Fixing the state’s broken ballot initiative process will likely not be part of any special session to be called by Gov. Tate Reeves in the coming days.
Chairs of both the House and Senate Constitution committees said they would prefer to take up the issue of reinstating the initiative process in January when the new session begins. Reeves is expected to call a special session to allow the Legislature to address legalizing medical marijuana.
In November 2020, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative legalizing medical marijuana. But in May 2021, the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional both the medical marijuana vote and the state’s entire initiative process.
Ballot initiatives, added to the state Constitution in the early 1990s, are voter-led efforts to put issues directly on a statewide ballot rather than wait for lawmakers or other state leaders to adopt policy themselves. The initiative process, which requires gathering tens of thousands of signatures and voter approval before a policy can be enacted, is widely viewed a cornerstone of democratic government.
After the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, voters of many political backgrounds erupted in anger. Mississippians broadly called for a special session for the Legislature to both enact a medical marijuana law and reinstate the initiative process.
House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, was vocal in advocating for the governor to call a special session to fix the initiative process that was ruled unconstitutional in the controversial decision by the state Supreme Court.
But while legislators have worked to reach a consensus on a medical marijuana proposal in advance of the governor calling a special session, efforts to fix the initiative in special session have lost steam.
When Gunn recently spoke of items he would like to see on a special session agenda, he listed medical marijuana and some COVID-19-related items but said nothing about adding an initiative fix.
“Originally the speaker was open to knocking that out with medical marijuana,” said House Constitution Committee Chair Fred Shanks, R-Brandon. “We were ready to go on the House side. But there has not been much talk of it lately. But we will take care of it ( the initiative process) during the regular session.”
Shanks’ counterpart in the Senate, Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg, offered similar comments.
“We spent a lot of time working on the marijuana bill, but I think we need to put time into working on the ballot initiative process before we take it up,” said Johnson, the Senate Constitution Committee chairman. “There’s no benefit to doing it before session as it has to go on the ballot in November 2022.”
Any fix to the initiative process adopted by the Legislature would have to gain the approval of the voters. But there is no provision mandating that the voter approval would have to occur during a November general election. Legislators could schedule a special election for any date, though the election cost would be much lower if the vote on the initiative fix was part of an already scheduled election. Secretary of State Michael Watson has estimated that costs of a special election of between $1 million and $1.5 million.
The initiative process was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because of language saying in order to place a proposal on the ballot a specific number of signatures had to be gathered from five congressional districts. The state lost a congressional seat in 2000 and now only has four, rendering both the medical marijuana initiative that relied on the five-district language and the entire initiative process invalid, the Supreme Court ruled.
Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said he would prefer not to wait until the regular session to deal with the initiative fix.
“I would prefer to see it in the special session along with some other things,” he said. “We keep hearing they are limiting it to medical marijuana. I don’t think that is a good idea, but I am not part of leadership.”
Rep. Robert Johnson, the House Democratic leader, said multiple items should be considered, such as COVID-19 “hazard pay” not only for health care workers but grocery store clerks and others who “had to come to work every day” to ensure a functioning society.
Johnson also said the initiative process should be reinstated as soon as possible to allow people to gather signatures to bypass the Legislature to place issues on the ballot, such as expanding health care to provide coverage for the working poor with the federal government paying most of the costs. Various high profile groups such as the Mississippi Hospital Association had started work on a Medicaid expansion initiative when the Supreme Court invalidated the initiative process.
“We should do medical marijuana, but I don’t understand why we are not talking about other serious issues,” Johnson said.
Mississippi laid out an argument before the U.S. Supreme Court last week that could impact water law principles around the globe.
The state is seeking over $600 million in damages from neighboring Tennessee over what it sees as stolen groundwater. Since 1985, Mississippi claims, a Memphis public utility has pumped enough water from an interstate aquifer to force water from Mississippi’s side of the border into Tennessee.
The nation’s highest court has ruled on a number of disputes dealing with surface water in the past, such as two states fighting over use of the same river, but this is the first case to focus entirely on groundwater.
Law and water resource experts explained to Mississippi Today why the Supreme Court’s ruling could have wide-reaching effects.
First, the supply of groundwater in the world dwarfs that of surface water, which is already becoming less reliable due to climate change; about three-quarters of Mississippi’s water comes from groundwater.
Second, very few places around the world that share aquifers have any agreement over how to divide the resource.
