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Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann expressed concerns Thursday that Mississippi could lose $1.8 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds or at least the ability to allocate the funds efficiently if the Legislature does not act this session to spend the money.

“We continue, unfortunately, to be concerned about the fact we are not passing out the American Rescue Plan funds,” Hosemann told media on Thursday in his Capitol office.

Hosemann spoke Thursday of the need to speed the process of spending the federal funds as House leaders, including Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, continue indicating that the expenditure of what are known as ARPA funds might be delayed until an agreement can be reached between the House and Senate on cutting taxes.

Gunn has been adamant that legislation be passed this year to eliminate the state’s personal income tax, which accounts for about one-third of state general fund revenue. The Senate has proposed a more modest tax cut that still would be one of the largest ever passed by the state.

House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar said there is a likelihood of other legislation, such as ARPA spending, being frozen, “If the Senate doesn’t get right on this, and work with us.”

“If they don’t negotiate with us in good faith on the income tax, then that’s where it’s heading (other work being shut down),” Lamar said.

Gunn, the third-term speaker, said, “We want elimination, without further legislative action being required and we want it done as quickly as possible.” He also reiterated this week that he doesn’t want to wait until next year.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Gunn said. “… This is the opportunity to do something right now that we will never have again in our lifetimes.”

Gunn said the House GOP majority is “in solidarity” on his income tax elimination.

READ MORE: Philip Gunn and Delbert Hosemann remain at an impasse on tax cuts

Whether that solidarity will last if federal funds that could help House members’ local communities is put at risk remains to be seen.

Mississippi is one of just four states, districts or territories not to have allocated substantial amounts of ARPA funding to date, along with Idaho, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., according to data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The federal American Rescue Plan funds were made available to the state in part to deal with issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposals are alive in the Mississippi Legislature to use the funds to help local governments deal with water and sewerage infrastructure, to continue to expand broadband and to deal with issues in state agencies, such as to help settle major lawsuits facing the state’s foster care and mental health systems.

While legislation is still alive, Hosemann is concerned about whether there will be good faith efforts in the final days to reach agreement between House and Senate leaders on how to spend the money.

Hosemann has taken umbrage at threats of other initiatives being halted over the tax standoff and said repeatedly, “They took the same oath of office I did,” referring to the oath Mississippi lawmakers take when being sworn into office. It includes the passage: “I will not vote for any measure or person because of a promise of any other member of this legislature to vote for any measure or person, or as a means of influencing him or them so to do.”

Under existing federal law, the states must commit the ARPA funds by the end of 2024 and actually spend them by the end of 2026. If the funds get caught up in the tax fight and are not committed this year, Hosemann expressed concern that it might be difficult for local governments to find contractors to actually do the water and sewer improvements.

“If we wait another year (to spend the funds), that means we are behind every other state…,” said Hosemann, who presides over the Senate. “If we get another year from now, we may not be able to get a contractor to do the work in the time period that is necessary.

“The fear and concern is that this is getting hung up in the last two weeks of the session. This is not good public policy.”

Hosemann said as inflation continues to rise, the funds will not have the same bang for the buck if they are spent next year instead of this year. Also, he said it can take a lot of time for a city or county to get permits, engineering and other prep work for a large infrastructure project.

Another concern, Hosemann said, is that Congress might change the law and not give states as long to spend the funds, or even take it back.

Last week, when contemplating a new emergency COVID-19 funding bill the Biden administration requested for Health and Human Services, U.S. House leaders were considering rescinding, or “clawing back” about $7 billion in unspent American Rescue Plan Act funds from states. The money would have come from the main ARPA program for state and local aid. But after outcry from states and lawmakers, the House leadership pulled that provision from the plan.

While multiple local governments have indicated that they will apply for the state’s ARPA money, Hosemann cited Jackson as a city where the funds could make a significant difference.

“You do not have to go any further than Jackson to see what the issues are,” the lieutenant governor said.

Jackson has issues with an aged water and sewer system and federal officials have indicated water safety issues with the system.

He said Jackson had indicated it needs about $85 million from the state’s ARPA funds to deal with its water and sewer issues, though he expressed concerns about whether that would be enough. In the past city officials have said $1 billion is needed to fix the system.

