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While it wasn’t pretty at times, the plane did get on the ground.

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Phil Bryant had found his yes man.

Whether the governor wanted grant funds directed to his favored vendors, a partner to proselytize for his faith-based initiatives, or for someone to keep track of his wayward distant relative, Bryant’s welfare director John Davis was eager to deliver for his boss.

It often took no more than a brief text message — sent privately — to get things done.

“Yes sir,” Davis would respond.

“Your the best,” Bryant would say.

The former Mississippi governor appointed Davis to oversee the state’s roughly $1 billion public safety net for the poor in 2016.

Text exchanges recently obtained by Mississippi Today expose the governor’s backchannel influence on that agency, which is in the middle of a massive scandal auditors say cost Mississippi taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

Officials are accusing Davis of turning the federal block grant program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, most commonly known for providing the meager monthly “welfare check” to very poor families, into a slush fund.

But the aversion to providing direct cash assistance to the needy – causing welfare rolls to drop 75% and opening the door for Davis to use the bulk of the money in nonsensical ways – was the governor’s. 

Over time, the agency’s alternative goal of helping people “find self-sufficiency,” became distorted by bloated, misleading campaigns posing as workforce training, parenting and youth development programs for poor families.

The changes in policy, Bryant’s influence, Davis’ eagerness to please, a cult-like atmosphere and lax oversight from state and federal authorities all contributed to the welfare agency’s failures.

From January 2016 to June 2019, when Davis served as director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services and reported directly to Bryant, auditors say at least $77 million in that agency’s taxpayer funding was misspent, millions of which have yet to be found. The governor has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the scandal. 

The state could have used that money to provide a low-income family with a year’s worth of rent, electricity, child care, diapers, monthly transportation stipends, and nine meals a day – and have done the same for 2,600 more families. The number of people who could have benefitted from this is enough to fill every seat in the new volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi – which was purchased with welfare funds – eight times.

Davis, who has pleaded not guilty, is facing state embezzlement and fraud charges, a $96 million demand for repayment from the state auditor, a potential federal indictment, likely civil litigation, the risk of serious prison time and public scorn.

On the other hand, Bryant, who eventually forced Davis out of his job, has emerged unscathed.

Text messages, however, shed new light on Bryant’s involvement in the way Davis ran his department, spent welfare dollars and circumvented agency controls that should have prevented favoritism in grant awards.

Part 1: Phil Bryant had his sights on a payout as welfare funds flowed to Brett Favre

Investigators from the office of State Auditor Shad White, a Bryant appointee, obtained these texts more than two years ago through cellphone data dumps – but the story they tell had been concealed until now. Mississippi Today has reviewed hundreds of pages of written communication, which are reprinted here exactly as they appear without correction.

Bryant also attempted to make his own business deal with a company that was paid $2 million in allegedly stolen welfare funds, according to other texts Mississippi Today first reported. NFL legend Brett Favre had requested the money.

READ MORE: Brett Favre used fame and favors to pull welfare dollars

But the governor’s name does not appear in White’s 104-page report describing in meticulous detail the misdeeds of welfare officials and contractors, save for a line about him alerting the auditor to potential fraud. Instead, White credited Bryant as the whistleblower in the welfare scandal.

White, who has stopped publicly discussing the audit due to a gag order in the criminal case, told Mississippi Today last October that he believed it was the welfare director’s duty to reject any improper requests from the governor, not the governor’s responsibility to know agency spending regulations. 

John Davis, 54, spent his whole career in the Mississippi Department of Human Services, starting as a low-level social worker at the county DHS office in Brookhaven, where he grew up. By 2005, he was promoted to the state office, where he served directly over the very program he’s now accused of defrauding.

In a typical year, MDHS manages around $1 billion in federal safety net funds, about $150 million of which it contracts to other organizations, including private nonprofits. Before Davis took over, the TANF program was catching flak not for making large purchases, but for severe underspending. When he became director, the agency had accumulated roughly $40 million in extra TANF dollars from past years, creating the opportunity for what happened next.

Much of the misspending identified by auditors in the welfare scandal occurred on the nonprofit level as Davis’ department enforced few controls. The alleged scam primarily involved TANF funds the state funneled through a program Bryant touted called Families First for Mississippi.

In audit reports, Davis is painted as a tyrant, as a leader who intimidated people with his unilateral control over funding and his ability to fire employees at will – a legislative change to the department that began his first year as director. But Davis wasn’t the only agency employee controlling MDHS’s finances and accounting, which was in disarray. For legal opinions and help issuing subgrants, he relied on savvy attorneys who could write grants to fit funding purposes and make expenditures without triggering a red flag in an audit.

His texts also indicate that the burden of holding the purse strings, and the barrage of requests and wheedling he received because of it, wore on Davis.

“I try to avoid him as much as possible cause he is always asking for money,” he once texted, referring to subgrantee and former football player Paul Lacoste, who ran a welfare-funded boot camp-style fitness class often attended by lawmakers and political staffers free of charge.

Davis didn’t have the luxury of ignoring the governor, so he leaned into his role as a good ole boy.

Gov. Bryant and his wife, Deborah Bryant, sometimes flattered Davis using language that seemed more familial than professional.

Just eight months into Davis’ term as director, Bryant’s wife assured him of the governor’s affection and support: “He LOVES you,” she wrote.

The lifelong government bureaucrat – a never-married, self-proclaimed “simple country boy” in his late 40s, doughy and balding – appeared to feed off the praise.

And Davis was not shy about showing his devotion to Bryant – a popular, charismatic politician who dressed in expensive suits and customized cowboy boots.

Once in 2018, when the federal human services office rejected Mississippi’s proposal for a food stamps-funded workforce project that benefitted a prominent local trucking company, Davis sent an email to a national association requesting “URGENT ASSISTANCE” to save it. “My Governor, Phil Bryant has promoted this program,” he wrote.

He ended his message with, “My Governor is counting on me.”

Bryant also enlisted Davis’ help to present an award to a business “who has partnered successfully with Families First,” emails show, and he eventually gave the award to that trucking company.

Davis and Phil Bryant shared an evangelical energy, invoking God and Christianity in their public messaging or turning government-related speeches into what sounded like sermons.

The governor and the agency bureaucrat were the front-line defenders of a 2016 law to protect the “sincerely held” religious beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman; that people should not have sex outside such unions; and that a person’s gender is set at birth.

Bryant and Davis also enjoyed sharing the company of celebrities. The governor flaunted his proximity to country musicians, reality TV personalities or star athletes like Favre, a high-profile player in the welfare audit. He snapped selfies with actress Jennifer Garner, who represents an international humanitarian nonprofit that received millions in TANF funds from the welfare agency Bryant oversaw.

Davis, meanwhile, had become close to the family of famous retired WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase Sr., known as the “Million Dollar Man” – who was eager to promote the agency’s self-help principles through evangelism.

It was the perks Davis provided to the wrestler’s son, Brett DiBiase – including a fraudulent $48,000 contract and allegedly sending him to rehab on the welfare program’s dime – that prompted the initial investigation, blowing the larger welfare scandal wide open. Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty to a felony within the welfare scheme in 2020. 