“People, communities, countries are going to have to go to groundwater to meet their water needs, and they’ll eventually be pumping from the same aquifers on different sides of the border,” said Gabriel Eckstein, a professor and director of the Energy, Environmental, and Natural Resource Systems Law Program at Texas A&M University.
This case, he explained, will help inform places across the world on how to share groundwater.
“Well do I sue my neighbor, do I enter into a treaty with them, or do I ignore them?” Eckstein said.
For the most part, bordering states and countries have chosen the latter option. With this case, Mississippi is hoping to set a new precedent by staking ownership in the water under its land.
Physically, the evidence backs Mississippi’s claim, explained Robert Mace, a professor at Texas State University with a Ph.D. in hydrogeology.
“Tennessee’s pumping creates what we call a cone of depression, and that cone of depression reaches out across the state line,” Mace said. “The data clearly shows that the human intervention of (Tennessee’s) well field has impacted the groundwater flow in the aquifer and is pulling water from Mississippi into Tennessee.”
Conceptually, however, it’s unclear what the legal grounds are for Mississippi’s claims, as the justices expressed during last week’s oral arguments.
In past interstate water disputes, the Supreme Court has leaned on “equitable apportionment,” a set of principles that determine a fair allotment of water based on factors such as how many people need the water, what it’s needed for, conservation, climate, among others.
Tennessee, the special master — an outside expert the court appoints for highly technical cases — and the assistant to the solicitor general all argued that equitable apportionment should apply to this case as well.
But Mississippi chose to forgo that route for the time being, instead claiming ownership over the water that has flowed underneath Tennessee, an argument that the justices and other legal experts struggle with.
The justices, expressing confusion, made several analogies during the oral arguments to wrap their heads around the issue: If a pack of wild horses ran from one state to another, which state owns the horses? If a plane in the sky forced fog across a state boundary, could one state claim damages from the loss of its fog?
“The bottom line is that water flows,” said Buzz Thompson, a professor at Stanford University who served as Special Master for Montana v. Wyoming, a Supreme Court interstate water case from 2018. “It’s hard to say that you have a right to keep a molecule of water that’s underneath your state from flowing over under another state, unless you tell that state that they can’t pump.
“It’s hard to find very many legal experts outside of Mississippi that would say this is a reasonable and responsible way of resolving these types of disputes.”
Several states, led by Colorado, the International Law Committee in New York City, and various law professors from around the country all filed briefs against Mississippi, citing equitable apportionment as a reasonable solution.
A ruling in Mississippi’s favor would make it difficult to equitably divide groundwater in the future, Eckstein said.
“States will say, ‘This is how much we have, this is how much you have, I’m sorry you have just a small section of the aquifer, too bad. If you want, we’ll sell you some,’” he said. “It’s not an equity issue anymore, it becomes an ownership and market issue.”
As state leaders grapple with workforce issues, young people fleeing the state, and ways for Mississippi to compete in the modern economy, they should remember the colloquial definition of insanity: continuing to do the same things while expecting different results.
One of those is the continuing, long-running failure of state lawmakers to address Mississippi’s high gender pay gap. Mississippi is now the only state in the nation without an equal pay law, after Alabama passed one in 2019. Quick tip: History shows that any time Mississippi is the only state doing something, or the last state to do something, that policy bears close scrutiny.
Recent studies show women make up 51.5% of the population in Mississippi and nearly half of its workforce. They are the primary breadwinners for a majority — 53.5% — of families in this state, which is the highest rate in the nation.
But women working full time in Mississippi earn 27% less than men, far greater than the 19% gap nationwide. That gap grows worse for Black and Latina women in Mississippi, who are paid just 54 cents for every dollar paid to white men.
Women make up nearly 60% of those in Mississippi’s workforce living below the poverty line. The state has continually ranked worst or near-worst in most every ranking for working women.
Lawmakers on the Senate Labor Committee heard these and other similar statistics and issues last week. Labor Chairman Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, is vowing to push again for equal pay legislation next year. The move is backed by the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, Attorney General Lynn Fitch (the only female statewide elected leader in state government) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers that has been growing in recent years.
But it will likely again be (quietly) opposed by business interests and ultimately decided by a Legislature that is only about 16% female, and remains much whiter and more male than the state of Mississippi at large.
