In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey visits with the talented Merc B. Williams. Merc is a comedian, host, writer and speaker who appeared on Comedy Central’s “Hart of The City” Season 2, created by comedian Kevin Hart, and produced by Joey Wells, and Leland “Pookey” Wiggington. Merc represented Jackson, Mississippi in the newest installment of the series.
Merc created Laugh Your Way To Work, a web series that showcases his comedic talents to followers on an array of everyday topics during their morning commute. Williams also is a regular writer/contributor to So FN Dope Magazine, based in Sacramento, California, and hosts Late Night Jxn; a variety show centered around all things Mississippi: News, television, movies, comedy, and the arts.
He’s also 1/3 of the “Hilarious Homies” along with fellow comedian Nardo Blackmon and comedienne Rita Brent and co-creator of the “Funny For The Free” comedy show; a show held bimonthly showcasing comedians from in and around the Jackson, MS area. He’s also one half of the “Vibe Controllers” podcast along side his identical twin brother and fellow artist Cocky McFly. To hear “Vibe Controllers”, click here.
As Mississippi’s political leadership bickers about whether to pass the House tax cut plan or the more modest Senate plan or the more outlandish plan of Gov. Tate Reeves, it might be worth remembering that the state is not even halfway into enacting the state’s largest tax reduction plan in history.
In 2016, the state passed a plan to cut taxes by $415 million in 2016 dollars by fiscal year 2028. By the end of the current 2022 fiscal year, about $206 million of that tax cut will have been enacted, according to projections put out in 2016 when the Legislature, led to a large extent by then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, approved the Taxpayer Pay Raise Act.
“I keep telling people that if we do nothing we will have a big tax cut this year,” said Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson.
That 2016 proposal cut the tax on personal income by about $150 million. The rest of the tax cut is going to businesses, with a substantial portion (about 75% according to a 2017 Mississippi Today analysis) going to large out-of-state corporations.
In addition, in the four-year legislative term before the pivotal 2016 session, about 50 tax cuts, primarily for businesses, were enacted at a combined cost of at least $140 million annually, according to data compiled earlier by the Department of Revenue.
Meanwhile, as those tax cuts go into effect and other much larger tax cuts are contemplated, some say Mississippi’s political leaders continue to whistle past the graveyard.
“We are not paying state employees, our roads are crumbling. We have not funded the schools,” Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory. said. “We don’t have water and sewer. We can cut taxes and not have a functioning society. That is where we are heading now.”
The Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which provides the state’s share of the basics to operate local school districts, would need $362 million this session to be fully funded — a total of about $45 million more than the current Senate tax cut proposal. The House plan, championed by Speaker Philip Gunn, would cost about $1.4 billion when fully enacted. Reeves’ plan would cost about $1.8 billion.
Since 2007, the last time the MAEP was fully funded, it has been underfunded $3.1 billion. As inflation increases, that shortfall will be even more consequential as the cost of gas for buses and other supplies rise.
While some might see state leaders whistling past that proverbial graveyard, others have a different view.
“… Let’s find a way to get rid of the income tax,” Gunn said. “Now is the time to give money back to the people. We have done everything. We have funded all of the government. We have excess money. Let’s give it back.”
A skirmish, though a respectful one, broke out last week between state House and Senate leaders about the impact of their competing tax plans.
Projections developed by the Legislative Budget Office, at the request of Senate leaders using assumptions on revenue growth and spending based on historical trends, indicate that the House plan would put the state in the red by more than $250 million by fiscal year 2024.
But House leaders counter the Senate projections do not take into account the current, perhaps historic revenue growth.
Truth be known, if the Legislature continues on its current spending path, there would be enough money to enact the first two years of the House plan, which incidentally are the only two that are not contingent on growth triggers to be enacted. The state currently has unprecedented revenue growth thanks to multiple factors, most all related to the economic environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But 1979 might provide some context for legislators. That year with state revenues way up, as they are now, legislators passed at the time the largest tax cut in the state’s history — reducing the income tax and eliminating the sales tax on prescription drugs and utility bills.