The other son, Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., is the subject of a sealed federal civil investigation related to his work with the department.

Bryant had some prior connection to the wrestlers, but inside a government office that blended workplace and family, Davis developed particularly close relationships with the sons. 

Davis and Teddy DiBiase swapped Christian devotionals, traveled out of state and exercised at the gym together. Davis frequently texted the older brother, “I love you.” The welfare director flew across the country to visit Brett DiBiase while he was in drug rehab, discussed his treatment options with a specialist and called him the “son I never had.” When not together, they shared long, late-night phone calls, phone records show.

The welfare department hired the DiBiases, and their ministry, called Heart of David, for various “soft services,” such as to create a phone app to reach troubled teens and send them Bible verses. The plan was to incentivize kids to use the app by promising personalized videos from Ted DiBiase Sr. or the governor, proposals show. The app never happened. Their programs, according to audits, generally delivered few results and they didn’t report any outcomes to the state, according to Mississippi Today’s records requests.

The DiBiases received more than $5 million from the welfare program in a roughly two-year span – $3.9 million of which the state auditor has demanded they return, alleging they did not fulfill the terms of their contracts. Attorneys for the wrestlers declined to comment.

The DiBiases invited Bryant and his wife to the premier of a documentary that Teddy DiBiase made about his father. On the red carpet, the photo op backdrop contained both Heart of David and Families First for Mississippi’s logos. Teddy DiBiase also sat on the advisory council for an initiative Deborah Bryant chaired and gave motivational speeches at the governor’s Healthy Teens Rallies.

While Davis’ closeness with the younger DiBiases, 39 and 34, has drawn scrutiny from investigators, Ted DiBiase Sr. believed Bryant was the one who elevated the wrestlers inside the state’s welfare program.

In an interview at a 2018 comic convention in Michigan, DiBiase Sr., 68, said that his ministry was “selected by our governor to be the face of his faith-based initiative for the state of Mississippi.”

Bryant denied this assertion, saying that people and organizations surrounding his administration often exaggerated his involvement with them for clout.

A draft proposal attached to agency emails obtained by Mississippi Today describes a plan to incorporate elements of faith within Families First for Mississippi as Bryant’s vision.

“Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has identified the need to build capacity locally of many faith groups in Mississippi and has developed a faith-based initiative with a leader chosen to work with local communities,” the document dated May 2018 reads. “(Families First for Mississippi) will align its efforts with the Governor’s plan and will work closely with the Governor’s faith based leadership team.”

While welfare money may be spent on programs run by faith-based institutions, the federal government prohibits the state from using the money for inherently religious exercises, like worship.

A review of videos and social media posts shows that one of the only visible programs the DiBiases conducted, a four-day sports summer camp called “Ignite Sports Camp,” had the explicit goal “to reach young men for Jesus Christ.” The camp existed for years before the DiBiase ministry put its name on it. Videos from past summers show participants in the camp singing worship music.

In its report, the State Auditor’s Office also said that an MDHS subgrantee running Families First violated federal regulations when it paid to stage concerts starring Christian rock musician Jason Crabb and bought 4,000 copies of Crabb’s children’s book about the Ten Commandments in 2018. Independent auditors confirmed the book purchase was indicative of abuse and waste.

Emails show Deborah Bryant requested a lunch meeting for the governor to meet with Crabb and welfare officials in February of 2019.

The next month, Gerald Crabb, Jason Crabb’s father and also a Christian musician and ministry founder, texted Davis to thank him for what he had done for him and his son.

The welfare director told Gerald Crabb of his plan to incorporate “inner city kids” into their project. “You should hear them sing,” Davis wrote.

Davis said he envisioned them putting on a concert series with the children as the “opening act” and said that the governor and his wife were supportive of the effort.

“We had lunch with the Governor and First Lady,” Davis texted Gerald Crabb in March of 2019. “They are on board.”

TANF, a federal block grant, is notorious in public program and policy circles for lax guidelines that give states broad flexibility to spend the money however they wish. It has the reputation of being a legal slush fund, a program in which officials can defend seemingly ludicrous purchases as satisfying vague purposes in federal law and get away with it.

But, according to the state and independent auditors who examined Mississippi’s spending, that perception is not entirely true. The accountants determined that most of the misspending violated federal law either because the purchases did not serve the needy, an apparently overlooked requirement of TANF guidelines, or they did not comply with other federal grant regulations governing conflicts of interest and unfair grant-awarding practices.

Because of the way Congress wrote the law creating TANF, though, “there’s very, very little ability to regulate,” said Nisha Patel, former director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Family Assistance, which oversees the TANF program. 

States must gather and report many details about the lives of poor cash recipients in the welfare program so that the federal government can measure their household resources and track how many of them are working. But when it comes to how states spend the rest of the money or which private organizations it chooses to award the funds, the federal agency barely gathers any information. States only have to report their expenses to the federal government in vague categories and are not required to provide any supporting documentation, like subgrants or invoices.

“The data is only as good as what the state’s report,” Patel said, and if states aren’t accurately recording their spending, “There’s no way to check that.”

There is one entity that’s supposed to hold the Mississippi welfare agency accountable.

Each year on behalf of the federal government, the Office of the State Auditor audits state agencies that receive federal funds. It’s the federal government’s primary way of holding states accountable for their spending. Bryant served as state auditor from 1996, the year Congress passed the overhaul of welfare and created the TANF program, until 2007.

In 2005, a new state law required Bryant to begin auditing the TANF program’s performance – the actual outcomes of the people who were supposed to benefit from it – and the expenditures of its subgrantees. But the new requirement was conditional on the agency having the specific funds to do so, and the Legislature allowed the law to expire shortly thereafter. The office never conducted the audit of TANF under Bryant or since.

“It was too easy to put the hand in the copper kettle,” said former chair of the health and human services committee Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, who authored the 2005 law.

Holland, a longtime champion of public programs for the poor and sick, had realized for years that the state was relying on “quote unquote political faith” that the welfare agency would spend these funds wisely. He even voted back in the ‘90s against moving the department under the governor’s office, which he said only decreased accountability and yielded too much power to one politician. His colleagues ignored his concerns.

Near the end of Bryant’s administration, Holland said he raised suspicions about MDHS spending and “even bombarded in on the director at one point after having been told probably 10 times I could not see him.”

“I told him, I said, ‘Director, this thing is fixing to be like walking from hell to Texas. It’s gonna bust wide open. There’s too much hanky panky going on with this money and too little accountability,’” Holland said. “And he just simply said, ‘I’ve got it under control, Mr. Chairman.’ And I said, ‘I don’t think you do but I damn sure hope you do.’”

The lawmaker added, “This was the most enormous top-down scandal I think I’ve experienced in my 36 years in government.”

Auditor White has laid most of the blame in the welfare scandal at the feet of Davis and his nonprofit subgrantees, even though Davis’ department follows plans approved by the governor. Some state agencies have boards overseeing their operations, but others, like MDHS, answer directly to the state’s top official.