Over decades, legislative efforts to pass an equal pay law have been quietly snuffed out in committee, typically without a vote and typically without much public discussion by opponents.
But it would appear the efforts to pass an equal pay law have grown stronger in recent years.
In 2017, there was a bipartisan effort with then-Treasurer Fitch; Republican lawmakers including Reps. Becky Currie, Carolyn Crawford and then-Sen. Sally Doty; and Democrats, including then-House Minority Leader David Baria, Reps. Sonya Williams-Barnes, Alyce Clarke, Bryant Clark and then-Sen. Tammy Witherspoon. It failed, but garnered more attention and public debate than the issue had in recent years.
In 2018, with a strong bipartisan vote of 106-10, the House passed on to the Senate a bill (to prevent local governments from establishing minimum wages) that was amended to include an equal pay provision. Many Republicans who initially voted no changed their votes to yes for posterity — and likely because they would have to face their mothers, wives and daughters. But the Senate, led by then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, let the measure die in committee without a vote.
When pressed, opponents’ stated rationale has been that there are already federal equal pay laws, and that they don’t want to put undue regulations on businesses or cause a bunch of unwarranted lawsuits.
But the numbers for working women in Mississippi would indicate that A: The federal laws are not working, and B: Many wage lawsuits would be warranted here.
And then there’s C: Mississippi is not succeeding in matters of jobs and wage growth, economic development, population growth (it’s declining), reducing poverty … you name it.
Maybe 2022 will be the year Mississippi’s lawmakers join the rest of the country in opposing unequal pay for women, and realize that failing to do so is the definition of insanity.
Mississippi Today journalists Adam Ganucheau and Geoff Pender discuss how Mississippi is behind many other states in determining how to spend billions in federal coronavirus-related stimulus funds.
Adam Ganucheau: Welcome to The Other Side, Mississippi Today’s political podcast. I’m your host, Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side let you hear directly from the most connected players and observers across the spectrum of politics in Mississippi. As you can probably tell, I am on the phone, on the road today, but wanted to have a good conversation today with my colleague Geoff Pender. Geoff, thanks for being here today.
You know, we were talking about, you know, what the big of this last week was, and you’ve done a lot of writing, not just in the past few days, but really the past few weeks about the unprecedented amount of federal funding the state is going to receive or has received through the federal stimulus packages that Congress have approved. Geoff, I guess, to kick us off sort of how much money we’re actually talking about here. And then I want to talk to you about where the hell state leaders actually are on spending this money or planning to spend this money.
Geoff Pender: Sure, sure. Well, mostly what we’ve been focused on recently is the American Rescue Plan Act. Depending on how you tally it, the state’s going to receive an excess of $6 billion, but a lot of what’s been keyed on is the Legislature’s going to receive about $1.8 billion. Local governments are going to receive directly a total approaching a billion, over 900 million. And then some other agencies are going to get direct money. For instance, human services is going to get an excess of $500 million directly for one example. And as far as where we are, where the state is and spending that money, well, we haven’t really started planning even for this. One thing we pointed out in recent weeks is that Mississippi appears to be pretty far behind most other states. I think the last check I did on it there were at least 32 states that had basically begun spending ARPA funds and then others coming out with plans. I think Alabama within just recent days has announced they’re going to spend a big chunk to try and resolve their prison crisis, but no. Mississippi leaders as far as the ARPA funds, Legislature and the governor appear to be kind of sitting back and waiting to figure out how to spend the money.
Adam Ganucheau: That’s really interesting. You know, what is the timeline, the timeframe in which they have to spend this money? I know that when the CARES Act, way back last year— it seems like a lifetime ago— was passed by Congress, there was a pretty tight deadline on states to spend that first big pot of federal money.
We’re not talking about that pot of money obviously anymore. To your point, we’re talking about the American Rescue Act or American Rescue Plan rather. What is the timeframe in which state leaders have to spend this money?
Geoff Pender: For the bulk of the money, it’s got a deadline of December 31, 2024, for allocating it.
And a December 31,2026, deadline for actually spending it. That sounds like a long way off. That sounds like a long time, but one thing that should be noted in this even with those deadlines, I mean, it takes some doing. It takes some planning. It takes setting up some infrastructure so to speak to spend billions of dollars, especially billions of federal dollars. If you’re going to do it A, in the best way that’s going to help the state in the best way with some forethought and planning and B, if you’re going to do it properly where the feds don’t show up a year or two later and say, “You misspent this. Pay it back.”