But three years later, recognizing the state’s needs, legislators backtracked and increased the taxes on income and sales to pay for kindergartens, provide teachers a raise and to address other education issues.
Still, for the 1980s, revenue collections remained sluggish, forcing major budget cuts.
Finally in 1992, legislators overrode the veto of then-Gov. Kirk Fordice to increase taxes again — the sales tax from 6% to 7%.
It is questionable at best whether politicians in today’s environment would be brave enough to take the action their counterparts did in 1982 and 1992.
The fear that legislators in today’s political environment would never vote to raise taxes to address needs is the reason many are so afraid of any more tax cuts.
“If that revenue goes away this year, it will never come back,” said Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville.
Despite unprecedented revenue growth, both the House and Senate have put forth state budget proposals for the coming fiscal year that spend less state funds than what was appropriated during the 2021 session.
But Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, cautioned, “We are far from the finish line. This is just the starting line.”
Last year the Legislature appropriated $7 billion in state support funds for education, health care, law enforcement and for other vital needs that are funded with state general fund tax collections and other state funds. Both the House and Senate have passed budget plans of $6.6 billion.
The action taken earlier this week is the opening salvo for the 2022 session in developing a budget for the budget year starting July 1. The final product will be negotiated between House and Senate leaders in late March during the final scheduled days of the 2022 legislative session.
“Yes, I’m sure (spending) is going to increase in negotiations — it always does,” said House Appropriations Vice Chair Karl Oliver, R-Winona.
In developing the budgets, legislators are dealing with unprecedented growth in state tax collections. In the past fiscal year, the state collected $1.1 billion more than was budgeted and is on pace to do about the same for the current fiscal year.
Those surpluses are fueling discussions in both chambers of a tax cut.
While the recent action might be “the starting line,” the proposals still indicate the conservative approach leaders apparently are taking in developing a budget. Both proposals do little to address the funding shortfall in the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which provides the basics of operating local school districts. It would take about $360 million in additional money to fully fund MAEP, a funding formula set into law by the Legislature.
The budget also does not address the possibility of expanding Medicaid as is allowed under federal law to provide health care coverage to primarily the working poor. House Speaker Philip Gunn has indicated that he would not support expanding Medicaid.
Plus, the two budget plans, as they passed both chambers in their original forms, do little to address the rising costs agencies face from inflation.
Hopson conceded that moving forward inflation needed to be factored into the budgets.
“It is definitely a factor…(to) determine how far dollars will go,” said Hopson.
Oliver said, “Everybody’s aware of inflation — that’s a big topic of conversation right now.” He said inflation is part of what’s driving proposed pay raises for Department of Public Safety law officers and others in the budget.
Both Democrats and Republicans expressed concern that pay raises for state employees are needed during the current climate where salaries are being increased in the private sector to attract workers. But Hopson said safeguards are in plan to help ensure agency heads do not exceed their authority to provide pay raises.
“There seem to be a real concern about employees being overpaid and agencies trying to pay their employees more,” said Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory. “…It is very easy to see the cost of a salary. That is a dollar amount. We know the amount. We can deal with it. What we don’t see is the real cost of the key people in government, the super competent. When those people go, you incur a lot of other costs that you do not see in the cost of their salaries.”
The budget plans include $25 million for state employee pay raises. The intent of the funds is to ensure all employees are paid at least the minimum salary that they should receive under a new compensation system developed by the state Personnel Board. About 19,000 of the 24,000 Mississippi state employees who fall under the state Personnel Board guidelines received a raise of up to 3% in January to put their salaries in line with the new compensation plan, entitled SEC2. The $25 million will try to complete that realignment, Hopson said.
The largest new expenditure in both the House and Senate proposals is to fund the teacher pay raise plans that passed earlier this session. The Senate plan has about $170 million for its pay raise proposal with the plan to provide another $45 million raise in the 2023 session. The House has about $215 million for its plan.
On a separate, but related track, legislators are also working to decide how to spend $1.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds. Those funds can be spent on water and sewer improvements throughout the state and for various COVID-19 related items. The final decision on how to spend those funds, like the overall budget, will likely be decided in the final days of the session, which is scheduled to end in early April.
