This photo gallery is part of our new initiative, MT Listens. Learn more about the project here or be part of it by taking our survey.
Take a virtual stroll through Canton, a historic Mississippi community with about 12,000 residents, through the lens of Mississippi Today photojournalist Vickie King.
Canton is just one of five communities our newsroom is focusing on for our community listening project, MT Listens. The others are Yazoo City, Forest, Moss Point and New Albany.
Photo Captions:
The historic Madison County Courthouse in Canton is located in the heart of downtown on the Square.
The Canton Train Depot was constructed in 1890 and additional buildings were constructed in the 1920s. The depot was operational until the early 90s under management by the Illinois Central Railroad Company. It was purchased by the Canton Redevelopment Authority and renovated into a museum where visitors can learn about the history of how trains affected the the city and the county.
Photo Captions:
Views of downtown Canton and the Willie Morris-My Dog Skip Museum, a landmark featuredin movies, such as A Time to Kill and My Dog Skip.
“I’d really love to see this area come back. This was the happening area back in the day. There were all kinds of businesses and a movie theater.”
Dorothy Kelly, 70. Kelly is the owner of T&D North Hickory Sandwich Shop, home of “The Hollowburger.” The restaurant is one of the last vestiges of a once thriving African American community in Canton called The Hollow.
Photo Captions:
A mural and park honoring the historic district, The Hollow, a once-thriving African American community centered around Hickory Street.
“People moved away, especially our young people. So those businesses left by their parents eventually closed. This area used to be the area where Black folk prospered. I’d really love to see it be that way again.”
Dorothy Kelly
Photo Captions:
Old high school renovated into stylish apartments in Canton
Grace Episcopal Church in Canton. The church was built of wood instead of brick in 1853 and is an example of antebellum Gothic Revival. It is the oldest church structure in Canton.
The Nissan Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant opened in Canton in 2003, bringing vehicle manufacturing to the state for the first time.
Be part of the project.
If you live in Canton, Yazoo City, Forest, Moss Point or New Albany, please take a minute to fill out the below survey, or share it with someone you know.
The fate of the Holmes County Consolidated School District now rests in the hands of Gov. Tate Reeves.
The State Board of Education voted unanimously on Tuesday to request that Reeves immediately declare a state of extreme emergency in the district which would place it under state control. The current school superintendent would be replaced and the local school board would be abolished. The state board would serve in its place.
The State Board of Education also recommended Jennifer Wilson, the former superintendent of Greenwood School District, serve as interim superintendent for the district should a state of emergency be declared.
The results of a nearly 400-page audit conducted by the Mississippi Department of Education include allegations of a dysfunctional school board and administration, improper spending, inaccurate record keeping and unlicensed teachers in the classroom.
The audit, which took place over the course of three months, also repeatedly refers to a lack of accurate data provided by the district, making it impossible to assess some standards or to determine the degree to which the district was noncompliant in others.
State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright spoke only once during the board’s five-hour-long meeting on Tuesday to clarify how the department came to this point.
“When audits are complete and we then sit down and look at the findings, we have a choice at that time. We can either make a recommendation to withdraw or reduce their accreditation status … but we can also look at data and say, ‘No, actually we really do believe a state of emergency exists,’” she explained. “… That is an option we take, a discussion that we have prior to making any type of recommendation.”
District officials like the newly appointed superintendent Debra Powell and Board President Louise Winters argued that the district was already working to correct the problems it had.
“We are not who that audit says we are. Not today,” Powell told the board. “We are doing things differently.”
But she did not manage to convince the department of this.
Board member Karen Elam asked Paula Vanderford, the department’s chief accountability officer, whether she saw different practices and policies under the new superintendent.
“Many of the reports indicate the practices that existed prior to this administration still exist,” replied Vanderford.
A declaration of a state of emergency in the district would mean the district’s accreditation could be withdrawn; an interim superintendent would be appointed and remain there until the district reaches a grade of C or higher for five years; the local school board would be temporarily disbanded; and the interim superintendent would work with district staff to correct all accreditation violations and raise student achievement.
If such a declaration occurs, officials from the Mississippi Department of Education will meet with administration, faculty and staff from the district, then with parents and community leaders during a series of evening meetings.
The board’s request for a proclamation expires Aug. 17.
Of the 2,400 Mississippians who died of COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and July 22 of this year, only 37 were fully vaccinated, according to data obtained from the Mississippi State Department of Health.