READ MORE: New federal investments alone won’t fix Mississippi’s aging sewer systems

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Thomas Hudson, Jackson State University’s president, called for greater funding for historically Black colleges and universities during a congressional hearing examining violence against Black institutions, including recent bomb threats. 

In his opening remarks to the House Homeland Security Committee Thursday, Hudson said a historical underfunding of resources put Jackson State in “a reactionary position” on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, when all but one HBCU in Mississippi received bomb threats. 

“We cannot sit idly by and wait for something to happen to these hallowed spaces,” Hudson said. “We cannot afford to be reactionary.”

He asked the committee: “What will it take for us to ensure the long-term protection of not only our students, faculty, staff and stakeholders, but the historical assets that are HBCUs?” 

At Thursday’s hearing, Hudson was joined by Rev. Eric Manning from Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston and Janet Nelson, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Manning testified to the lingering trauma his church experiences almost seven years after nine parishioners were killed by a white supremacist during Bible study. Nelson underscored the role HBCUs play as safe havens for Black students and faculty and echoed Hudson’s call for greater funding and support from the federal government. 

Due to historical underfunding, Nelson pointed out that HBCUs are more tuition-dependent than their predominantly white counterparts. The bomb threats can harm the financial security of HBCUs, Nelson said, by casting “a chilling effect on the desire of students to attend these institutions.” 

Nelson also urged the House Homeland Security Committee to conduct a “parallel investigation” to the one the Federal Bureau of Investigations is pursuing. The committee is chaired by Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s only Black member of Congress and an alumnus of two HBCUs. 

Since the start of this year, at least 57 HBCUs across the country received bomb threats, all of which were unfounded. On Feb. 2, the FBI announced it was investigating the bomb threats as racially motivated hate crimes and had identified “six juveniles as persons of interest.” 

More than a month later, students, faculty, and alumni have started to call on the FBI to release more information. In a separate House committee hearing on Thursday, Ryan Young, the FBI’s executive assistant director of intelligence, said the office has “the majority slotted down to one person and a small group” but has not made any arrests. 

During the hearing, committee members asked Hudson to detail the cost of Jackson State’s security needs. 

To simply make the needed physical improvements at Jackson State, Hudson said, would cost around $10 million. That estimate doesn’t include ongoing, monthly costs to improve data storage, which Hudson said is crucial for monitoring security around campus, or training for campus police. 

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education opened applications for “short-term, immediate funding” for the HBCUs that received bomb threats. HBCUs can use the grants, which will range from $50,000 to $150,000, to “target mental health resources or enhance security to restore the learning environment on their campuses,” according to a press release. 

At most HBCUs, Hudson said the grant will help in “the training efforts you need to get you started.”

Hudson added that another way the federal government can support HBCUs is by making more grants need-based rather than competitive — that will make funding more accessible to institutions that lack “human capital” to fill out applications. 

Jackson State, Hudson said, is eager to partner with Congress and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Academic Engagement to address security on its campus.

“There’s only a finite pool of resources that are available to us,” Hudson said. “We obviously are going to prioritize our core mission which is the education, the teaching and learning of our students. … When you have a bomb threat, the ability to offer extra security, the ability to upgrade our data systems, those cost additional resources that are just often not available.” 

“We have to remain vigilant, we’re going to do what’s necessary to make sure we always protect our students, but those funding sources have to come from somewhere and often they will be at the expense of our educational endeavors,” he added. 

The post JSU president calls for more HBCU funding in testimony about bomb threats appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi State Board of Education announced Thursday that it is continuing to work through the public comments on proposed revisions to the state’s social studies standards. 

In December, the board began the process to revise Mississippi’s K-12 social studies standards and received passionate feedback on social media. 

The proposed changes removed many specific names, events, and details in state history in lieu of more broad descriptions, and people worried the state Department of Education was removing civil rights history from the standards. 

The board subsequently held a public comment hearing on Jan. 28 where officials announced that some of the proposed changes had been rolled back. The department would no longer be removing the lists from the standards based on the feedback it had already received. 

The department periodically updates the standards following feedback from teachers, with the last revision occurring in 2018. MDE officials said teachers felt some standards needed more clarity while others had excessive examples, leading to the 2021 revisions. 

At the board meeting Thursday, a report was provided summarizing the public comment hearing, which the hearing officer described as emotional and representing diverse viewpoints.