In the case of the misspending by nonprofit founder Nancy New, a central figure in the scandal, White sent letters demanding repayment to all of her nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center’s board members – who could be held responsible in civil court. But in the case of the governor’s office, which oversees MDHS, no such demands were made.

The auditor explained to Mississippi Today in October that it is not the governor’s role to know how TANF funds may or may not be spent.

White posed a hypothetical: A governor meets with his human services director and asks for the department to use welfare funds to build, let’s say, a community garden – an unallowable purchase under TANF regulations.

White said it is the director’s responsibility to reject the request and explain that the money may not be used for that purpose.

On the flip side, White asked, “Is it the governor’s responsibility in that hypothetical that I just set up to know all the TANF regs? The answer is no.”

“If that is the governor’s responsibility,” he continued, “then it is impossible to be the governor of the state of Mississippi or any state, because you would have to be an expert in TANF regs, MEMA regs, DPS regs, and every federal grant that is drawn down by any of those entities. It would be impossible.”

Near the end of Davis’ administration in 2019 – around the same time he was asking New by text message to wire money to the Malibu, Calif., facility where Brett DiBiase was in rehab – there is an example of Davis telling the governor “no,” at least for a time. 

Bryant was seeking funding for a children’s development clinic. Davis told the governor by email that his attorneys determined it would be against federal rules to put TANF or any other MDHS funds toward the program.

“Thanks John. Let me know if I can help find funding. We always want to follow the rules,” Bryant responded.

But even then, Davis eventually “found a way to fund” the organization anyway, he told the governor in a text a week later.

“Perhaps he did,” Bryant said when Mississippi Today reminded him of this exchange. “And I hope it was proper and legal and ethical and moral.”

The director hadn’t even seen an application from the organization before making the decision, according to emails Mississippi Today obtained.

The conversation about whether a program fits the purposes of a particular pot of funding, and whose responsibility it is to know these rules, ignores another glaring problem with this scenario: A governor and agency director cannot simply decide up front, on their own, which organizations to give grant money, according to a lead auditor in White’s office. 

“A director cannot unilaterally direct money to a subgrantee due to the required pre-award conditions and steps required in Uniform Grant Guidance,” director of the auditor’s finance and compliance division Stephanie Palmertree told Mississippi Today in an email. “Also, all federal monies are guided and audited on the concept of adequate internal control, which would require an application process at a minimum.”

White told Mississippi Today in October that he had not seen evidence of Bryant directing Davis to fund specific vendors.

And yet, the notion that Bryant could “find” ways for MDHS to fund specific organizations  — and all he had to do was ask Davis to do so – is clear in their written communications possessed by the auditor’s office for more than two years.

Bryant deflected when asked about whether his requests put pressure on Davis to grant his wishes.

“I wouldn’t pick organizations and say ‘fund this one,’ ‘fund this one,’ ‘fund this one,’” Bryant said. “I think a question from me saying, ‘Can we fund these folks?’ is just that, a question.”

Policy advocates don’t see it that way.

“I’ve been saying all along that all of those TANF subgrants that are suspect – Nancy New, all of them – it was the governor who was the wizard behind the curtain,” said Carol Burnett, founder of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Institute. “That’s my opinion.”

Burnett’s opinion is an educated one; she was a division director in the Mississippi Department of Human Services in the early 2000s and has direct knowledge about how the agency operates.

“The thing about TANF and the governor in Mississippi is: it’s a huge pot of money and the governor has total control over it,” Burnett said. “The governor just had to have been involved in those decisions.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the federal funds to Mississippi, has denied several Mississippi Today requests for an interview, even to discuss general policies and controls within the program. It has said through written statements that the agency is waiting until its Office of the Inspector General has completed its investigation before it levies penalties against the state for the misspending. The agency did tell Mississippi Today in 2020 that Mississippi will have to pay back the misspent funds with its own state dollars, not future TANF funds.

Officials from the local FBI office declined to answer whether its investigation is ongoing.

On June 19, 2019, Davis informed Bryant he would be testifying in Washington about the state’s food assistance and public safety net programs. The welfare director told Bryant that members of the House Agriculture Committee “like what Mississippi is doing” and wanted to hear about “what we have done to be so successful.”

“Proud of the job you are doing,” Bryant responded by text.

The next day, Davis represented a starkly conservative voice on a panel before Congress, while Nancy New and Teddy DiBiase sat behind him on the first row. Mississippi had just eliminated a policy that expanded eligibility for food benefits, which had the effect of kicking people off the program.

To justify the policy change, Davis said the state was helping raise people out of poverty in other ways. He named one example: “Law of 16,” the self help courses Teddy DiBiase Jr. taught to employees at MDHS and other public agencies. The wrestler was paid millions in welfare funds to deliver these motivational lectures.

Using little more than buzzwords in his testimony, Davis inflated Mississippi’s “family-centered, multigenerational approach” of “helping the family holistically” and assisting individuals in “finding true self sufficiency.” Congress members praised his concept. Davis was positioning Mississippi’s safety net department as a national leader.

When he returned to Mississippi on June 21, he received a text from the governor. Bryant pressed Davis on whether he and agency employees had stayed at Trump Plaza during their trip and who paid for the rooms. Families First often used welfare funds to pay for these kinds of travel expenses, meaning they weren’t reflected in MDHS spending reports. Davis’ secretary actually held onto the New nonprofit’s credit card, texts show, so she could use it to book flights and hotel rooms.

A text Davis received later from his colleague says MDHS paid for the rooms this time. Yet, Davis told Bryant he paid for the rooms out of his own pocket.

“Wow that’s an expensive place..” Bryant wrote.

“Yes sir. I’m single and no children. Was on my bucket list,” Davis said.

Bryant then told Davis to come to his office. The conversation happened on the same day Bryant reportedly relayed the initial tip of misspending to State Auditor White. A few days later, investigators from the auditor’s office gave Davis a polygraph test where they asked if he’d received any kickbacks from the DiBiases, according to an examination report. Within about two weeks, Davis announced under pressure his abrupt retirement from MDHS.

In August, after Davis left office and the auditor’s investigation was well underway, Davis sent the governor another text.

“I have been ask by the regional office in Atlanta to assist some states with modeling their programs after Mississippi,” Davis wrote.

The disgraced former bureaucrat wanted the governor’s blessing. “That’s sounds great,” Bryant responded.

This is Part 2 in Mississippi Today’s series “The Backchannel,” which examines former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the running of his welfare department during what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history.

The post ‘My Governor is counting on me’: Disgraced welfare director bowed to Phil Bryant’s wishes appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi legislators ended the 2022 session on a two-day spending spree where they spent funds at a pace never before seen in the state.

During a two-day period ending late Tuesday evening, legislators appropriated $7.32 billion on a state-support budget – 9.2% or $617 million more than was spent for the current year budget that ends on June 30.

In addition, the Legislature spent:

• $1.51 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds on a litany of items ranging from helping to repair or improve local water and sewer systems to tourism enhancement to propping up state agencies facing lawsuits because of substandard conditions.