Mississippi public schools will have access to mental and health care services for students for free as soon as August, education officials announced Thursday.
The Mississippi Department of Education approved a $17.6 million grant for telehealth and teletherapy services available within schools provided by the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The Department of Education initially planned to begin with a pilot program, but then decided to launch the program statewide instead.
“The more we started finding out about (telehealth services), we really felt that if there was an organization or entity that could just launch this statewide and get more children access to it, then why not?” said Carey Wright, state superintendent of education.
The program is being funded by the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) and will last from July 2022 through September 2024. The program will start serving its first schools at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
The grant will cover laptops for video conferencing and specially equipped stethoscopes and otoscopes that transmit information to the doctors or nurse practitioners on the other end of the call.
Healthcare providers will supply urgent care, mental health care, remote patient monitoring, and specialty consultations to children in any district across the state that has access to a school nurse.
“When you really look at the distribution of doctors in Mississippi, you have plenty in Jackson, Hattiesburg, Tupelo, and Biloxi, but you get out to (those rural counties) and you are really in a health care desert,” said Dr. John Gaudet, a Hattiesburg pediatrician and former president of the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Telehealth is a way to keep kids learning, keep kids engaged in school and keep from having to pull them out to drive 40 miles for an appointment that could’ve been accomplished rapidly and easily by telehealth.”
“Statewide, we need to do a really good job of training our teachers and leaders on the signs and symptoms of children and adults that are struggling from mental health and social-emotional issues, and this will give them the great platform to gain access (to treatment) through our school nurses,” said Wright.
The grant specifically partners with the UMMC Center for Telehealth, which has been recognized nationally for excellence in telehealth.
“Healthy children learn, and children that aren’t healthy don’t,” Wright said. “If we could provide a way to make sure that our children are healthy and, if need be, families are healthy or staff are healthy and make the access that much easier…then that’s one thing we can cross off the list and don’t have to worry about anymore.”
On the week of Valentine’s Day, 2021, winter storms Uri and Viola incapacitated utilities in Mississippi and across the country. Southern cities and utility companies were especially unprepared, lacking shelter for their distribution systems that left customers without water and powers for extended periods after the storms.
In preparing for the possibility of more frequent winter storms, Mississippi’s Public Service Commission on Thursday released the results of a year-long investigation into the state’s public utility infrastructure. The PSC regulates rates and services from telecommunications, electric, gas, water and sewer utilities, but has no authority for appropriating funds to those utilities.
“One year ago this week, Mississippi was in the grip of historic winter storms,” Central District Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey said. “The combination of freezing rain, snow and days of below freezing temperatures brought road travel to a halt, caused nearly 200,000 customers to lose power, caused more than 80 water systems to have low or no water pressure, and some telecommunications were even disrupted.
“For a few days it seemed almost as if the entire state was paralyzed.”
In the wide-ranging report, which also looked at recent damages from hurricanes, thunderstorms and tornadoes, the PSC looked at the most common vulnerabilities among utilities and ways to address them.
Although the report didn’t include specific funding amounts, it did recommend more proactive communication between lawmakers and utilities to discuss mitigation investments. Between the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Bills, Bailey said lawmakers could help upgrade aging systems, especially water and sewer plants.
The state health department reported that 79 water utilities issued boil water notices after last year’s winter storms. Municipal water and sewer plants suffer from a range of issues, such as old piping and pump stations, and a lack of maintenance. Rural water associations have reported undersized water lines, and aging treatment plants and wells. According to a presentation to lawmakers, Mississippi’s average water system loss from ruptures and leaks is 35%, compared to 18% nationally.
As far as specific fixes, the PSC’s recommendations include:
Utilities adopting and updating emergency response plans
Better vegetation management, including using technology such as drones or satellites to identify where to trim trees that could fall onto power lines
Replacing wood utility poles with steel or concrete
Creating fuel redundancy and diversity, which would include exploring options for increasing natural gas storage, as well as evaluating the feasibility of alternative fuel sources. A majority of Mississippi’s energy consumption comes from natural gas, which was in limited supply during the storm.