MDE said it has begun sorting the feedback into major categories, and will bring in a group of social studies teachers to help them incorporate feedback that strengthens the standards. If the changes are considered substantive, they will again be open for public comment.

The post Board of Education still mulling changes to social studies standards appeared first on Mississippi Today.

HATTIESBURG — Hunter Riggins pitched four seasons, including one shortened by COVID, at Delta State. He blew away Division II competition, winning 27 games and losing only 12 for the perennial powerhouse Statesmen.

Still, you had to wonder how Riggins would fare after entering the NCAA transfer portal and moving on to Division I Southern Miss to play his last season of eligibility.

Well, wonder no more.

In four starts for the Golden Eagles, Riggins has treated D-I competition like Little Leaguers. Numbers? He has allowed two earned runs over 26 innings. His earned run average: a miserly 0.69. He has struck out 17 batters, walked but three. His record is 3-1, but it could just as easily be perfect. The one loss came last weekend against formidable Dallas Baptist when Riggins allowed just one run and Southern Miss was shut out.

Riggins’ best performance to date was a 5-0, complete game shutout on the road against Louisiana-Lafayette. Riggins, a strapping 6-foot, 3-inch, 200-pounder, needed only 100 pitches and seemed as strong in the ninth inning as he had in the first.

You should know that none of that is a shock to Mike Kinnison, the Delta State baseball legend who recruited Riggins out of Hernando High School five years ago.

“Doesn’t surprise me at all,” Kinnison, now the Delta State athletic director, said Wednesday morning. “Hunter knows how to pitch. He’s going to use both sides of the plate. He’s going to change speeds. He’s going to throw strikes. He’s going to get people out.”

Riggins tops out at 94 mph on the radar gun but is more often around 90-92 mph. He commands four pitches: fastball, slider, curve and changeup. Often, he pitches to contact. Often, that contact is a weak ground ball or popup.

Kinnison says he sees similarities between Riggins and Jeremy McClain, another pitcher Kinnison coached back in the late 1990s and the surely best pitcher in Delta State’s remarkable baseball history. McClain, now the athletic director at Southern Miss, finished 15-0 for the Statesmen in 1999. He holds numerous Delta State career records, including innings pitched, victories and strikeouts.

“I was chasing all his records at Delta State,” Riggins said of McClain. 

There are other Delta State-to-Southern Miss baseball connections. Christian Ostrander, the Southern Miss associate head coach and pitching coach, once pitched and then coached pitchers for Kinnison at DSU. Ostrander and current Delta State coach Rodney Batts were Statesmen teammates. When Ostrander left Kinnison’s staff, Batts took his place. The two remain close friends.

So you might think there would be some hurt feelings where Riggins’ move to Southern Miss is concerned. You would be correct in one respect: Delta State surely did not want to lose Riggins. Would you? But once Riggins entered the NCAA transfer portal and was headed elsewhere, Batts and Kinnison apparently were not sad to see him land with Ostrander at Southern Miss.

Says Ostrander, “I knew all about Hunter Riggins back to his high school days. We certainly weren’t actively looking at him while he was at Delta State but once he entered the portal, well, let’s put it this way: Once you’re in the portal you are in it. We knew he was going somewhere. The first thing I did was call Rodney (Batts) and tell him we wanted to talk to Hunter and gauge his interest. Obviously, Rodney was not happy about losing him, and I understand that.

“Anyway, I called Hunter and told him we wanted to be one of the dogs in the hunt. We have a great young pitching staff but we thought we could use one more really experienced starter after losing Walker Powell and Hunter Stanley (two all-conference pitchers) last year.”

For his part, Riggins was surprised to see a Hattiesburg phone number pop up on his cell phone after he entered the portal. “I knew all the connections,” Riggins said. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from Southern Miss.”

Ostrander and Riggins set up a visit. Riggins quickly was sold on Southern Miss.

“It was nothing against Delta State,” Riggins said. “I love the place. I love the baseball culture there. I had done a lot there. I just wanted new scenery. I wanted to try something new and push myself to be better. I’ll tell you this much about Delta State. They are never going to lose. They are always going to win. It’s just the way it is and it goes back a long ways.”

The Deltans are winning now. After a slow start, Delta State has won nine of its last 10. The Statesmen are 12-6 on the season. Meanwhile, Southern Miss is 11-6 after Wednesday night’s 3-2 victory over Alabama. The Golden Eagles open conference play this weekend with a home series against tough Florida Atlantic. Riggins is scheduled to start the second game of the series on Saturday.

