong? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Francis De La Rosa of Brandon went into labor with her twins at 26 weeks pregnant in July 2021. Her son and daughter were born weighing about two pounds each, and they were immediately whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Merit Health River Oaks Hospital. 

De La Rosa has worked at Mothers’ Milk Bank of Mississippi since 2017. She started off as a lab technician working to process donated breast milk for premature babies in the NICU and then rose through the ranks to executive director. 

She knew the importance of breast milk for premature babies, but after her twins were born, she experienced it firsthand. For about three days before her supply came in, her babies received donor milk.

“I went from being part of the organization that helps provide donor milk to the NICU mom who was needing donor milk for her babies while she worked on her supply,” De La Rosa described in a post on the bank’s Facebook page. 

De La Rosa’s daughter, Emmalee, tragically passed away eight days after she was born. Her twin Luka spent more than two months in the NICU, and he is now seven months old.

De La Rosa said she is “so grateful that this organization exists — that it was able to provide my babies nutrition and fill the gap until I was able to take over.”

But from 2020 to 2021, there was a 30% decline in donations to the Mothers’ Milk Bank, the only bank accredited by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) in the state. As a result, it can’t fill some orders for hospitals, said De La Rosa and Dr. Rebecca Saenz, the medical director of the bank.

That’s a problem for a state like Mississippi, where one of every seven babies born in 2019 in Mississippi were preterm, or born before the mother reached 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to the March of Dimes.

The state ranks 50th in not only preterm birth but also infant mortality, child mortality, low birthweight and neonatal mortality, or death within the first 28 days of being born, according to America’s Health Rankings. 

Breast milk can be life-saving for premature, low birth-weight and otherwise vulnerable babies.

“These babies in neonatal intensive care units rely on breast milk to help lower the risk of severe intestinal infections called NEC, necrotizing enterocolitis,” said Dr. Anita Henderson, president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the board of directors for the bank.

“Many moms are able to pump and give their babies in the NICU their own breast milk. Some mothers are unable or unwilling to do so and their babies are given donated, pasteurized breast milk which helps keep them healthy and protect their intestines,” she continued.

Note: Story continues under gallery.

The decline in donated milk is not unique to Mississippi. 

“In efforts to meet the increasing demand for donor milk, coupled with a decline in milk donations, the (HMBANA) and its member milk banks across the United States and Canada are urging healthy, lactating people to consider donating to their local milk bank today,” a January release from HMBANA stated. “Doing so is essential to maintaining the stability of the donor milk supply, which ensures life-saving medical treatments for high-risk infants.”

Myrelle Penquite of Brandon delivered her now eight-month-old daughter Matilyn at 28 weeks pregnant. Matilyn would go on to spend over three months in the NICU, including a stint at Children’s of Mississippi for a heart procedure. 

Matilyn, like De La Rosa’s twins, received donor milk the first few days before Penquite’s milk supply came in.

But as the weeks and months passed, Penquite began producing more milk than the hospital could use for Matilyn — a surprisingly emotional development. 

“As a NICU parent, you almost feel hopeless because there’s not really much you can do for your baby. You can’t hold them when you want to, you can’t comfort them, there are limitations on what you can actually do,” she said. “So one of the biggest things was I knew I was taking care of her when I was pumping (breast milk).” 

As her freezer began filling up with pumped milk, a nurse told her about the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Mississippi, where she went on to donate nearly 1,000 ounces of breast milk.

“I wanted to donate to help a family like another mom helped my baby,” Penquite said. “The process was very easy — a lot easier than I thought it would be.” 

Donating to Mississippi Mothers’ Milk Bank requires completion of a questionnaire screening and bloodwork to ensure eligibility. Employees at the bank contact both the mother’s and baby’s doctors to ensure they are both healthy and safe. 

Breastfeeding is beneficial for both babies and mothers, said Saenz. It’s associated with more robust immune systems in children and a lower risk of heart and other diseases as adults. It is also associated with a reduced rate of breast and ovarian cancer for women. 

Those who are interested in becoming donors can call the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Mississippi at (601) 939-5504 or visit the site. The bank is hosting a milk drive Friday from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m, and staff encourages potential donors to call ahead for the pre-screening. Donors will receive a T-shirt, water bottle and refreshments.

The post Mississippi is in need of donor breast milk, which can save the lives of vulnerable babies appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Ethics Commission dismissed a complaint alleging the Legislature’s Joint Redistricting Committee violated the state’s open meetings law in developing a plan to redraw the four U.S. House seats.