Those are two key issues. And again, you know, a lot of people may not realize, like I said, just the mechanics of spending this amount of money. You know, that’s a big task. We don’t have thousands of extra accountants across all these agencies who can, you know, drop everything else they’re doing and figure this out.
So, you know, it would appear to be, you know, kind of key that the state leaders kind of get on the ball and start trying to get together on how best to spend this money.
Adam Ganucheau: Sure. I think setting it up this way, framing it, thinking about it this way is important. This has never happened before.
I mean, Mississippi, which is the poorest state in the nation by many different rationales and data sets has a lot of problems. We’ve had a lot of problems over the years, you know, funding basic government services. We’ve had more problems, you know, sort of launching new initiatives that are desperately needed, that many other states are doing.
And this is just a critical time. And I think everyone knows that and agrees with that. But, you know, seeing the general lack of action or planning or proposals on this in Mississippi is really just telling, Geoff, especially as you’ve reported it. And I think you mentioned sort of a second ago, relative to other states, Mississippi really does seem to be behind the ball in dealing with and handling this sort of golden once in a lifetime opportunity.
Geoff Pender: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one thing I try to keep in mind, I mean, this is labeled more or less as stimulus. We’re in uncertain economic times. Don’t know what the next, you know, six months, even is going to provide for.
So stimulus money typically I guess there’s also sometimes a desire to get it out there and get to stimulating. Anyway, one thing you mentioned a second ago, too, it’s not like Mississippi doesn’t have a lot of issues or problems or areas that this money could help. We have tons of them.
And again, that, you know, might make the task more difficult and time consuming figuring out how to prioritize things. And another thing on this, the longer time drags on, I mean, certainly I’m sure the Legislature could get together and spend some of this very quickly. Is that a good thing? The more time drags on, does this mean citizens and communities and community groups are they going to have any input on how this is spent? You know, probably the longer things drag on, the less inputs you would see from you know, rank and file Mississippians on how this gets spent. Other states have actually done things along those lines, created task force, brought in, you know, community groups and leaders and everything else.
So you know, again the longer this drags on, the more troublesome that might be.
Adam Ganucheau: Huge chunks of this money, you know, as you said, I mean, it’s a stimulus. It’s because we are experiencing a time of economic hardship and, you know, what that looks like for real Mississippians is often unfathomable. And we have done plenty of reporting of some of those stories over the last few months during the pandemic. You know, you think about that and you contrast it with knowing that Mississippi state government has long struggled, long struggled with getting money into the people’s hands who need it most.
You know, our charge as journalists, I think our charge is Mississippi and it’s not even just journalists should very much be in the coming weeks and months watching closely how our government leaders from the state level on down to the local level are going to be spending this money and whether or not that money will be reaching the right people. You know, Geoff, I know that last week on this podcast, you and our colleague Anna Wolfe interviewed some people about one program in particular, a childcare program for working people in Mississippi and now that program during the pandemic, especially, has ultimately failed and how there’s all this federal money that could fix it.
You know, that’s such a huge example, big example of what we’re talking about here, how people are struggling because of what has happened over the last 18 is coming up on 20, 22 months since the pandemic started. Times are tough, and it’s going to be interesting to follow this money.
Geoff Pender: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. That money you mentioned is part of another pot or staunch of this money, over $500 million that’s coming directly to DHS that earmarked for essentially workforce childcare, which is a huge need here. And again, we appear to be behind many, if not most, other states in that really, at least publicly, no one’s announced any kind of plan, the governor DHS on exactly how that could be spent, and you know, one would think that kind of money could really help a program like that. It’s sorely needed.
Adam Ganucheau: Sure. Sure. Well, Geoff, as always, I appreciate sort of your work and all of these regards, but in following this money and, you know, holding state leaders, local leaders holding their feet to the fire and as they determine how to spend this money, we’ll see what happens.
You know, we’d love to see some action on this sooner rather than later, but so far it’s been largely crickets.
Geoff Pender: We should note, as far as state leaders go, one at least, Delbert Hosemann has actually pitched kind of at least a general plan for potentially a large amount of this money. He proposes taking the Legislature’s $1.8 billion and setting up some kind of matching program for the cities and counties to come up with a project, take whatever money they’re getting from this, come up with a project and apply to the state for matching money. His thought on that is cities and counties could do bigger, more transformative projects that way. And he’s gone across the state and met with local leaders. I think they were fairly open to the idea.