Says Ostrander, when asked if he is surprised by Riggins’ instant success at the D-I level, “Well, I’m not going to tell you I expected him to have a point-69 ERA, but I knew the guy could pitch. We had him this fall and he was really good against our guys. I knew he would compete. I knew he knew how to pitch. I knew he would always give us a chance to win.”

Riggins isn’t surprised with his early success either. He says he is only proving what he always believed about himself. That is, he could win at any level.

“There are really, really good players at Division II,” Riggins said. “There are guys that can play anywhere. I would say there are just not as many. Good hitters are going to hit, no matter what level they’re at. I would say when you pitch at DII, there are usually three or four – maybe even five – guys in the other team’s batting order that can hurt you if you miss on a pitch. Here, there’s seven or eight, or maybe all nine, that can hurt you.”

This isn’t the first time a DII player has transferred to Southern Miss and had success. Not that long ago, a DII All American outfielder named Jake Sandlin moved from Georgia College to Southern Miss to play with his younger brother, Nick Sandlin, now of the Major League Cleveland Indians. Jake Sandlin hit for a better average at Southern Miss than he had at Georgia College.

Riggins is now part of a Southern Miss staff that owns a cumulative earned run average of 2.59. There’s a long way to go, but that’s far, far better than last year’s staff that finished with an ERA of 3.74.

“We’re still not hitting on all cylinders,” Riggins said. “We have put it all together – hitting, pitching, fielding – in maybe two or three games. We’re going to continue to get better. The culture here is the same as it was at Delta State. We expect to win. We’re going to win.”

The post Hunter Riggins proving what he always believed about himself appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Four of the state’s larger cities – Jackson, Hattiesburg, Meridian and Greenville – are all under federal consent decrees to stop pollution from their worn down sewer and wastewater systems. 

Even though they’ve already spent tens of millions of dollars combined on those facilities in recent years, and even with historic federal infrastructure funding on the horizon, it’s likely those cities will still need more money to comply with orders from the Environmental Protection Agency. 

While a battle between the House and Senate over eliminating the income tax has held up progress, lawmakers this week are deliberating how much to spend of its allotted $1.8 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act on infrastructure repairs. 

“In communities with populations that dwindled, access to resources becomes most vital,” said Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville.

In Greenville, the population fell over 30% from 2000 to 2019, according to U.S. Census data, making loans for infrastructure upgrades less viable with the city’s shrinking tax base. Hines said it’s concerning to see “political posturing” over the income tax when there are resources ready to ease the financial burden on his constituents. 

Any amount of the Legislature’s ARPA pot can go towards infrastructure. The Senate has passed a proposal to create a grant program of $750 million for cities, counties and rural water associations.

On Wednesday, the House passed a proposed bill that would create a $400 million grant program for counties and cities to make water, wastewater and stormwater upgrades.

But even with the historic funding, some of Mississippi’s cities may still not have enough. 

“ARPA and the bipartisan infrastructure bill will both help Hattiesburg, but the problem is much bigger than what a few pieces of legislation will remedy,” said Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker, who added that cities will be forced to make tough financial decisions to raise their own revenue. 

Just as with drinking water, cities have had to shoulder a larger burden of wastewater infrastructure spending over the last few decades. Cities with smaller and poorer tax bases that can’t afford repairs are seeing the effects of underfunding, which shows up at both ends of the system. 

“We’re getting so much rainwater that infiltrates the system,” said Walter Williams, who last year retired as Belzoni’s public works director. “So it’s the water that gets in that overworks the pumps. Also, it adds to the problem of people not being able to flush their toilets.”

Aging sewer lines allow more seepage from rain and other stormwater, which can both overwork the treatment plant and block residents’ own lines. In Greenville, where the Mississippi River regularly intrudes into the city’s piping, Mayor Errick Simmons said climate change is adding to the challenge.

“When the rain’s coming and there’s holes in the collection system, people can’t flush like they’re used to,” he said. “So they have backups where the sewage is backing up into their bathtubs.”

Of course on the other side, an overworked system means sending partially treated or raw sewage straight into public bodies of water, injecting pollutants like fecal coliform, nitrogen, or E. coli into the ecosystem. 