Collaborating with other state agencies to enforce weatherization standards for water and wastewater plants
Editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau sat down with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to discuss the historic amount of federal money Mississippi has to spend from the American Rescue Plan Act. Hosemann spoke about the Legislature’s decision process in determining what pressing state issues to use the funds on.
Watch the full conversation:
Editor-at-large Marshall Ramsey took the stage during the conversation to complete a live drawing that referenced the infamous commercial featuring Hosemann.
Stay tuned: The next Mississippi in the Know: Legislative Breakfast will be March 3, 2022, featuring Von Gordon, Executive Director of the William Winter Institute.
Mississippi State All American Landon Sims receives congratulations after saving a game in 2021. (Photo By Sarah Triplett)
It’s time to do what Mississippians do best when it comes to college sports. That is, play ball. Baseball.
Defending national champion Mississippi State, NCAA regional champ Ole Miss, and perennial NCAA Tournament participant Southern Miss all begin their seasons Friday with home weekend series. To say the least, expectations are high.
Mississippi State, ranked highly in most preseason polls including No. 4 by D1Baseball, will play host to West Coast baseball powerhouse Long Beach State, ranked No. 24 in the same poll. The Bulldogs and Dirtbags will play single games at 2 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
At Oxford, Charleston Southern (18-26 last season) of the Big South Conference will visit for single games Friday (4 p.m.), Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (2:30 p.m.).
At Hattiesburg, Southern Miss will play North Alabama (7-40 in 2021) for single games Friday (4 p.m.), Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).
The 2021 college baseball season ended with State’s All American closer Landon Sims getting the last out in the Bulldogs’ 9-0 championship victory over Vanderbilt in the College World Series at Omaha. State’s 2022 season will open with Sims on the mound at Dudy Noble, shifting roles from lock-down closer to Friday night starter. Sims, who saved so many of All American Will Bednar’s victories last season, will inherit Bednar’s role of front-line starter.
The Bulldogs will be face a difficult foe. Long Beach won 15 of its last 17 games a year ago and features one of the nation’s best closers of its own. Sophomore Devereaux Harrison finished with a 3-1 record and a team-leading 10 saves last season. He struck out 42 batters in 34 innings and opponents hit just .175 against him.
At Oxford, Ole Miss returns its everyday lineup virtually in tact from a team that hit .288 with 85 home runs in 67 games. Rebel returners include shortstop Jacob Gonzalez who hit a team-leading .355 with 12 home runs and 55 RBI. Also back is first baseman Tim Elko, who gained almost legendary status in Ole Miss baseball annals last season when he played the last couple months with a torn ACL and still led the team with 16 home runs. Kevin Graham (.342, 14 HR, 54 RBI) also returns.
This weekend’s series will mark the return of former Ole Miss player and assistant coach Marc MacMillan, who begins his second season as Charleston Southern’s head coach.
Southern Miss must replace two of the most productive starting pitchers in school history in Walker Powell and Hunter Stanley — and left-handed relief ace Ryan Och. But Scott Berry returns a deep pitching staff of strong arms and welcomes back most of a batting lineup that hit .275 with 83 home runs to help the Golden Eagles finish second in the Oxford Regional.
Southern Miss apparently will be competing for the last season in Conference USA and the Eagles are the coaches’ preseason pick to win the league.
Advocates want Mississippians who rely on mental health services to have a say in how the embattled Department of Mental Health spends $104.5 million in proposed federal relief funds, and they’re hoping the Legislature will make it happen.
On Feb. 11, leaders of four advocacy groups sent a letter to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn asking them to create a “stakeholder committee” to advise DMH on its spending of the American Rescue Plan Act money and monitor the outcomes. Members would include service recipients and their families, care providers, community health centers, law enforcement and others.
“This inclusive and holistic approach would increase the likelihood of better outcomes for people with mental illness and their families,” wrote the leaders of Disability Rights Mississippi, Families As Allies, the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities, and the Mississippi Psychiatric Association.
The federal money would flow to DMH, which employs more people than any other state agency, as it works to expand community-based mental health services.