That means 98.4% of the people who died from COVID-19 during that period were unvaccinated, while 1.6% were vaccinated people who experienced breakthrough infections. All 37 of the breakthrough deaths were from high-risk patients aged 65 or older.
MSDH reported 4,991 new COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths on Monday, further documenting the hold the virus’ Delta variant has on the state.
As scientists continue to collect data on the newest variant that is spreading rapidly, medical experts continue to reiterate that vaccination remains the best protection against contracting the Delta variant. The nation’s leading medical researchers agree that vaccines are nearly as effective against the Delta variant as the original strain, greatly minimizing the chance of infection and nearly eliminating the risks of developing a serious illness.
Studies suggest, however, that being fully vaccinated is the only adequate protection against the Delta variant, as a single shot of either of the two-dose mRNA vaccines provides only weak protection against infection.
With the Delta variant infecting minors at higher rates than the original strain of COVID-19, and those under 12 still ineligible for vaccination, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs has said that Mississippians need to create a “protective cocoon” of vaccinated people around children to protect them from the virus and keep them in school.
“This is going to take all of society trying to protect our kids,” Dobbs said. “Because if we don’t, I do think we’re going to have a lot more kids getting COVID. Most kids will get over just fine, but some are going to have a lot more trouble.”
The threat posed by the Delta variant does appear to be motivating an uptick in vaccinations; over the past two weeks, Mississippi has seen a 56% increase in vaccinations.
Though Mississippi is no longer last in the nation for the share of its population that has been vaccinated, it still trails 48 other states. Only 34% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Holmes County Consolidated School District is one step closer to being taken over by the state.
The state education department’s accreditation commission voted unanimously on Monday to recommend that a state of emergency, or a situation that threatens the safety, security and educational interests of students, exists in the school district.
The matter will now go to the State Board of Education, which will meet Tuesday to determine whether it will recommend the governor declare the need for a takeover.
The Mississippi Department of Education and the school district on Monday made presentations and answered questions to the commission.
Debra Powell, the superintendent of the district as of mid-May, argued that she is already implementing solutions to many of the issues highlighted in a nearly 400-page audit by the Mississippi Department of Education. The report found the district in violation of 81% of state accreditation standards for schools.
“Most of it (the findings) is actually accurate,” said Powell. “That’s why the board, in its wisdom, decided to chart a new course and change directions. We have some good things that are happening in Holmes County despite that audit.”
She said she started looking at the problems in the district on “day one” as superintendent.
“Why interrupt the progress we’ve made? We’re doing the same things (a conservator or interim superintendent) would do,” said Powell. “We have qualified, capable people who are working.”
Powell and the district’s attorney Clarence Webster argued that the actual emergency existed in 2019 and 2020 when the finances were in shambles, and when the high school “turned into a virtual fight club” last school year during the pandemic.
But the state education department said the district was, and still is, in violation of all nine accreditation policies, or governing principles for the success of a school district academically, organizationally and financially.
Failure to comply with just one is a condition for withdrawal of a school district’s accreditation, Paula Vanderford, chief accountability officer, said.
For example, Vanderford pointed out that the district’s textbooks were outdated, with some students using books from 1997.
Powell said new textbooks had been ordered and that the district was transition to a digital curriculum, but Felicia Gavin, the chief of operations for the department, said there was no evidence those materials had been purchased.
An investigative audit of the district found its finances in disarray, including bank accounts that aren’t reconciled, attempts to purchase “high dollar assets” such as a vehicle for the superintendent without going through proper protocols, and nearly $1 million in questioned federal funds.
Vanderford also informed the commission of the F-rated district’s “pattern of poor academic performance” since 2014.
In 2019, the last year for which testing data is available, the district ranked in the bottom five percent of districts in both reading and math proficiency. It also had the lowest science proficiency rating in the state.
Joe Goff, general counsel for the Mississippi Department of Education, described the findings about students with disabilities not being properly identified and given the services they need as “heartbreaking.”
If the governor declares a state of emergency in Holmes County, the State Board of Education will become the governing body of the school district. The local school board will be temporarily disbanded, and an interim superintendent will be appointed to lead the district until it sustains an accountability rating of C or higher over multiple years.