But beyond that, no one else appears to be on board with Hosemann’s plan. And again, the Legislature as a whole hasn’t even held committee meetings on this.
Adam Ganucheau: Sure. Sure. Well, very, very interesting times for sure. Geoff, thanks as always for being here and helping us understand it better. And thanks for all your coverage of it. We’ll be following along closely. Thanks for being here.
As we cover the biggest political stories in this state, you don’t want to miss an episode of The Other Side. We’ll bring you more reporting from every corner of the state, sharing the voices of Mississippians and how they’re impacted by the news. So, what do we need from you, the listener? We need your feedback and support.
If you listen to the podcast on a player like iTunes or Stitcher, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. We also have an email in which you can share your feedback. That address is Podcast@MississippiToday.org. Y’all can also reach out to me or any of my colleagues through social media or email. And as always thank you for your feedback and support.
Subscribe to our weekly podcast on your favorite podcast app or stream episodes online at MississippiToday.org/the-other-side. For the Mississippi Today team, I’m Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side is produced by Mississippi Today and engineered by Blue Sky Studios. We hope you’ll join us for our next episode.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Sandra Shelson, head of The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi. Shelson, who grew up in Jackson, began her career as a lawyer but transitioned from traditional law to prevention efforts to help kids.
The Partnership has been a national leader in tobacco prevention since its inception in 1998, developing interactive educational and training programs for youth and adults that focus on long-term behavioral and cultural change. Twenty years after the settlement, tobacco prevalence among middle and high school students has dropped significantly. Lessons learned from tobacco prevention are now being applied to the childhood obesity epidemic in Mississippi, as they continue to work with their partners to improve health outcomes for all Mississippians.
Federal funds comprised 44% of the total state budget in fiscal year 2020 – the last not impacted by COVID-19. For the current 2022 fiscal year, 47.2% of the total funds appropriated by the Mississippi Legislature came from Uncle Sam.
For the current fiscal year, the state has a state-support budget of $6.7 billion and an overall budget of $23.3 billion. The state-support budget refers to the agencies that are funded through general taxes, such as on retail items and on income, and on a few other items. The overall $23.25 billion budget consists of those aforementioned state-support items, and other items, such as the massive amount of federal funds directed to the state for the Mississippi Legislature to appropriate.
But wait, there’s more. The budget also consists of so-called special funds. In short, there are more layers to the state budget than there are to the attire of an Ivy League English professor on a winter’s day.
An argument can be made that perhaps those layers are not that important. But for those who believe in the importance of transparency or of having more than a casual understanding of government, this primer will continue.
While legislators will not return for regular session until January, work on developing a budget for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, already has started. Before the session begins, both leaders who make up Legislative Budget Committee and Gov. Tate Reeves will offer budget proposals that can be considered by the Legislature when it convenes in January.
The part of the state budget that will receive the most attention and where the Legislature has the most discretion in appropriating funds is the so-called state-support budget.
For the current year, this budget consists of $5.8 billion in general funds and another $881 million in other state-support funds. The general fund revenue is derived primarily from taxes on income and retail items. The two categories account for about 84% of the general fund revenue used to fund such items as education, including the salaries for most teachers, state law enforcement, the state share for Medicaid, higher education and many other services.
Other revenue included in the $5.8 billion general fund are the so-called sin taxes. Casino gambling tax revenue makes up 2% of the total general funds. Taxes on tobacco, liquor, beer and wine make up a combined 4.5% of the total.
The tax on insurance premiums accounts for a surprising 5.6% of the total general fund.
Another about $880 million is added to the general fund to make the state-support budget. That $880 million includes an additional 1-cent sales tax increase enacted in 1992 for education giving the state a total sales tax of 7%. Another large source of state-support funding is the about $100 million Mississippi receives annually from the 1990s settlement of a lawsuit filed by then-Attorney General Mike Moore to recoup government funds spent treating smoking-related illnesses.
Mississippi received about $11 billion in federal funds for the current year for the state Legislature to appropriate to multiple agencies. This includes federal funds appropriated to pay the cost of Medicaid, for the Department of Health, for education programs, for various social welfare programs and for multiple others. The Legislature is limited in how the federal funds can be spent and often state matching funds are required to draw down the federal dollars.