• More than $900 million in surplus funds on hundreds of projects, including small projects such as courthouse repairs across the state, construction (on public buildings, including schools, state office buildings and community college and universities and more) and road and bridge repairs.

At the end of the 48-hour spending spree, House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, congratulated members, saying it was “a hard session, but one that has been very rewarding, one that has done amazing things for the people of the state and transformed our state.”

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, began talking about the need to make transformative change with the funds from the American Rescue Plan soon after the U.S. Congress passed it in 2021.

During the 2022 session, the Legislature appropriated all but about $300 million of the $1.8 billion in American Rescue Plan funds it received. The Legislature can spend the remaining amount in the 2023 session.

“We are not likely to see this magnitude of additional federal dollars come to our state again in our lifetime,” Hosemann said. “This is why it was critical for the Legislature to create a plan which would result in the money going in the ground for generational change. So many of our communities across Mississippi have multi-million dollar water and sewer challenges which have health, safety, economic and other consequences.

“These funds will help these communities begin the process of addressing these concerns resulting in a better quality of life for our citizens,” Hosemann continued.

The Legislature enjoyed almost the perfect storm in terms of available money. Because of an estimated $35 billion in federal funds being funneled into Mississippi to deal with the pandemic, state revenue collections have soared to unprecedented heights, resulting in a surplus of about $1.1 billion in addition to the ARPA funds.

The Legislature spent about $900 million of those surplus funds on building projects and eschewed the traditional bond bill that is passed most sessions to incur long-term debt in addressing the state’s building needs. Legislators said they should be able to do the same next year as state revenue collections remain high. The end result should be a reduction in what the state spends on debt service. The debt service payment was $439 million for the current year.

One of the last of the scores of appropriations bills passed was to spend $222.3 million of the surplus funds on hundreds of projects in communities throughout the state. A summary of the projects was passed out to the members by the leadership, but not to members of the media.

After the summary in the House was passed out, the spending bill was passed in less than two minutes.

At times, the number of appropriations bills being taken up seemed overwhelming, Legislators got off to a late start on taking up the bills. Senate leaders say that occurred because House leadership refused to work on them until a $525 million tax cut was agreed to and passed on March 28.

“I am really concerned with the way the process is rushed,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, adding she was concerned about the possibility of mistakes. “…You really don’t have time to debate or ask questions. The conference reports (final agreements) come so fast.”

Summers said she would like to have seen American Rescue Plan funds earmarked to the city of Jackson because of its unique position as the state’s largest city to deal with its antiquated and subpar water and sewer system. But instead, Jackson, like all the cities in the state, will have an opportunity to apply for grants to get help with the system.

She said she was afraid to vote against the bill offered by the leadership to provide grants.

“If you don’t vote for that, you don’t get to vote for anything,” she said.

House leadership said they understand Jackson plans to put up $25 million of the almost $50 million in ARPA funds it received to hopefully pull down $25 million in state ARPA funds for water and sewer infrastructure needs. The program approved by the Legislature requires a dollar-for-dollar match from bigger cities to access the state ARPA funds.

One area where there was debate during the final days was on providing about $20 million in federal ARPA funds to private schools — both private universities and kindergarten through 12th grade schools. Opponents said public funds should not be spent on private schools.

The private school bill was at first defeated in the Senate, but ultimately the Senate leadership garnered the votes to pass the bill.

Significant additional funds also were spent to enhance efforts to improve the state highway system, including spending $40 million from the surplus funds to match federal funds available through the watershed infrastructure bill approved last year by the U.S. Congress.

“Our cities, counties and constituents have asked us to dedicate our resources to better maintain and add to our infrastructure,” Hosemann said. “This package is a direct response to their request, with projects ranging from critical safety needs to routine maintenance to new infrastructure across our state.”

The Legislature also appropriated about $40 million to improve conditions at state parks. Hosemann said a study indicated it would take about $160 million to address all the needs in the state park system. He said he hopes additional funds are appropriated in the 2023 session for the effort.

READ MORE: Spending billions, cutting taxes, fear and loathing: The 2022 legislative session wasn’t pretty, but it was historic

The post Lawmakers end 2022 session with historic spending spree appeared first on Mississippi Today.

This is it: The absolute best time of the sports year. The Final Four, The Masters, Major League Baseball season, college baseball conference races heating up. And spring is blooming everywhere in Mississippi. The Cleveland boys talk about it all and are joined by Prime Shrimp’s Davis McCool to talk about what is going on in New Orleans these days, which is a lot.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: The best time of the sports year appeared first on Mississippi Today.

More than 90 people attended a free oral, head and neck cancer screening hosted by the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center on Wednesday.

The free event was part of Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week.

About 65,000 new oral, head and neck cancer diagnoses will be made this year in the United States, with nearly 14,600 deaths, according to the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance. In Mississippi, 560 new cases of oral cavity and pharynx cancer have been estimated for this year, with 130 deaths. Tobacco and alcohol use are strong risk factors for these cancers.

Researchers have also correlated to rising incidence of head and neck cancer in young adults to the human papillomavirus (HPV), a potentially cancer-causing virus that can be transmitted through oral sex. Early detection of and diagnosis is vital for successful cancer treatment. 

The post UMMC and JHCHC offer free oral, head and neck cancer screenings appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre had a way with Mississippi government officials.

Whether the football star was looking for funds to boost a startup company that he thought would make him rich or angling to take credit for building a new volleyball stadium at his alma mater, Favre knew he could count on Mississippi’s governor, the state’s welfare chief and a grant-funded nonprofit director to help him out.

He wasn’t shy about sweetening the deal for others or trading on his own fame and connections to secure a financial bailout. Favre, the Hall of Fame quarterback and home-state hero, had special access to Gov. Phil Bryant and people who controlled the state’s welfare spending.

Part 1: Phil Bryant had his sights on a payout as welfare funds flowed to Brett Favre

Favre said a nonprofit director Nancy New gave him $5 million in grant funds to build a volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi – a payment that could be part of forthcoming civil litigation. A pharmaceutical company Favre backed, called Prevacus, also ended up receiving $2.15 million in allegedly stolen funds from the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The quarterback collected an additional $1.1 million welfare dollars personally.

In the course of his dealings on behalf of Prevacus or the volleyball stadium, Favre proposed the following:

• Give then-Gov. Phil Bryant shares in Prevacus, or transfer his own personal shares to the governor
• Give nonprofit founder Nancy New shares in Prevacus
• Buy then-MDHS director John Davis a F-150 Raptor — Ford’s top-of-the-line pickup truck
• Convince New and Davis to pay off more than $1 million he owed on the volleyball facility
• Ask the governor for a meeting with the replacement MDHS director for more volleyball money
• Convince USM to finance Prevacus in exchange for stock for himself
• Aim to take home $20 million

Favre’s efforts to entice a welfare contractor with stock in Prevacus — which are central to embezzlement charges against Nancy New and her son, Zach New — are among the revelations of Mississippi Today’s investigative series, “The Backchannel.”