The eight-member Ethics Commission, which is responsible for hearing allegations of public officials violating the open meetings law, said there was no violation because the Redistricting Committee never met behind closed doors with a quorum present, according to affidavits from Rep. Jim Beckett, R-Bruce, the chair of the committee, and from vice chair Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl.

“A meeting is an assemblage of members of a public body at which official acts may be taken upon a matter over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction or advisory power,” the commission wrote in its opinion dismissing the complaint. “Official acts, including deliberations, may only be taken when a quorum of the public body assembles.”

For the committee to have a quorum, which is needed to conduct official business, six House members and six Senate members must be present.

READ MORE: Groups allege Redistricting Committee violated public meetings law

The ACLU complaint alleged, “The extent of the redistricting work that the Committee has performed thus far makes it apparent that the Committee has performed public business in private. In fact, following its November public meeting, Chairman Jim Beckett invited the Committee’s members to his office to view the U.S. congressional map that would be, and was, offered, voted on and adopted by the Committee.”

But Beckett and Kirby told the Ethics Commission there never was a quorum present during any closed door meeting.

The Ethics Commission said the ACLU contended that a quorum does not have to be present for there to be a violation of Mississippi’s open meetings law.

“That contention is incorrect,” the commission ruled, based on past state Supreme Court rulings.

The ACLU has the right to appeal the Ethics Commission ruling to a state court.

It already is likely that the NAACP and others will challenge the congressional redistricting plan in federal court. The new map was approved by the Redistricting Committee late last year and ultimately passed by the Legislature in January.

READ MORE: Mississippi NAACP questions constitutionality of redistricting plan

The NAACP told a federal judge last week there were issues with the plan, including the large geographic size of the Black-majority district in the plan. NAACP attorneys said the large district makes it more difficult to elect an African American U.S. House member.

Federal law, most agree, mandates that Mississippi have an African American majority U.S. House district because of the large African American population in the state, which is about 38%.

The state is supposed to redraw the congressional districts every 10 years to adhere to population shifts found by the decennial census. The Legislature also is in the process of redrawing the 174 state House and Senate seats.

The post Ethics Commission rules that open meetings law was not violated in redistricting effort appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive early access to weekly analyses.

Philip Gunn’s biggest political legacy is on the line.

The third-term speaker of the House, a white Republican, has been credited by numerous Black leaders with ushering through the Capitol one of the most tangible racial progressions in Mississippi history: changing the state flag, the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.

It was a difficult challenge for Gunn to navigate in America’s Blackest state with a violent history of racism, but where white conservatives have historically dominated the political system.

Why would a white Mississippi Republican with aspirations of higher office ignore the pleas of so many white voters who wanted to keep flying that old flag? Because he knew Black Mississippians — and the state of Mississippi’s image — were hurting. That understanding, he said, was rooted in his Christian faith values.

Today, more than 18 months later, Gunn faces another political challenge, one with a similar mix of racial politics and dug-in heels: Legislative Republicans, inspired by out-of-state conservative media figures who know nothing about Mississippi, are trying to ban the teaching of critical race theory in the state’s public schools and universities.

The only bill alive that addresses critical race theory was passed in January by the Senate and is now pending in the House, where Gunn has virtually complete control of what legislation lives or dies. House leaders, if they want to keep it alive, have until March 1 to pass it out of committee. If they don’t act by then, the bill will die.

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Critical race theory became a flashpoint of national politics in 2021 as conservative pundits latched onto the term and sowed fear about its so-called hold on generations of young Americans. That rhetoric, predictably, reached the Magnolia State and has been broadcast by powerful Republicans.

Gunn has been one of Mississippi’s loudest critics of critical race theory. In a July 2021 speech, he echoed some of the same disproven talking points that national pundits have shared.

“We know the devastating effects that racism can have on a society. We in Mississippi know firsthand how that can be, what the devastating effects will be,” Gunn said. “That’s exactly why we must fight against this attempt to reintroduce racism back into our schools and undo all the progress that we’ve made.”

Sen. Mike McLendon, the sponsor of the Mississippi bill, admitted he was inspired to push the bill by what he and constituents heard on Fox News. Meanwhile, the Mississippi Department of Education has continually insisted that the theory is not being taught in the state’s public kindergarten through 12th grade schools.

The fallout from the Senate’s passing of the bill in January was dramatic and harmful to Mississippi’s image. For the first known time in the state’s history, every Black member of the Senate walked off the floor as the final vote was being tallied. The walkout — a tried-and-true strategy of the civil rights movement — captured the attention of the world, and the white lawmakers who voted to pass the bill ensured that Mississippi was once again painted in a negative racial light.