The federal dollars are higher this year because of COVID-19. But as stated earlier, federal funds consistently account for about 45% of total state spending.
The remainder of the budget consists of special funds. These are taxes and fees levied to fund specific agencies. The largest of these special fund agencies is the Department of Transportation that is funded primarily — at least the state’s part — from the 18.4 cents per gallon tax on motor fuel. There are many smaller special fund agencies, such as the Board of Accountancy that is funded through a fee on — guess who? Multiple other professions also pay a fee to operate their regulatory boards.
Laws are in place to direct those special taxes and fees to the agencies they support so the Legislature has little discretion in how those funds are spent. But during economic hard times when state general funds decline, legislators have been known to change those laws to take money from those special funds to help make up for shortfalls in the general fund agencies. Legislators can change the laws to do that. After all, they do make the laws.
There are multiple other nuances that make up the budget for the state. But that is an advanced level budgeting that many legislators do not even understand.
People aged 65 years and older and residents in long-term care settings
People aged 18-64 years with certain underlying medical conditions
People aged 18-64 years who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional settings
Currently, 76,222 third or booster doses have been administered. At this time, the Mississippi Department of Health does not separately report the number of booster shots given. And there is an important difference between what is considered a ‘third dose’ versus a ‘booster.’
Third doses can be either Pfizer or Moderna and are necessary for people with immunocompromised conditions to be considered fully vaccinated.
If you are a journalist with a deep curiosity about how the justice system really works in Mississippi — from policing to prisons, from civil liberties to courts — you might be the reporter Mississippi Today seeks to create a statewide justice beat.
Mississippi Today’s justice reporter will produce both longform and daily news stories. We expect this person to explore the ways the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the justice system: Delayed trials, cancelled visitations, outbreaks and vaccine availability are just a few issues facing the state right now. The justice beat encompasses more than the state’s jails and prisons — this reporter will also cover inequities in the criminal justice system and explore possible solutions and barriers that impede progress.
The justice reporter will produce stories that support Mississippi Today’s vision and mission, which is to hold elected officials accountable and inform citizens about how the policy and decisions implemented by the state’s powerful affect their lives.
This position will be based in Mississippi. Mississippi Today staff are currently working remotely, but in-person meetings are possible and the office may reopen this fall. The deadline to apply is Nov. 1 at midnight CST.
Expectations:
Report and write longform and short stories and multimedia presentations about Mississippi legal issues, including legislation, criminal and civil cases, civil liberties, and trends.
Investigate Mississippi’s justice system, with an eye for racial justice and inequity.
Closely cover the Mississippi Department of Corrections, building relationships with MDOC staff, justice reform advocates and individuals affected by MDOC systems.
Report regularly on the pandemic’s impact on Mississippi’s jails and prisons.
Use a solutions lens to explore grassroots efforts and state programs that are working to improve the lives of those touched by the justice system.
Develop sources and report in diverse communities, including urban and rural, and engage members of the public in identifying breakdowns in the criminal justice system.
Proven ability to work independently under deadline pressures.
Collaborate with the Audience Team to think creatively about formats and tools for communicating justice topics to a broad, statewide audience.
Collaborate with colleagues on stories and projects — while there will be plenty of opportunities for solo stories, Mississippi Today is a collaborative newsroom that often shares bylines.
Work with the Mississippi Today politics team to cover how prominent criminal justice issues influence key statewide elections, and cover discussions about criminal justice reform at the state Capitol.
Help cultivate collegial and productive relationships with other news organizations, with a goal of co-publishing and broadcast partnerships.
It is a plus if you have:
Experience covering legal/justice issues, with an understanding of how the court system works and how legislation advances.
Experience with filing records requests and working with data is encouraged but not required.
What you’ll get:
The opportunity to work alongside award-winning journalists and make significant contributions to Mississippi’s only fully staffed, nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news and information source.
Competitive salary with medical insurance, and options for vision and dental insurance.
Cell phone stipend.
29 days paid time off.
Up to 12 weeks of parental family leave, with return-to-work flexibility.
Simple IRA with 3% company matching. Group-term life insurance provided to employees ($15,000 policy).
Support for professional training and attending industry conferences.
How to Apply:
The deadline to apply is Monday, Nov. 1 at midnight CST. Fill out an application at this link.
We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled.