With the drug company investment, the volleyball arena and other payouts, at least $8 million in misspending auditors identified within Mississippi’s larger welfare scandal stemmed from Favre’s requests or fees. New’s nonprofit, called Mississippi Community Education Center and primarily funded by MDHS, directly paid Favre more than $1 million to be a spokesman for the Families First for Mississippi program. He’s since returned those funds, but the auditor says Favre still owes $228,000 in interest on the money he improperly received. Current MDHS Director Bob Anderson said last October that the department would be filing civil charges against Favre along with many others, but is awaiting approval from the attorney general.

While Favre has said he didn’t know the funding he received was from a program that is supposed to help the poor, text messages obtained by Mississippi Today show he knew he was dealing in government grants. Favre has not been accused of a crime within the scheme and declined to interview with Mississippi Today.

Below is a breakdown of Favre’s dealings with Mississippi officials and welfare-funded projects. Mississippi Today has reviewed hundreds of pages of written communication, which are reprinted here exactly as they appear without correction.

Give then-Gov. Phil Bryant shares in Prevacus

At the very start of their discussions with the governor, Favre and his business partner, Florida neuroscientist and Prevacus owner Jake Vanlandingham, suggested motivating Bryant to lend his support by giving him shares in the company, which said it was developing medication to deal with concussions.

Vanlandingham, who himself suffered severe brain injury as a young man, has worked since 2012 on finding a solution to the concussion crisis. He told Mississippi Today his priority is to prevent brain damage and save lives, but like any startup, he needed capital to realize his vision – and it was common for him to offer company incentives in exchange for the help of influential figures.

“I guess we verbally ask the Governor what the rules are to compensate him,” Vanlandingham texted Favre in late 2018. “Worse case scenario I give you more stock that as an individual u can transfer to him. But let’s avoid trouble at all cost.”

Favre later wrote, “Group text the governor and tell him we want to give him shares but don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

The athlete and scientist had talked like this for years, brainstorming potential partners. Bryant eventually agreed by text to accept a company package two days after he left office, Mississippi Today first reported. Bryant denied that he was ever going to take stock in the company, despite text messages that show he continued to discuss a business deal with Vanlandingham until arrests derailed the arrangement.

Give Nancy New shares in Prevacus

Two days after their first meeting with the governor, Favre sent the contact information for Nancy New and told the scientist to reach out to her. “Offer her whatever you feel like,” Favre wrote.

After Vanlandingham’s first conversation with New, Favre asked, “Did you and Nancy discuss shares or commission?”

“We did briefly. She was all about it but graceful in saying she loved the cause and how much it could help kids. She has 4 grandkids,” the scientist said.

“I figured that if you mentioned it most likely she would refuse. I believe if it’s possible she and John Davis would use federal grant money for Prevacus,” Favre said.

Directly after their meeting with New and Davis at Favre’s house, Vanlandingham texted New to say that he would like to give her 50,000 shares in his company, according to documents attached to a state court filing. She said she would have helped him regardless, but thanked him for the gesture.

Vandlandingham relayed this exchange to Favre, who responded, “Hell we giving her something.”

“I’ll slip it to her,” the scientist wrote.

New began paying Prevacus a couple weeks later in late January of 2019, the indictment against her alleges. Two months after that, Vanlandingham updated Favre on the status of New’s ownership in the company.

“Nancy did get approval now to take 50k in shares from Prevacus. I gave her the good shares that won’t cost her or have a tax requirement,” the scientist wrote.

“Now that’s awesome,” Favre said.

Prosecutors have accused New of embezzlement for allegedly paying $2.15 million in welfare money to Prevacus and its affiliate company PreSolMD in exchange for personal stock, among several other charges, and could face hundreds of years in prison.

Buy John Davis a F-150 Raptor

After first connecting with New, Vanlandingham texted Favre to ask if he knew John Davis, the director of Mississippi Department of Human Services, the New nonprofit’s primary source of funding.

“Yep. He is just like her,” Favre wrote.

Favre was in direct communication with Davis. The welfare director texted the athlete on Easter in 2019 to thank him for his friendship.

“John thank you very much and I am very proud to call you my friend!!! Have a wonderful blessed day,” Favre responded.

The week Prevacus was supposed to receive its first round of funding from New, Favre texted his partner: “This all works out we need to buy her and John Davis surprise him with a vehicle I thought maybe John Davis we could get him a raptor.”

Minutes later, Favre followed up: “Honestly give me your thoughts on what you think all this means … When we will make money.”

Get New and Davis to pay off a $1.1 million debt

Around the same time, Favre was getting nervous about holding the bag for more than $1 million that the Southern Miss Athletic Foundation needed to build the new volleyball facility Favre promoted.

“Hey brother Deanna and still owe 1.1 million on Vball,” Favre texted Davis, referring to his wife, Deanna Favre. “Any chance you and Nancy can help with that? They don’t need it at the moment.”

“You and Nancy stuck your neck out for me with jake and Prevacus I know and that’s going to turn out very good I believe,” he added.

“Good to hear from you. Let me see what we can do,” Davis responded. We certainly want to see the VBall project come together. I’ll get back with you tomorrow. 

“We value you Brett and are willing to always be supportive. Did not look at it as sticking our neck out as much as helping a friend and potentially many many more who are in need if treatment,” the welfare director added.

But as the auditor was about to launch an investigation into Davis’ department, grant funding was up in the air.

“I still owe 1.2 for the Vball complex on campus and not sure if Nancy and John can keep covering for me,” Favre texted his business partner.

The volleyball money never came. 

A couple months later in July, Favre texted Vanlandingham: “Here is my dilemma which isn’t your concern. Nancy has been awesome to me and has paid 4.5 million for a 7 million dollar facility. And she said it was all gonna be taken care of until this morning. Suddenly she said I don’t think I can do anymore. So now I am looking at a big pay out.”

New, a USM alumnus, sat on the athletic foundation’s board. Davis also graduated from the university.

Ask the governor for a meeting with the replacement MDHS director for more volleyball money

Bryant kicked Davis out of office in late June when an MDHS employee alerted the governor to a small instance of alleged fraud by the director. When Bryant’s new director Christopher Freeze came in, Favre convinced the governor to hold a meeting so he and New could ask Freeze about more funding for their project, Freeze told Mississippi Today.

Bryant recalled that they were discussing the volleyball center. Freeze said he told them, “No,” and that the department had reinstituted a bidding process for TANF funds, which hadn’t happened since Bryant’s first year in office.

Once Vanlandingham got word that Davis had left MDHS, he asked Favre what the new director was like, and the quarterback responded, “Nancy said he ain’t our type.” The scientist quipped that they may need the governor “to make him our type.”

After the arrests, Vanlandingham texted Favre that he thought the investor they were close to securing was going to fall through, and that he was trying to scrape funds together to keep the drug development on track. Favre said he couldn’t help.

“I would but up to my eyeballs in vball debt,” Favre texted on February 11, 2020, six days after the auditor arrested Davis and New under indictments naming Prevacus.

Days earlier, The Associated Press quoted Favre saying that he raised the funds to build the volleyball center. 