When the pollution passes a certain threshold, the EPA steps in, forcing cities to take action or face penalties, such as fines. While the agency works with those cities’ leadership to develop long-term spending plans, the road to compliance is expensive. 

In Hattiesburg, residents saw their sewer rates go up incrementally from 2016 to 2019, and Barker said the city just last year approved another rate increase. 

Despite already spending “well over” $50 million on wastewater and sewer since 2010, the city likely needs another $40 to $50 million to finish the job, Barker said. But the funding needed in Hattiesburg, which has a population of 46,000, is still well below that of other cities.

Greenville, with a population of 31,000, needs $110 million to fully comply with a consent decree from the EPA, Simmons told Mississippi Today, after already spending $50 million that included federal loans. Jackson, the state’s largest city, may need close to $800 million, as the Clarion Ledger reported in 2019. 

In Belzoni, Williams said the price tag is around $6 million, a large burden for a city with just over 2,000 people, and where 28% fall below the poverty line. 

“You need a good amount of funds, and the city does not generate enough in taxes or sewer rates with the population we have,” he said. 

In Greenville, where the poverty rate is 37%, Simmons said funding the $110 million needed from the city alone would mean quadrupling water and sewer bill rates. The city is set to receive $6 million through ARPA, although the mayor is hopeful that the amount could double if a proposed funding match from the Senate passes. 

“It’s a huge undertaking to fix this infrastructure problem,” Simmons said. “We’ve been waiting on a comprehensive infrastructure package like this for years and ages, and now we finally got it, and we’re going to make good use of it.”

The post New federal investments alone won’t fix Mississippi’s aging sewer systems appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Far Apart appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House and Senate negotiators tentatively agreed Wednesday — pending the numbers crunch out — on a massive Mississippi teacher pay raise, one that would provide an average raise of $5,100 in the coming school year.

The proposed raise has now grown from about $210 million early in this year’s legislative session to $246 million, with Senate negotiators adding about $20 million, mostly for larger five-year pay “bumps” for experienced teachers in their counter offer to the House Wednesday. Otherwise, the Senate leaders agreed to most of the proposal the House sent them late last week, including doing the raise in one year instead of stretching it out over two.

“Let’s get this (agreement) knocked out and maybe get this passed in the next day or two,” Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar told House colleagues at a conference meeting on House Bill 530.

Rep. Kent McCarty, part of the House delegation that met with Senate leaders Wednesday, said, “We want to see this pay raise done as quickly as possible … I certainly have no issues, as far as policy, this accomplishes our mission. We will just have to look at the plan with our budget people … We will act very quickly on this and respond promptly. Let’s get this done.”

Reps. Keven Felsher and Jansen Owen also expressed optimism that a final deal is nigh after meeting with senators.

The potential deal marks rare detente between the House and Senate near the end of a legislative session dominated by a standoff between the Republican leadership of the chambers over tax cuts. The House wants to eliminate the state personal income tax. The Senate is proposing tax cuts, but says the House plan is too risky during uncertain economic times. Speaker Philip Gunn has threatened to hold up other measures and spending over the income tax issue, including spending of billions in federal pandemic stimulus spending.

READ MORE: House offers ‘compromise’ teacher pay raise, but Senate says it wasn’t in on the compromising

Education advocates have feared the teacher pay raise would get caught up in the tax standoff. Earlier in the session, the House killed the Senate pay raise bill without a vote. The Senate reluctantly passed the House bill after making changes to keep the pay raise alive.

“We believe the Legislature is working together to deliver this,” said Antonio Castanon Luna, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Educators. “We are glad they are moving quickly.” Many teachers attended the conference meeting Wednesday, and Luna said more than 100 teachers were visiting the Capitol as part of a previously planned conference.

Mississippi’s teacher pay by several metrics is the lowest in the nation, and the state has struggled to recruit and retain teachers.

The latest proposal would raise starting teacher pay to an average of $41,638, higher than both the southeastern starting average of $39,754 and the national average of $41,163.

With the Senate’s proposed changes Wednesday, teachers would receive pay increases from $1,200 to $1,300 every five years of service, depending on education and training. Senate leaders said teachers at hearings over the summer said such incentives would help retain experienced teachers.

READ MORE: House vs. Senate: How do their teacher pay plans compare?

The post An even larger teacher pay raise appears to be on track in Mississippi Legislature appeared first on Mississippi Today.