The state has placed a school district in a conservatorship 20 times since 1997. Current Districts of Transformation, as they are referred to, include the Tunica and Noxubee County School Districts.
As part of its Single Audit Report for the 2020 fiscal year, the Mississippi auditor’s office sampled 180 Medicaid beneficiaries and found that nine of them were ineligible due to the high income reported on their state tax returns.
On average, those nine reported income levels $10,727 above the threshold for Medicaid enrollment.
In addition to the nine individuals flagged in the sample, two people who own multi-million dollar homes and declared high incomes on their tax returns, despite receiving Medicaid benefits, had already been flagged as potential fraud cases to investigate.
Under current state law, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid does not have the legal authority to obtain state income tax returns to compare them with the income declared by a person applying for Medicaid benefits. State Auditor Shad White is now calling on Gov. Tate Reeves and the Legislature to grant this authority so that potential fraud can be prevented on the front end.
“I stand ready to work with Medicaid’s leadership to argue to lawmakers that they should have this tool in their toolbox,” White said in a press release. “It could stop ineligible applicants from being put on the program in the first place. We know this tool would be useful because Medicaid’s internal policies state they should ask an applicant for their return, but without the authority to get the return and a requirement to use it, the state is potentially handing out millions to ineligible people.”
In a statement, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) said it does not agree that the use of state tax returns would help root out fraud, as the tax information used by the auditor’s office in this case is from more than a year before the person applied for Medicaid. DOM is required to base eligibility on current income and noted that “financial information that far out of date may not accurately reflect the current circumstances of applicants.”
In June 2019, the most recent month for which figures are available, 673,247 Mississippians were enrolled in Medicaid.
Brittney Reese of Gulfport and Ole Miss goes for Olympic gold Monday in Tokyo, still another chapter in Mississippi’s long and rich history of long jumping excellence.
We are often called a football state because so many of our small-town heroes go on to record-setting pro football stardom. In recent years, we have been more of a baseball state because of our well-documented college baseball excellence.
But, on a global basis, we probably should be known more as a long jumping state. Again, our history in the event is incredibly rich, including Reese, perhaps the most decorated Mississippi long jumper of all – which is saying something. She is a seven-time world champion, a 13-time national champ. She has won both gold and silver Olympic medals. She was an NCAA champion at Ole Miss. At 34, she is competing in her fourth Olympics – and that’s not even the most by a Mississippi woman.
Rick Cleveland
The late Willye B. White holds that distinction – and if you’ve never heard of White, here’s a quick history lesson. Born on New Year’s Eve, 1939, in the Delta town of Money, she was raised by share-cropping grandparents. At 10, as a fourth grader, she began competing and winning ribbons for her high school track team. She did this while spending many days picking cotton for money to help feed her family.
She did it all: sprinted, long-jumped, high-jumped and as a young teen often won track meets by herself. That’s right: She accumulated more points than many other teams while competing for Broad Street High in Greenwood.
And here is one of my favorite stories in all of Mississippi sports: In 1956, at 16, White competed in the Olympics at Melbourne, winning the silver medal in the long jump. Imagine: 16 years young, a 10th grader – from one of the poorest towns, in one of the poorest counties in the poorest state in the U.S. – and she won the first U.S. Olympic women’s long jump medal in history.
How in the world did she accomplish that?
“A dream without a plan is just a wish,” White once said.
Willye B. White clearly had a plan. So did Larry Myricks and Ralph Boston, two more Mississippi long jumpers to claim international fame.
Myricks is the more recent. From Clinton and Mississippi College, Myricks, as Reese, was coached by Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame coach Joe Walker. He was a four-time national champion and four-time Olympian who persevered despite terrible Olympic luck. In 1976, at Montreal, Myricks suffered a broken foot in warm-ups that knocked him out of the Olympics. In his prime, in 1980, he was supposed to compete in the Moscow Olympics, but the U.S. boycotted the games. In 1984, at Los Angeles, he finished in fourth place, just inches away from a medal. Here’s perseverance: In 1988, at age 32, he won the bronze medal with a leap of 27 feet, one inch.
Boston, from Laurel, gained international acclaim in 1960 when he broke the long jump world record that had been held for 25 years by none other than the incomparable Jesse Owens. Boston has the complete Olympic collection of medals: gold (1960 at Rome), silver (1964 at Tokyo) and bronze (1968 at Mexico City).