“We wanted to do something for a high school and (Southern Miss),” he told the AP. “…And for Southern Miss, that was difficult — it’s hard to get people to donate for volleyball. But we’ll be opening an $8 million facility that will be as good as any in the country at Southern Mississippi.”

“One of the things I am most proud of about all the things I have been able to achieve is being able to give away so much money and help so many people with Favre4Hope,” he added. “Special Olympics, Cystic Fibrosis, Make-A-Wish Foundation, a big chunk of money to the Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, to St. Jude and to Ronald McDonald House.”

“It would be a shame if people who can help don’t help. By no means are we perfect, but we do try to give back,” Favre said.

Convince USM to finance Prevacus in exchange for stock for himself

In 2017, several months before New sent $5 million to Southern Miss Athletic Foundation for the volleyball building, Vanlandingham suggested approaching USM to finance Prevacus. 

“I mean if you and him for example can get USM to put up 3.5M you’d be able to earn 280k in either stock/cash or a combo,” Vanlandingham texted Favre.

“If it passes the smell test I can get them to put the money up!!” Favre responded.

In late 2018, after they brought Bryant in, they revisited the prospect of working with Southern Miss.

“I guess between you, her and the governor we can get southern miss to work with us on prevacus project. We will give southern miss a good patent royalty position so when the drug gets approved they will make many many millions,” Vanlandingham texted Favre two days after their meeting with the governor in late 2018.

Aim to take home $20 million

Favre and Vanlandingham, a neuroscientist from Florida, spoke frequently for years, texts show, about how much money they stood to make if only they could get their concussion treatment drug through human trials and FDA approval.

Previously, Favre had similarly pushed an expensive new compounded pain cream that the FBI later investigated, uncovering a more than $515 million health insurance fraud scheme based in Mississippi that led to at least 20 convictions, Hattiesburg American reported. Officials did not accuse Favre of a crime within the scandal.

When Prevacus started engaging Favre, concussions were a hot button issue in the NFL at the time, and the star quarterback was not only an obvious choice as a sponsor for Prevacus, but an aspiring businessman eager to capitalize on the phenomenon.

“Call me crazy but my goal is to take home 20 million when it’s all said and done,” Favre texted Vanlandingham in 2018.

Another time, Favre asked, “And it doesn’t have to pass fda approval to make money correct?”

The scientist texted Favre grand promises of financial returns, but also attempted to manage the athlete’s expectation in dry banter.

“If phase 1 kills people we are done,” Vanlandingham texted Favre in 2019, a few weeks after receiving its first payment from New, “if it’s safe we move on and raise the next money.”

This is a supplement to Part 1 in Mississippi Today’s series “The Backchannel,” which examines former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the running of his welfare department, which perpetuated what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history.

The post ‘You stuck your neck out for me’: Brett Favre used fame and favors to pull welfare dollars appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Thousands of Mississippians stand to lose health insurance later this year because of Speaker of the House Philip Gunn’s refusal to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to a year. 

When the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, possibly as early as July, the 40,000 Mississippians currently covered under pregnancy Medicaid rules will lose coverage. People who give birth after that point will have 60 days to recover and make follow-up appointments with doctors. 

After that, they’ll be on their own.

That harsh, quick disintegration of a safety net is one that many Mississippi mothers already know well: About 60% of births in the state are covered by Medicaid, one of the highest percentages in the United States.

Dr. Nina Ragunanthan, an OB-GYN at Delta Health Center, a federally qualified health clinic in Mound Bayou, said the “vast majority” of her patients are on Medicaid. Complications after birth are a major contributor to the state’s high maternal mortality rate, she said, and depression and anxiety in particular can arise and worsen well after 60 days postpartum. 

Black women in Mississippi die of pregnancy-related complications at a rate three times higher than white women. 

“I just think that this is a no-brainer,” she said. “It would be so good for the health of women, the health of babies, and even makes economic sense.”

There are still paths to extending postpartum coverage that don’t depend on the state legislature, according to Joan Alker, executive director and co-founder of the Center for Children and Families (CCF) at Georgetown University. The U.S. Congress is considering legislation to require states to provide 12 months of Medicaid coverage postpartum.

Theoretically, Gov. Tate Reeves could direct the state Medicaid agency to ask the federal government to grant approval for the extension. But the legislature would still need to approve appropriations. 

Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, who authored the bill extending postpartum Medicaid coverage, said he plans to reintroduce the legislation next year and hold a hearing on the issue sometime this summer. 

Mississippi Today spoke with six moms from around the state about their experiences with Medicaid coverage during and after their pregnancies. Several of them gave birth during the pandemic and found that extended coverage let them access care for postpartum depression that would otherwise have gone untreated. Others had babies before the pandemic and lost their coverage after 60 days. One mom sustained an injury during childbirth that she couldn’t get treated because she lost health coverage too soon. Thirteen years later, she’s still dealing with the consequences.

Chelsea Brooks

27 years old, graduate student, Florence

I was 28 weeks pregnant when I lost my insurance. And I applied for Medicaid. It was pretty easy to apply for. I ended up having to go a lot because I had high blood pressure while I was pregnant. Like probably two weeks before I was supposed to give birth, I started having some contractions. I went to the hospital. They paid for my ER visit. I gave birth early. They paid for that, my C-section, and I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery two weeks after I gave birth. It paid for that. 

I am still on my Medicaid, from my understanding, due to the COVID pandemic. I had to have a postpartum depression follow up with my primary physician. I went in for my six-week appointment, I was fine. I didn’t ask for anything. I had to go in again after my six-week appointment and basically I told my doctor like, “Hey, I’m not coping well. I’m fine. My son is safe. But I just feel like I’m not coping well. I’m crying, I’m tearful, any little thing is setting me off.” He was like, “Yeah, after you give birth sometimes you have those hormones.” I was breastfeeding as well. I was up, down, up, down, not getting sleep. He put me on something. He was like, “Follow up with your primary doctor within a week.” I did, and Medicaid paid for that. 

[Not having health insurance] would have affected me bad. I wouldn’t have been able to go in and just be like, “Oh, I got a doctor’s appointment.” They’re gonna ask you for money…. Medicaid really gave me the opportunity to get the help that I needed. I could actually be not crying while helping my child. I could be a full-time parent and just be able to take care of him without feeling down or depressed and not miss his moments, not be unhappy with him, you know. 

Personally, I feel like men shouldn’t make decisions regarding women’s health. … But if they cared about females and mental health and postpartum depression and anything like that, they would pass [the postpartum Medicaid extension]. Because the bigger issue is if women don’t have Medicaid or it’s not extended, do you not know how much could go wrong? Postpartum depression can lead to suicide, it can lead to infant death, it can lead to anything. It’s like they’re not seeing the bigger picture. 

Courtney Darby

32 years old, teacher, Heidelberg

With [Deysha, now 13] being my first pregnancy, I didn’t know what to expect, what was going on, what was gonna happen. After I had her, my body didn’t go back to normal. My back just started bothering me with other types of just– little odds and ends. I just felt like, ‘hey, I didn’t get a chance to figure out a lot of issues that I was experiencing.’ Also [within] six weeks, you’re supposed to be at home, trying to recover, being at home with the baby, not out in public. 