This past weekend, the Mississippi Golf Association celebrated its sport with the annual Mississippi Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at Country Club of Jackson. Jim Gallagher, Jr. and Randy Watkins, two of the inductees, join the Crooked Letter sports podcast to talk about Mississippi’s golf boom, their careers and fellow inductees Ben Nelson and Lou Weddington-Hart.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Mississippi golf celebration appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A watchdog group tasked with overseeing the state’s psychiatric facilities is suing the Department of Mental Health for withholding information – again.

Disability Rights Mississippi, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Mississippians with disabilities, filed its second lawsuit this year against the state Department of Mental Health (DMH) after the agency denied records requests related to an investigation of the treatment of individuals with mental illness in the forensic unit of Mississippi State Hospital.

The investigation was partially inspired by Raffell Franklin who was charged with first-degree murder in April 2017. Franklin has been in the Jasper County Jail for three years despite being found incompetent to stand trial by doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital in 2019.

DRMS initiated an investigation into the treatment of Franklin after receiving a call from Franklin’s family and other civil rights organizations. After receiving Franklin’s medical records, the advocacy group sought to investigate how patients similar to Franklin are treated in the state hospital’s forensic unit. The unit serves patients who have been diverted from correctional settings, typically due to a mental illness that renders them unfit for trial. 

The advocacy group additionally requested waiting lists for individuals needing evaluation or services from the hospital’s forensic unit, as well as records from South Mississippi Regional Center after being contacted by an anonymous whistleblower who alleged there was potential abuse and neglect at the facility. 

The agency denied both requests. 

“Ensuring people with disabilities are protected from abuse and neglect is our mission, always,” Polly Tribble, executive director of Disability Rights Mississippi, said in a press release. “We would hope that would be DMH’s same goal. Why they have chosen, yet again, to deny vulnerable Mississippians access to meaningful and effective protection and advocacy remains a mystery.”

DMH declined to comment and referred Mississippi Today to the attorney general’s office. The attorney general’s office also declined, saying they do not comment on active cases.

The agency’s attorneys are using similar arguments used to deny the requests at the center of the initial lawsuit. In regards to the request for a list of MSH patients who have pled “not guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect,” the mental health agency is arguing that Disability Rights of Mississippi hasn’t shown it has enough evidence to warrant an investigation.

DMH also says since the list of individuals waiting to be evaluated or admitted to the state hospital are not under the direct care of the hospital at this time, the watchdog group has no basis for investigating it. 

“Once again, DMH has deemed itself the judge and jury on the determination of probable cause, which is not the case,” the lawsuit reads. 

The U.S. Department of Justice pointed out in an amicus brief filing in the first lawsuit that protection and advocacy groups like Disability Rights of Mississippi have the authority to make probable cause determinations, and they do not have to justify them with specific evidence.

“The applicable regulations also do not require that any specific type of evidence support the (protection and advocacy system’s) probable cause determination,” the amicus brief reads.

Disability Rights of Mississippi maintains that the state mental health agency is continuing to violate federal law in denying its request and is preventing the oversight group from doing its job.

“This goes far beyond paperwork and records,” Tribble said. “It is about the fact that, in denying access and in refusing to be transparent, DMH is interfering with (our) ability to carry out our federal mandate to protect people with disabilities in Mississippi.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, which originally sued the state over its lack of community-based services for people with mental illness in 2016, sided with the watchdog group on the issue. 

Attorneys for the federal government filed an amicus brief, in which a non-party in the case with expertise on the issue weighs in with a legal filing.

The Department of Justice argues in the brief that the federal laws that give state protection and advocacy (P&A) systems like Disability Rights of Mississippi their power grant them broad authority to investigate abuse or neglect. 

“Access to this limited set of records is entirely consistent with DRMS’ broad investigative authority and statutory mandate to ensure that individuals with mental illness or disabilities are not abused or neglected,” the brief reads.

U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves will soon weigh in on whether the state agency must release the records.

The post Watchdog group again sues mental health agency appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Senate passed a new tax cut bill Tuesday, the day after the House passed its newest version of a bill to eliminate the state income tax.

Both Republican-led chambers billed their changes this week as compromise. But the two are not openly negotiating and appear to mainly be communicating through press conferences hyping their own plans and criticizing the other’s and sending dueling bills back and forth.