Jesse Owens (left) and Ralph Boston after Boston broke Owens’ 25-year-old long jump world record. (MSHOF archives)
Boston remains one of the great gentlemen in Mississippi sports history, which was evident back in 1968 at Mexico City when Boston won the bronze and Bob Beamon won the gold with a historic leap of 29 feet, 2.5 inches, breaking the world record by a seemingly impossible two feet. Boston didn’t tell me this story; Bob Beamon did, when he came through Jackson years ago and agreed to an interview.
“What people don’t know is that I wouldn’t have done that if it hadn’t been for Ralph Boston,” Beamon told me. “I fouled on my first two attempts and was about to get disqualified when Ralph told me I needed to adjust my footwork leading up to my takeoff. I figured I had better listen to the master, and I did. The rest, as they say, is history. I owe a lot to Ralph Boston.”
The next day, I called Boston and recounted Beamon’s telling. Boston corroborated the story and then laughed. “He beat me by two feet,” Boston said. “That’s a heck of a way to treat your teacher. If you see Bob again, tell him I am waiting for my check.”
Boston tells another of my favorite Mississippi sports stories, which brings us back to Willye B. White, who died far too young in 2007 at age 68. Boston knew White well. They competed for the U.S. in three straight Olympiads.
Once, when we were talking about White, Boston asked me: “Do you know there was someone in her high school class at Greenwood who became more famous than her?”
I did not.
“Ever hear of Morgan Freeman?” Boston said, chuckling.
Same school, same time?
“Yes,” Boston said. “I was with Morgan one time and I asked him if he ran track in high school. Morgan said he did not. He said he knew if he ran track, he would have had to run against Willye B. White. Morgan said he didn’t want to lose to a girl.”
Given House Speaker Philip Gunn’s recent testing of the waters for a challenge of Gov. Tate Reeves, there was some anticipation their back-to-back Neshoba Fair stump speeches could serve as a soft launch of a Gunn gubernatorial campaign.
But if Thursday’s speech by Gunn was intended as any sort of a launch, it didn’t make it off the pad.
And except for a couple of mild jabs at each other, the two state leaders mostly threw out the same red meat for the GOP base and mostly espoused similar policies. In case you missed it, they both really, really, really oppose critical race theory being taught in Mississippi schools and vow to prohibit it. They both detest any liberal, socialistic, Democratic federal overreach coming from Washington, D.C., and they both want to eliminate the state’s individual income tax — although their plans do differ.
If Gunn plans to put any significant daylight between himself and Reeves on policy or politics, he didn’t do it at the fair on Thursday. One would doubt that “vote for me just because I’m not Tate Reeves” would be a way to entice much of the GOP base to jump ship from a well-financed Republican incumbent in 2023.
The only major policy difference between the two evident at Neshoba is that Gunn wants to eliminate the individual income tax by swapping it with increased sales and other taxes. Reeves wants to just eliminate the income tax period, and let the loose end drag.
Gunn is reportedly still undecided about a run. His speech would indicate he’s keeping his powder dry — although there’s a fine line between keeping your powder dry and giving a pretty blah stump speech at the fair.
Much of the speaker’s presentation sounded like a 1950s civics book warning of the evils of socialism and “how it continues to creep its way into this country.” He also reminded fairgoers that he warned them a couple of years ago about Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and now “she’s become a national figure … known as AOC.”
He also doubled, or maybe tripled, down on his opposition to Medicaid expansion in Mississippi — a policy he also shares with Reeves.
Gunn in his speech gave relatively scant attention to his income tax-sales tax proposal, despite having been touring the state pitching it (with limited success) for months and having called it the most important proposal of his legislative career.
Gunn’s only — subtle — jab at Reeves was over the federally funded $300-a-week pandemic unemployment stipend that Reeves recently halted for Mississippians.
Gunn took credit for halting it.
Gunn said, “The government needs to stop subsidizing people to stay home and not work. That’s why we called on the governor to stop the excess payments. In response to our appeal, he did so.” He was referring to a letter Gunn sent Reeves in May calling for an end to the payments that about 87,000 unemployed Mississippians were receiving. Reeves promptly initiated a halt to the payments, but never acknowledged he did so at Gunn’s request.
In his speech, Reeves’ main jab at Gunn was on the income tax-sales tax swap, and he wasn’t very subtle.