[After R’Jay was born in December 2021] I actually received the letter in the mail saying that it would be reinstated on March the first [2022]. I was actually shocked, but I was also excited about that at the same time. With me not going back to work right now, dealing with other issues, that’s kind of a savior to me… 

I’m kind of dealing with anxiety and depression. If you’ve never experienced it, it’s hard to explain. It’s hard for people to understand what it is that you’re going through and why. It’s like, in my community, it’s like, people don’t try to understand it. It’s like they think you snap out of it overnight. So any time that I need to reach out to the doctor, or mental health clinics, like I have to try to get myself better, [and Medicaid] has definitely been a major role. I don’t want to keep it covered to the point that I’m so down and out that I can’t dig myself out of that hole. I want to be the best parent that I can be for not only R’Jay, but also my other kids as well.

Kristen Elliott 

30 years old, stay-at-home mom, Brandon

If your Medicaid is canceled within 60 days [postpartum], you only have that 60 days. To me that’s like, OK, if you have any immediate needs, they need to be addressed now, while you’re still adjusting, trying to get back to normal life. Your body is still going under major changes, especially during those first six to eight weeks. It’s such a short time to expect mothers to not need postpartum care. So I’ve been thankful that I have had the extended care [since the birth of Sadie, my fifth child, in October 2021] and that it has been covered. My husband owns a small business, so we don’t have insurance otherwise. And I stay at home with the kids.

The Medicaid went out after 60 days [with my fourth baby]. The postpartum depression, it was actually a good bit later. Truly I think I was dealing with it before I actually got help. But that’s a big thing– new moms, you’ll blow things off as, well, we’re adjusting or things are just hard because there’s a new baby and you’re not getting enough sleep. You just fall underneath all the laundry and the dishes and nursing the baby. You don’t really think about yourself. She was closer to nine months before I ever got on anything, and saw somebody for my postpartum depression. 

When I finally decided that I needed to go, a huge hesitancy was not having any medical coverage at that time. I was in a gap of where it was gonna cost out of pocket for me to go. So I was already kind of in a bad place, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to lay around and sleep. If I did get out of bed it was major anxiety. I would panic over small things.

Elliott paid out of pocket for treatment for postpartum depression following the birth of her fourth child. 

I can tell such a huge difference [following the birth of Sadie], because one, I was already on prior medication for my anxiety and depression, things like that. But the adjustments that I’ve needed after having her, you know, it’s so much of an ease to just go and not have to stress over the finances and things like that. I don’t have to let it build up to where I’m at my breaking point. I felt like I’ve connected with my baby more, I feel like I’ve bonded with her more. I’ve felt more like myself, bringing her home, getting settled in. We had a NICU stay and we were in and out of the PICU, for the first eight weeks of her life, and even through all of that, if I hadn’t had that care, I think things would have looked a lot different for me.

Laura McCardle

31 years old, finance, Copiah County

We had a rough road from the very beginning, with a high-risk pregnancy from five weeks. He was delivered at 28 weeks [on Jan. 8, 2020]. We spent 84 days at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in the NICU. 

Medicaid covered me through my six-week postpartum visit to get birth control, to make sure my pap smear was gonna be fine, I was healing well from my incision and all of this. I got a letter stating that I would be dropped March 31st [2020], ‘cause that was gonna be my 60 days. And I was like ‘well, I don’t know what I’m about to do because I’m not gonna go back to work right now. I’m not gonna spend my maternity leave in the NICU then send him to daycare. That’s not an option.’

Then COVID hit in the middle of him being at UMMC. I got a letter from Medicaid stating that it was going to be reactivated until the end of 2021. … That made me feel better. I’m not gonna lie, I did have some depression issues. My child was born at 28 weeks, he weighed two pounds, I couldn’t hold him or touch him. Of course there’s some issues there.

I’m [still] on [Medicaid] now, which is a huge blessing. But I really just wish that we could get this going for all the moms– just because they delivered in 2020, it’s not an exception.

Back at the end of November, December 2021, I was looking at going back to work. That gave me severe anxiety. … Who’s gonna have him, where’s he gonna go back to school? It was overwhelming. I called my OB-GYN. I discussed with her the sheer fear and terror that I was having, and she’s like ‘well, I think that maybe we should set you up with the wellness visit at a therapy center.’ So I was able to go and have that one-on-one time with the physician, who prescribed me some medication. Then I got a referral to go and talk to a therapist. I wouldn’t have been able to get that taken care of and handled had it not been for this COVID pandemic extending the coverage. I mean, I understand that I would have had to put your big girl panties on and deal with it. I understand that. But it’s just easier when you have support all the way around and then you have help from the physician.

McCardle has now returned to part-time work. She plans to get health insurance from her employer when she is working full-time. 

Emma To

32 years old, Nurse anesthetist, Madison County 

I was an RN for maybe three years, and then I went back to school for nurse anesthesia, which is advanced level practitioner. When you go back to school, you cannot work. The program’s so hard, if they do find out that you work and you’re failing, then you absolutely have no excuse.

I had went travel nursing before, saved up a bunch of money, I thought I was preparing myself. Then I found out I was pregnant. Surprise! I was married for eight years and never got pregnant. Then I was like crap, how are we going to do this, because I can’t work now. I went and got on Medicaid. 

Whenever I delivered the baby [in 2015] they gave me 60 days… I think five days postpartum I had an allergic reaction to one of my medications. I had postpartum depression, I had postpartum anxiety, I had to call an ambulance when I had the allergic reaction, and Medicaid covered all of that. Luckily we have a friend of the family that was an insurance agent. He hooked me up with [a plan through] the Affordable Care Act [after I got kicked off Medicaid]. 

Medicaid is viewed as for poor people. But here I am, college-educated, I had a four-year Bachelor’s degree, and [I was] an RN. [I was] going back to school to get my doctorate. There’s a stigma in getting Medicaid. I hate that people look at it for just low socioeconomics. It’s not. It’s for help. 

I paid taxes all those years. I worked since I was 16 years old. I was limited whenever I actually needed it, because I was trying to better myself– it was cut off for a certain amount of time. Now I’m a CRNA. I make over six figures a year. I don’t mind helping others out there who need it. This is how it’s supposed to work. 

The post After lawmakers go home without extending postpartum Medicaid, six moms speak out. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

During the three-month 2022 legislative session, House Speaker Philip Gunn kept a copy of a January Mississippi Today article that noted the Legislature faced unprecedented tasks and questioned whether it “might have to go into extra innings — either extending the regular session or coming back into special session” to get its work done.

The article predicted the session would be “a donnybrook,” given that lawmakers had an extra $4.2 billion to spend and Republican House and Senate leaders and the governor have had trouble agreeing on major issues.

And, it said: “Reaching agreement on the extra spending would be a heavy lift for the 174-member, part-time citizen Legislature. But it also faces another half-dozen or so major issues or chores — redistricting, income tax cuts or elimination, medical marijuana, reinstating the citizen ballot initiative, teacher pay, banning some things about race that are not being taught in Mississippi schools — any one of which could create epic political wrangling.”