Reeves last year ordered the appointment of an independent monitor to verify DMH’s data and evaluate its progress in providing community-based services. But the state is fighting that order with an appeal to the 5th Circuit.
In her presentation to the ARPA subcommittee in December, DMH Director Wendy Bailey proposed using funds to add 60 beds at crisis stabilization units to help divert people from state hospitals, train first responders in mental health first aid, implement the 988 suicide prevention lifeline as it launches in July 2022, and address the agency’s staffing shortage.
Joy Hogge leads Families As Allies, a statewide nonprofit that advocates for children with behavioral health challenges and their families. Hogge said the ARPA money could make a big difference for Mississippians seeking mental health services — if it’s used thoughtfully. Adding services that can’t outlive a temporary funding boost would be a mistake, she said. Tracking outcomes is important, too.
“Ten years from now we could look (and say), ‘Yes, things did get better, more people are getting services, there are more providers, we’re growing this,’” she said. “As opposed to just — here’s some services that might go away in just a few years and we don’t even know if it actually helped.”
Adam Moore, communications director for DMH, said the agency regularly gets feedback from service recipients and other stakeholders through a statewide survey and meetings with advisory councils that include family advocacy groups.
Bailey was copied on the advocates’ letter.
“DMH has not directly responded to the letter as it was not addressed to the agency, but we are prepared to share any information regarding our ARPA funds proposal as needed,” he said in a statement to Mississippi Today. “If the agency receives the funds, DMH will also track outcomes related to the services/supports provided through the use of the funds and will report that information publicly.”
Senate Bill 2865 would give broad discretion for the Department to spend about $86 million. An additional $18.5 million is earmarked for the Community Mental Health Centers.
The bill requires the department to consult with at least one outsider as it determines how to spend the money earmarked for community mental health centers: the coordinator of mental health accessibility, Bill Rosamond, a position created by the legislature in 2020.
As Mississippi backs away from institutionalizing people, the state’s 13 Community Mental Health Centers are increasingly important: The centers operate mobile crisis response teams and intensive services for people with severe mental illness. The department is shifting funding to expand their work.
Bailey has said she plans to continue following the court’s orders despite the state’s appeal.
“Most anything and everything we can do to divert from state hospitals and provide services in the community, that is what we are going to do,” she said in September.
In its appeal, the state argues that community-based services are already available and that Reeves had subjected the system to “perpetual federal oversight.”
But Hogge and other advocates say it’s too early to say the system is working.
Reeves appointed Dr. Michael Hogan as a “special master,” an official tasked with gathering information to inform a court’s decisions.
In his June 2021 report to the court, Hogan, who had tried unsuccessfully to help DMH and the Department of Justice agree on a remedial plan, wrote that Mississippi had made improvements over the last few years, such as reducing the number of people staying in state hospitals for long periods of time.
But he concluded that the full picture of community services isn’t yet clear.
“Data on community service performance is not yet adequate to assess performance or to allow the Court to determine if the requirements of the ADA are being met,” he wrote. “Levels of services that are in place have not been verified. The actual availability of services to Mississippians is not yet certain.”
Polly Tribble, the executive director of Disability Rights Mississippi, the organization charged by Congress with advocating for people with disabilities in the state, said she wants to see the ARPA funds help accelerate the growth of community-based services.
“We don’t want that money to go into facilities,” she said. “We want it to go into services that are really helping people in the community.”
In addition to the creation of the stakeholder group, the advocates are asking DMH to use the money to strengthen the system’s infrastructure, not to provide temporary services. They are also requesting DMH be required to report outcomes to the legislature and the stakeholder group.
The advocates’ letter asks that their proposed stakeholder committee work with Rosamond and special master Hogan to help plan the ARPA spending.
SB 2865 is now with the House Appropriations Committee. The advocates hope the letter could lead to changes in the appropriations bill before it is passed.
Hogge said as of Thursday, there have been no substantive conversations about implementing the letter’s suggestions.
“I always try to be optimistic that there’s possibilities that anything can happen,” she said. “But just based on what I’ve seen, I’m not really leaning towards that is what’s going to happen. I certainly hope it is, and I think that would be the right thing to do.”