“There are some folks at the Capitol that are proposing we swap the income tax for an increase in sales taxes … or agriculture taxes, or increases in other taxes,” Reeves said. “I want to be clear, I am opposed to taking less here and more here. I am opposed to robbing Peter to pay Paul … What we need is a lower tax burden, period.
“And I will insist on it, no matter who in the Legislature stands in the way.”
Reeves has not been known as a fiery orator. In fact, in years past in his long political career, his speeches have been noted for their cringe-worthiness and stilted delivery. No one’s every mistaken him for Daniel Webster or even former Gov. William Winter.
But he’s gotten better, and while his keynote address Thursday didn’t shuck the corn or rattle the roof on the Founder’s Square pavilion, it was the highlight of the fair, complete with breaking a little news: that he plans to push for a large teacher pay raise next year.
Reeves bashed the media, pandemic health experts, and masking recommendations, and praised his administration’s work in education, economics, supporting law enforcement and fending off liberalism despite unprecedented natural disasters and COVID-19. He appeared to be at ease in pandering to his base and not too concerned about any challenge from Gunn or elsewhere.
Reeves, who in the past has struggled to even get an awkward chuckle out of a crowd, even managed to land a few jokes including one about “if the radical Democrats had their way, they’d have law enforcement policing the streets with squirt guns — but given their Second Amendment stance, they may ban those, too.”
Mississippi Today journalists Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender recap events from the recently completed Neshoba County Fair and address other issues facing the state, ranging from medical marijuana to teacher pay raises to Critical Race Theory.
Adam Ganucheau: Welcome to The Other Side, Mississippi Today’s political podcast. The Other Side lets you hear directly from the most connected players and observers across the spectrum of politics in Mississippi.
Bobby Harrison: Hello, I’m Bobby Harrison political reporter with Mississippi Today. Welcome to The Other Side podcast.
I’m here with my colleague, Geoff Pender, and we’re going to cover a lot of topics today, focusing primarily on the Neshoba County Fair. Geoff, how you doing?
Geoff Pender: Hey Bobby.
Bobby Harrison: Well, we got the fair back after last year, where it was canceled because of COVID. It came back this year with political speakings. And of course this year as political speakings were going on, it was going on against the backdrop of rising COVID cases.
So that was in the back of a lot of people’s minds. But what did you think of the speeches this year?
Geoff Pender: Yeah. You know, nothing earth shattering that I saw or heard. You know, we’re in a, I guess in the off season, so to speak. So a lot of times they’re you know, not quite the fire and brimstone speeches you see during campaign years, but a few news nuggets.
I guess one of the biggest things we saw came from Governor Reeves’ speech. He broke a little news. Tell us about that.
Bobby Harrison: Well, he during the 2019 gubernatorial campaign, he and Jim Hood, his democratic opponent, Jim Hood came out early on with a teacher pay raise plan that was substantial, and late in the campaign Reeves introduced his own plan which was a $4,300 raise.
And since that campaign he’s done really, not much, at least some people believe he hadn’t done enough to try to push that race through. There was a thousand dollars pay raise passed this past session, but he was not, you know, most people would argue he was not in the forefront of getting that pay raise passed.
Geoff Pender: But a lot of people pointed out last year or this year actually that he didn’t include a teacher pay raise in his budget recommendation at all.
Bobby Harrison: That’s right. He did not. He included a bunch of stuff. I mean, he got down into the weeds in some of the stuff he proposed, but the teacher pay raise was not in his budget recommendation. Yet the legislature passed it during the session, and he signed into law.
And, you know, during the fair speech last week, he proposed a $1,300 pay raise for the upcoming 2022 session in a thousand dollars each year after that for two years to get up to his 4,300 to, I guess, meet his commitment he made during the campaign. Some people would argue that, you know, we’re at the point now with the way revenues are coming in— you wrote about that while I was out on a little vacation, the way revenues are coming in right now.
With the surplus the state has, maybe the state should provide a bigger pay raise for teachers than what Reeves what is proposing. So we’ll see what the legislature as a whole thinks.
Geoff Pender: Yeah. To that point, we’re seeing year over year, double digit, like 15% revenue growth, nine hundred million change.
Bobby Harrison: More than the previous year.
Geoff Pender: Yeah, year over year not just over estimates. The state budget is is actually pretty flush going into next year.