The two chambers remain far apart on tax cuts as the 2022 legislative session enters its final three weeks. The impasse threatens to hinder setting a budget, spending billions of federal pandemic stimulus and other work. It also raises the specter of an extended or special session into the summer.

Republican Speaker Philip Gunn and his House leadership are set on eliminating, not just cutting, personal income taxes. But Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and his Senate leadership believe that’s too risky and propose smaller tax cuts, rebates and suspension instead. House leaders say the Senate plan is a half measure. Senate leaders say the House is being foolhardy trying to eliminate one-third of state revenue during uncertain economic times.

After a public speech at the Capitol on Tuesday, Gunn — flanked by dozens of House members — called for Hosemann and Senate leaders to “get into a room and talk with us about this” to come up with a deal. But Gunn also made clear he’s dug-in on “elimination of the income tax, without further legislative action required, and as quickly as possible.”

Gunn also called for Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who is currently out of state, to throw his full support behind the House plan. “(Reeves) has said he supports eliminating the income tax, and this is the only measure to do that,” Gunn said.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime, ladies and gentlemen,” Gunn said in his Capitol speech. “… This is the opportunity to do something right now that we will never have again in our lifetimes.”

READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Great Mississippi Tax Cut Battle of 2022

But Senate leaders have countered that there should be plenty of opportunities down the road to cut or eliminate taxes — depending on what the economy does.

“This is very fragile right now, and we are at risk — with Ukraine, inflation …” Hosemann said.

On Monday, Hosemann held a press conference where he announced a proposal to suspend the state’s 18.4-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax for six months and expansion of the Senate’s income tax cuts, but not elimination.

“We need both meaningful and sustainable tax reform,” Hosemann said.

While some Democrats in both chambers are voting for the tax cut bills, others question whether tax cuts are in order for a state with so many needs in roads, water and sewerage and education.

“It just seems like we’re stumbling backwards into the future, trying to impress somebody with tax cuts, when we need to be doing so many other things,” said Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood.

READ MORE: Tax cut battle continues: Hosemann wants to pause gas tax, House overhauls its plan

Here are highlights of the House and Senate’s latest proposals on taxes. To see earlier iterations of the plans, click here.

The House tax plan

• Eliminate the state personal income tax, through exemptions, over years. It would start with exempting $25,000 in income for individuals, $50,000 for married couples — down from its previous proposal of first-year exemptions of $40,000 and $80,000 respectively. The first year the plan would cut about $700 million from the state budget, eventually increasing to about $1.5 billion.

• Phasing out the rest of the income tax using a “growth trigger” of 1.6% a year. This means state revenue over 1.6% growth would be used to buy down the income tax. This buy-down would be capped at $150 million a year, meaning money collected over that amount would stay in the state budget. Previously, the House growth trigger was at 1.5% with no cap. The latest proposal would take about 15 years to eliminate the income tax, up from about 10 years in its previous proposal.

• No sales tax increase. The House has since last year pushed for sales tax increases to go along with its income tax elimination. But this week it dropped that part of its proposal.

• Reducing the grocery tax more slowly, from 7% to 4% at a quarter point a year.

• No car tag reduction. The House had proposed cutting car tag fees in half, using state funds to subsidize local governments who levy most of the fees on car tags. House leaders said the Senate opposed this, so they dropped it, despite it being popular with constituents.

• Setting aside $500 million in state funds to cover any budget shortfalls “out of an abundance of caution” and to allay Senate concerns that the House plan would sink the budget.

The Senate tax plan

• Reduction of the state’s top, 5% tax bracket to 4.6% over four years, then elimination of the lower 4% tax bracket over the next four years after that. Originally, the Senate had proposed only the phase out of the 4% bracket. The new, eight-year Senate tax plan would cost about $439 million a year when totally implemented.
• Suspending the state’s 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax for six months, using about $215 million in tax dollars on hand to reimburse the Mississippi Department of Transportation, which uses the gas tax for roads, bridges, and matching federal dollars. House leaders said Mississippians would probably barely notice such a break with gas prices currently so high.
• Reduction of the state grocery tax from 7% to 5%, starting in July.
• Up to a 5%, one-time income tax rebate in 2022 for those who paid taxes. The rebates would range from $100 to $1,000, for a one-time coast of about $130 million.

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