“Well, looking at this list, how did we do?” Gunn said Tuesday night after a session’s-end press conference ended. “We addressed everything on this list.” As for one item in the list left undone — reinstating voters’ rights to ballot initiatives — Gunn said, “The House did pass a ballot initiative.”

The session was something of a donnybrook, with bitter political fighting, standoffs, public recriminations, fear and loathing between the Republican leadership of the House and Senate. Lawmakers did have to extend the session, if only by a week, to get a budget passed. And a few issues were left on the cutting-room floor — notably the ballot initiative and a Senate push to extend Medicaid coverage for new moms to battle Mississippi’s high infant mortality rate.

It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t smooth, and the end results left many disappointed or mad, but lawmakers did complete an unprecedented amount of work, spending and policy sea change from January 4 through April 5.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today’s full coverage of the 2022 legislative session

Although they often disagreed — and took some not so subtle jabs at each other throughout the session — Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who leads the Senate, agreed at session’s end that it was fruitful.

“We addressed everything from medical marijuana to funding teachers (pay raise) which has been desperately need for so long,” Hosemann said. “… We have the most expansive infrastructure bill we have ever had in this state.”

“By any stretch, the Mississippi Legislature performed this year,” Hosemann said. “There’s lots to go back and look at historically.”

READ MORE: Lawmakers pass largest teacher pay raise in Mississippi history

READ MORE: Mississippi lawmakers pass the largest tax cut in state history

Gov. Tate Reeves was mostly a nonentity this session, except for threatening to veto early medical marijuana plans and taking the occasional political jab at his fellow Republican legislative leaders amid the battle over tax cuts. But on Tuesday, despite having vowed elimination, not just cutting, of state income taxes, he signed a tax cut bill into law and praised lawmakers’ work.

“This is a tremendous victory, and will have a tremendous impact on the average Mississippian and a tremendous impact on our state economy for years to come,” Reeves said.

The 2022 Legislature passed the largest teacher pay raise and income tax cuts in state history. After years of failed attempts, it created a medical marijuana program. After decades of failed attempts, it drew new congressional districts.

The 2022 Legislature spent the largest amount of money in state history — a more than $7 billion state budget plus billions in federal funds — due largely to Congress’ COVID-19 stimulus largesse filling state coffers directly and indirectly.

READ MORE: Governor, other Mississippi officials set to receive large pay raises

READ MORE: Speaker Philip Gunn scales back his income tax elimination proposal

Lawmakers, using federal American Rescue Plan Act money, are providing cities, counties and rural water associations $750 million in matching money and grants to upgrade antiquated water and sewerage infrastructure.

Haggling over medical marijuana dominated the first weeks of the 2022 session. A standoff over tax cuts — with Gunn adamant that the personal income tax be eliminated and Hosemann insisting more measured cuts during uncertain economic times — dominated the rest.

The tax standoff stalled or halted negotiations on most other measures and on setting a budget and spending federal pandemic money. Hosemann complained that House leaders would not parlay on the budget until a tax agreement was reached near the end of the session, putting things behind schedule and forcing extension of the session and a last-minute scramble to finish work. Rank-and-file lawmakers complained the hasty work at the end forced them to rubber stamp lots of spending and policy decisions by the leaderships with little input.

READ MORE: Cities, counties urge lawmakers to approve federal stimulus spending amid tax cut standoff

But at the end, both Gunn and Hosemann downplayed the internecine GOP political battles that dominated much of the session.

“There are going to be disagreements,” Hosemann said. “We have 172(sic) people in the Legislature and on any given day they have 200 opinions.”

READ MORE: Mississippi Legislature passes equal pay bill. Advocates say it’s terrible

The post Spending billions, cutting taxes, fear and loathing: The 2022 legislative session wasn’t pretty, but it was historic appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Legislature ended the 2022 session not restoring the initiative process that allowed citizens to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled the process invalid in May because of a technical error in the language detailing how the process works. When the Supreme Court ruled, most everyone agreed the Legislature would fix the language and restore the initiative. But during the 2022 session, House and Senate leaders could not agree on how to fix the language.

READ MORE: Lawmakers near finish line on spending unprecedented state and federal funds

READ MORE: Mississippi lawmakers pass the largest tax cut in state history

Both chambers passed legislation earlier in the session restoring the process where an issue could be placed on the ballot if an initiative sponsor garnered the signatures equaling 12% of the vote in the last governor’s election, which would equal about 90,000 signatures. But in the conference process where only three House and three Senate members are allowed to negotiate differences in the legislation, Senate negotiators led by John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, insisted on a much higher number of signatures be gathered to place an issue on the ballot. Polk called for the number of signatures needed to place an issue on the ballot be equal to 12% of the registered voters as of the last presidential election or about 240,000 signatures.

House Constitution Chair Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, said House negotiators believe that the mandated number of signatures should remain at 12% of those voting in the last gubernatorial election as it was before the Court ruled the process invalid.

“We are going to remain firm,” Shanks said, adding he would try again in the 2023 session to restore the initiative process. “It is hard enough to get the signatures without increasing them.”

But Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said the signature mandate needs to be increased.

“There was concern that … it is so easy to get people to sign,” Hosemann said. “… I think that was a concern of both the House and the Senate.”

He said there are companies that specialize in gathering signatures for initiative efforts and that it is much easier now to gather signatures than when the mandate equaling 12% of the number of people voting in the last gubernatorial election was put in place.

“We’re trying to get a number that makes sense,” Hosemann said.

But House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, maintained the Senate was asking for “an enormously high threshold that we felt the citizens never be able to achieve.”

Both sides agree that the new proposal should allow voters to place issues on the ballot to change or amend general law. The initiative adopted in the early 1990s that was struck down by the Supreme Court last year allowed voters to amend the state Constitution.

Legislative leaders said they would prefer the process be used to amend general law because it is more difficult to change the Constitution. Changing the Constitution requires the approval of voters.

It is likely that any agreement also would prohibit legislators from changing any initiative approved by voters for two years except by a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature.

The Supreme Court struck down the proposal because the process required the mandated number of signatures to be gathered equally from the five congressional districts as they existed in 1990. The state lost a congressional seat in 2000.

The new language pending before the Legislature would require the signatures to be gathered equally from ever how many congressional districts the state has.

The initiative process was struck down at the same time the medical marijuana initiative that was approved by voters in November 2020 was ruled invalid by the Supreme Court.

It marked the first time in the modern era that the judiciary in any state had struck down an entire initiative process, according to Caroline Avakian, director of strategic communications for the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a national, pro-initiative non-profit.

While the only time in the modern era, the state Supreme Court landmark decision is not the only time a ballot initiative process has been ruled invalid by the judiciary. In the 1920s the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down a previous initiative process approved by state voters. After that 1920s ruling, it was not restored until the early 1990s.

Gov. Tate Reeves said recently he supported restoring the initiative. He said he does not intend to call a special session for the Legislature to consider the initiative, but might include it in the agenda if he called a special session for other topics.

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