Bobby Harrison: Of course, everybody, all the politicians at the fair, were excited to take credit or at least tap that large surplus. And it’s funny, they were tapping that large surplus by the same time, cursing the federal government and cursing you know the federal government wasted money and spending money, but most most economists if they were being truthful would argue that surplus in a large part was caused by the massive amount of federal money that has been put into this state during the pandemic. So it’s kind of ironic to hear politicians complain about the federal government yet tap that big surplus and say they were responsible for it, but yet most people would argue that at least a large part of that surplus was caused by the federal government and a large amount of money that they put into the state during both the Trump administration and the Biden administration.
Geoff Pender: Sure. One thing everyone anticipates or expects or looks for at the Neshoba County Fair are the political stump speeches as political fireworks and everything. You know, we really didn’t see much of that this week, did we?
Bobby Harrison: No, I don’t think so. You know, you’ve written about the speaker, you know, considering run for governor against Tate in the Republican primary in 2023.
And I think that’s a legitimate possibility and you know, it was all set up at the fair. The speaker spoke right before the governor.
Geoff Pender: There was some anticipation of that maybe big kind of a harbinger or even kickoff or a soft launch of that contest. But I don’t think we really saw that as the saying goes, listening to their speech there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between them on most policy issues. And they each took what could be called maybe a mild jab, subtle, subtle mild jab, each other. I think Reeves reiterated his opposition to Gunn’s income tax sales tax swap. He pretty strongly out of hand said that he’s not for that. Gunn took a kind of, again, mild jab at Reeves over the supplemental unemployment.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. He’s taking credit, right?
Geoff Pender: Gunn said that, ‘Yeah, we oppose that. And as soon as the House wrote the governor a strong letter, he did away with that supplemental.’ I don’t think Reeves has viewed it that way or ever acquiesced that he did it because Gunn wrote him a terse letter.
Bobby Harrison: Late at night when he’s thinking about things that really has to make him mad that Gunn takes credit for that, just knowing Tate Reeves and how his mind operates. That really has to bother him.
Geoff Pender: I do not know, but like I said, that was probably about the extent of the jabs there and nobody that I heard this season really shucked the corn or came out with the fire and brimstone speech like maybe we’ve heard in the past. I believe Michael Ted Evans might have provided a little entertainment at the fair as he typically does.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. State house member from the Neshoba County area.
Geoff Pender: Right, right. One thing that didn’t get talked about a lot, but that’s still kind of the premier political issue of the summer— in fact had barely got addressed in pretty much most of the top leaders’ speeches is the ballot initiative and medical marijuana initiative issue. That really didn’t get brought up much, did it?
Bobby Harrison: No. And of course, just for background, the Supreme Court, as probably everybody listening to this podcast knows, but just for background, the Supreme Court overturned the medical marijuana initiative that was passed in November and in doing so they invalidated the entire initiative process.
So just about all legislative and leaders and then the governor have said in the past that their intent is to fix that and to pass a medical marijuana law and to fix the ballot initiative so that Mississippians can take advantage of that again, to bypass the legislature and place issues on the ballot.
And you’re right. I don’t think, I believe, Gunn or Reeves addressed it at all in their speeches. I may be wrong.
Geoff Pender: I think that’s correct.
Bobby Harrison: Lieutenant Governor Hosemann, who spoke the day before the two headliners, if you will, based on the fact that they may oppose each other in a gubernatorial election, Lieutenant Governor Hosemann, who most people believe is going to run for reelection, did say in his speech— he didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but he did say in his speech that he believed that the legislature would address that and fix those two issues in the coming months, but he didn’t say anything. You know, a lot of people want to fix both those, at least one of them in a special session. And there’s people working to be able to do that in the special session before January when the regular session begins.
But he didn’t say anything about a special session. He just kind of committed to the legislature addressing both of those issues.
Geoff Pender: Right, right. And then I guess the week before the Senate had held its final medical marijuana hearing. And at that point, Kevin Blackwell—
Bobby Harrison: He’s kind of in the forefront on this.
Geoff Pender: On the Senate side, he’s in the forefront. Representative Lee Yancey has been leading the charge in the House on the medical marijuana issue. Both felt like we could see a special session I think they both said mid August was perhaps doable. They plan to, and from what I heard have been meeting this week, I guess, trying to to figure out particulars and see if they can reach a compromise.