READ MORE: How Black senators controlled the narrative on a historic day at the Capitol

Gunn, if he’s listening, should know there’s similarly a low appetite for the bill among his Black House colleagues. State Rep. Robert Johnson, the House Democratic leader who has maintained a close relationship with Gunn, did not mince words about what he thought of the GOP-led push.

“They’re spending so much time trying to ban something that’s not even being taught,” Johnson said in a radio interview in late January. “Meanwhile, people in our districts still have roads they can’t get back and forth on. The unemployment rate is still in the double digits in many parts of the state. We’ve got a medical crisis in this state, people’s hospitals are closed or about to close. We have an enormous wage disparity. We have a serious poverty issue in this state, and infrastructure problems in this state.”

“It’s an issue that’s been created and perpetuated by Republicans to have something to fight or argue and not have to deal with real problems,” Johnson said.

And it’s not just Black Democrats who are opposing the bill.

Last week, Mississippi Today reported that just one state educational institution, the University of Mississippi School of Law (coincidentally where Gunn received his law degree) teaches a critical race theory course. And, according to students currently taking the course, it’s nothing like what it’s being made out to be by Mississippi Republicans and the national media.

Take it from Brittany Murphree, a Republican and second-year law student currently taking the course. Murphree didn’t know what to expect when she enrolled in the class, but after just two weeks she wrote Gunn’s House colleagues a letter, begging them to stop pushing the Senate bill.

“To date, this course has been the most impactful and enlightening course I have taken throughout my entire undergraduate career and graduate education at the State of Mississippi’s flagship university,” Murphree wrote. “… I believe our leaders need to show greater integrity in every vote he or she may cast on a bill or resolution — especially when that vote affects the histories and cultural identities of a vast number of your constituents.”

Murphree continued: “I believe this bill not only undermines the values of the hospitality state but declares that Mississippians are structured in hate and rooted in a great deal of ignorance.”

READ MORE: Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory

Black lawmakers are saying it, and a white Republican enrolled in the state’s only critical race theory course is saying it: Passing a bill to ban the teaching of critical race theory is unnecessary. It can only stand to show Black Mississippians that white leaders aren’t interested in passing policies designed to move the state forward. And it will certainly be another hit to the state’s international reputation.

What Gunn decides on the bill could erase the credit for racial progress he earned during the flag change. It doesn’t have to be that way. He could direct Rep. Richard Bennett, the House Education chairman, to let the Senate bill die on the calendar on March 1. In doing so, he could mitigate the heartache this bill would cause so many Mississippians, and he could further protect the state’s international image — just like he did with the flag effort.

It’s notable that the House didn’t bring forward their own critical race theory bill before the committee deadline. That could be a sign that Gunn and House leaders are content with letting the Senate bill be the state’s standard. It could also mean that they saw the backlash after what happened in the Senate and don’t want to further harm the state’s image or relationships with Black lawmakers.

But there is certainly a different political read that could Gunn could make. If he were to run for statewide office — like governor, as he is reportedly considering — how would killing this bill play with white conservative voters? Would they think he backed down after promising to address critical race theory, or will this issue be a distant memory by 2023 similar to other political fads like the “migrant caravan” pushed by Republicans ahead of the 2018 midterms?

Credit for his efforts to change the flag could wane if he, 18 months later, pushes policy that jeopardizes the teaching of the racism that the old flag symbolized. He can’t center Christianity as the fundamental principle of his political calculus and expect grace from many Mississippians who watch him hand waving it off when it comes to critical race theory. Politically, the speaker will not be able to have it both ways.

Murphree, a potential future Republican voter of Gunn’s in a statewide election, would perhaps put it to the speaker the same way she put it to his House colleagues in the letter she wrote:

“Please vote with integrity, and not with fear of your constituents or fellow party members.”

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Longtime Mississippi Sierra Club Director Louie Miller talks about Mississippi’s state parks system, which has suffered from decades of neglected maintenance. The Sierra Club opposes a current push to privatize state parks, and says Mississippi should instead use some of the billions in federal stimulus money flowing to the state to upgrade the state’s parks, and keep them affordable and accessible to Mississippians.

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

The post Podcast: What’s going on with Mississippi state parks? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

What is Governor Tate Reeves’ superpower? Raising campaign cash.

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In this episode of Mississippi Stories, esteemed 2016 – 2021 Mississippi Poet Laureate, author and Ole Miss professor Beth Ann Fennelly sits down with Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey to talk about her writing, creativity and how she plows through setbacks.