But I don’t know. I’ve heard a lot of, a lot of it both ways. And I think Speaker Gunn at some point this week, maybe after his speech made it sound doubtful that there is a clear compromise. So I don’t know, a summer special session still appears to be iffy.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. Yeah. And of course the governor has said, and I think most people agree with him, at least most legislators agree with him, that he does not want to call a special session. And on these issues, well, it’s not clear. He wants to call a special session on fixing the ballot initiative. But he doesn’t want to call a special session on passing the medical marijuana bill until there’s agreement between the House and the Senate so that they won’t be so they won’t get down there—
Geoff Pender: and sit there and stare at each other for two weeks.
Bobby Harrison: Because as we said the devil’s in the detail on both of these issues. I mean, everybody seems to agree that, at least most people will agree that based on the vote, that there should be a medical marijuana law in the state of Mississippi. And also most people agree that the ballot initiative should be brought back. But in what shape, form and fashion, I mean, especially on medical marijuana. You know, there’s all sorts of, as you’ve written about, there’s all sorts of issues.
How strict is the regulation going to be? Is it going to be closer to a recreational marijuana like they have in Oklahoma? Is it going to be a more restrictive medical marijuana law, like they have in Utah
Geoff Pender: or Alabama? I mean, pick your comparison state. Arkansas is fairly restrictive.
Bobby Harrison: And the initiative that passed in November was not very restrictive at all. It was pretty wide open.
Geoff Pender: A lot of people have compared that to Oklahoma, which you know, we’ve seen Oklahoma has a lot of marijuana dispensaries, in the thousands. One in 10 people have a card and as one of their legislators, told our legislators in a hearing, one in 10 people have a medical marijuana card and they estimate that each of those cards is used by another two or three people.
So yeah, that’s been the debate. You know, how restrictive it’s going to be. I don’t know. You got a lot of people who support initiative 65 that are not going to be happy if it is probably on the restrictive side.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah, these people say that Initiative 65, the medical marijuana initiative passed by such a wide margin, that all the legislature should do is come in and essentially ratify that with a few changes.
So we’ll see. I mean, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Geoff Pender: No, no. Particularly, I mean, you know, follow the money is one of the main rules in politics.
Bobby Harrison: What do you mean by that?
Geoff Pender: I mean, Initiative 65, basically didn’t really allow for standard taxation of medical marijuana, and I feel like you can rest assured whatever the legislature comes up with will have some sort of taxation structure that goes into the general fund.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. Well, you know, to add on to that, Initiative 65 did not give the legislature the authority to tax.
Geoff Pender: Right. Right.
Bobby Harrison: And curse the legislature if you want but they are elected by the people and the constitution gives them the authority to tax. And as somebody who got all his knowledge from ninth grade civics, I kinda thought that’s the way it was supposed to work, that the legislature had the power to tax and no power to purse string.
Geoff Pender: Well, you don’t remember in civics, they probably spoke to the constitution trumping any kind of law or anything as well.
Bobby Harrison: Of course the Supreme Court said in this particular case, the constitution didn’t change.
Geoff Pender: Right. Right.
Bobby Harrison: So it kind of goes around in circles.
Geoff Pender: Sorry, we’re still faced, and we’ve talked in this podcast at length about it, we’re still faced with with a lot of uncertainty over what you know is one of the biggest issues to come down the pike in awhile. I don’t know. I don’t know if I would handicap a special session at this point, and certainly a mid August one is starting to look a little doubtful or or whatever, but we’ll see. Things can sometimes turn on a dime if Senator Blackwell and Representative Yancey announce that peace has broken out and Speaker and Lieutenant Governor agree to that. I mean things can move pretty quickly, I would think.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Geoff, going back to the fair for a few minutes and the speeches. One thing as you said, that wasn’t a dime worth of difference on between the speaker and the governor on a lot of issues.
Of course, you know, you touched on one of those issues where there was a little bit of differences. The speaker has his tax plan that passed the house this past session that eliminates the income tax, and I’ll say stop revenue loss by increasing the sales tax. And the governor just wants to eliminate the income tax over a period of years, which would take away about a third of the state’s general fund revenue.
And a couple of things struck me about that. One, as you said, the governor said he would not agree to a tax swap if the sales tax was increased, but the second thing was the speaker, as you reported, as has been going across the state touting his plan.
Geoff Pender: Right.
Bobby Harrison: He touched on it at his fair speech, but he really didn’t spend much time on it.
Geoff Pender: Right, right. Yeah. Given he’s described this as the the most important and biggest proposal he’s ever worked on as a lawmaker, and you’re right. He was a fairly down into his speech and he touched on it. And nothing like we’ve heard him recently. Much of his speech sounded like a 1950 civic textbook warning against the evils of socialism.
Bobby Harrison: He spent a lot of time on socialism.
Geoff Pender: He didn’t give a very strong sell of that in his Neshoba speech. Maybe he figured that wasn’t the right format for that. But yeah, he has been traveling the state, but yeah, he didn’t come out too strongly on that, which was kind of surprising.
But I think it’s safe to say that both Governor Reeves and Speaker Gunn spent a lot of time throwing out so-called red meat issues that were receptive to the conservative fair audience and to conservative Mississippians in general.
I don’t know if you heard Bobby, but both don’t like Critical Race Theory.
Bobby Harrison: I got an inkling of that.
Geoff Pender: Did you, did you get that? That was a main tenant of both their speeches, and they both vowed that that they’re gonna stop it. I guess we don’t know that it’s going on here, but nevertheless, they’re going to nip it in the bud as Barney Fife would say.
Bobby Harrison: Governor Reeves restated his support for his, what was it called? Patriotic—
Geoff Pender: Yeah, patriotic education fund I believe.
Bobby Harrison: Which he proposed in his budget last year when he did not propose a teacher pay raise. And , he talked about that again, and wanted to do that so that patriotic history can be taught in our schools. And, you know, I’m kinda confused about what Critical Race Theory is.
I mean, I think that, you know, in a lot of people’s minds, it’s just making sure that people understand that this country has made mistakes and has grown from those mistakes. And there’s still areas to grow in terms of race and other things. And I, you know, I thought that’s kind of what Critical Race Theory was or what’s being taught in the schools.
I don’t know what, like I said, Critical Race Theory is, but I thought that’s what’s being taught in schools. It’s kind of hard to argue that those things aren’t true, that this country has made some mistakes through the years, and hopefully grown through those mistakes.
Geoff Pender: It’s been a big issue nationwide.
And on the national level, we’ve seen a lot of a lot of folks in opposition to it feel like it’s going beyond what you’re talking about. And that it’s actually, well, as the speaker and governor put it, feel like it’s crossing the line into actually bringing racism into the classroom.
So, again, that’s a huge national debate at this point, it’s been really unclear, but it would appear it’s not happening here.
Bobby Harrison: Well, , you know, I’m not sure. I just would argue that they argue that it’s bringing racism into the classroom. You know, a counter argument might be that you shouldn’t stick your head in the sand and pretend that racism doesn’t exist.
Geoff Pender: Which we saw over many decades, certainly through the Jim Crow era or whatever. I mean, there were certainly issues with what was being taught, particularly in the deep south, but anyway, regardless, it would appear that there’s going to be a prohibition forthcoming from the 2022 legislature on this.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah, I think that’s the safe bet.
Geoff Pender: Right.
Bobby Harrison: There may be a special session on that before there’s special session on medical marijuana. And before we go, just another issue that’s out there: legislative redistricting. You know, they’re going to have to redraw the districts for 174 House and Senate seats and the four U.S. congressional seats.
Geoff Pender: Wait, do we not have five?
Bobby Harrison: No.
Geoff Pender: Bad joke.
Bobby Harrison: The way we were losing population we’re fortunate to have four, but that process kind of officially kicks off to a large extent this week. I think it’s Thursday. The first of nine public hearings across the state is going to be held to allow people to provide input on what they think the House and Senate districts should look like.
And early in the 2022 sessions, they’re going to tackle congressional redistricting, and then later, I guess they’ll do the state House and Senate redistricting. You know, we’re talking about here in August about a special session, but they may need that special session just to get some issues out of the way because 2022 is shaping up to be a real busy session.
Geoff Pender: Yeah, redistricting typically is like kicking a hornet’s nest, is it not?
Bobby Harrison: Yeah.
Geoff Pender: Among the legislators.
Bobby Harrison: And I actually had a little experience with that earlier this month, but that’s another story that we’ll talk about another day. Geoff, anything else we need to talk about?
Geoff Pender: I think we covered most of the bases, Bobby.
Bobby Harrison: I appreciate it.
Adam Ganucheau: 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.