Fennelly is the author of three poetry collections: Unmentionables (W.W. Norton, 2008), Tender Hooks (W.W. Norton, 2004), and Open House (Zoo Press, 2002), which was a winner of the 2001 Kenyon Review Prize, the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award and a Book Sense Top Ten Poetry Pick. She is also the author of the nonfiction book Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother (W.W. Norton, 2007) and coauthor, alongside her husband Tom Franklin, of the novel The Tilted World (HarperCollins, 2014). Her sixth book, Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (W.W. Norton, 2017), was named an Atlanta Journal Constitution Best Book, a Goodreaders Favorite for 2017, and the winner of the Housatonic Book Prize.

Fennelly teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Mississippi, where she was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year. She and Franklin live in Oxford with their three children. You can purchase Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs at Square Books.

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Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s senior U.S. senator, made national headlines last week when he criticized President Joe Biden’s promise to nominate an African American woman to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

During a recent interview on Mississippi’s statewide conservative radio network, Wicker said the nominee would be “the beneficiary” of a “quota.”

Wicker offered nary a single word of criticism in 2020 after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when then-President Donald Trump promised to nominate a woman to the nation’s highest court.

Wicker’s comments beg the question: Why is he OK if a president promises to nominate a woman, but he’s not OK when a president promises to nominate a Black woman?

Is the problem, from his perspective, one of race and not of gender?

When asked that question a few days after the radio interview, Wicker said in an e-mailed response: “When Mr. Biden was trailing in the primaries, he made a promise to consider only Black females for the Supreme Court vacancy. Some 76% of Americans disagree with such a position, saying it is best for the president to choose from among all qualified applicants for the job.”

Former President Trump also was in the midst of a presidential campaign — for re-election — when he made the commitment to nominate a woman to replace Ginsburg.

And in 2016, during his first campaign, Trump released a list of potential nominees for the Supreme Court who consisted solely of white people. Wicker also did not have a problem with that list. Was the all-white list a “quota?”

It must not have been in Wicker’s eyes.

Later that summer at the Neshoba County Fair, Wicker offered a full-throated endorsement of Trump and offered no thoughts on the list of solely white people he had offered as potential Supreme Court nominees should he win the presidency, which he did later that year.

In recent years, Wicker, a former state senator and U.S. House member who was elected to the U.S. Senate is 2008, has taken some brave stands — stands that many believed could hurt him politically.

In 2015, Wicker and Thad Cochran, then the state’s senior U.S. senator, on the same day announced their support for changing the state flag, which incorporated the Confederate battle emblem in its design. Their announcements came in the wake of the shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church killing nine African Americans by a white supremist who highlighted the Confederate flag on his social media page.

Wicker and Cochran were among the first Republican politicians in the state to take such a stand.

He said, in part, at the time: “I have not viewed Mississippi’s current state flag as offensive. However, it is clearer and clearer to me that many of my fellow citizens feel differently and that our state flag increasingly portrays a false impression of our state to others.

“In I Corinthians 8, the Apostle Paul said he had no personal objection to eating meat sacrificed to idols. But he went on to say that ‘if food is a cause of trouble to my brother, or makes my brother offend, I will give up eating meat.’ The lesson from this passage leads me to conclude that the flag should be removed since it causes offense to so many of my brothers and sisters, creating dissention rather than unity.”

Then in 2021, Wicker was the sole Republican in Mississippi’s congressional delegation to vote to certify the presidential election over the protests of Trump, who argued despite no evidence that he had won. Trump was in essence calling for the overthrow of the U.S. system of government. Wicker would have no part in it.

And more recently, Wicker was the only Mississippi Republican to vote for the landmark Biden infrastructure bill.

“I served with Roger Wicker,” said state Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus, referring to when Wicker was a state senator. “I know he is not a racist. I like Roger, but his comment sounded racist. He is better than that.”

Perhaps talking on the conservative radio show, Wicker felt he needed to try to build his credibility with Trump supporters when he spoke of quotas — to save face politically with hardcore conservatives after some of those brave stands.

On the radio show, Wicker proclaimed the Biden nominee “will probably not get a single Republican vote” in the U.S. Senate.

But speaking days later in response to questions, he took a more moderate tone.

“I will review the president’s nominee on the basis of her qualifications and judicial philosophy,” he said. “Republicans will accord her all the courtesy and respect that was not shown to (Republican judicial nominees) Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Miguel Estrada, and Janice Rogers Brown.”

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