Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Mound Bayou Mayor Eulah Peterson near City Hall.

MOUND BAYOU — When Eulah Peterson was elected mayor here in 2017, she not only assumed the duties of the office but also inherited more than half a million dollars in debt.

Mound Bayou, a small town in Bolivar County, had accumulated $717,826.06 in debt to the IRS, Entergy, and 18 other entities. Peterson said she doesn’t know what happened in prior administrations to lead to this debt. 

“They just didn’t pay the bills, as far as I know,” she said. 

Peterson continued: “These were all bills that we inherited that were on the books from prior administrations. When I came in (to office) I was told, ‘It does not matter that you didn’t make the bills. You are the person in charge and the city is responsible for the bills.’”

So she went about the business of working with the board of aldermen to create a plan to pay if off. 

Peterson said the city has now paid down 84% of its debts through fundraisers, tax anticipation loans, and allocations from the city general fund.

“We’re very, very proud that the board and I have worked to get this $603,958.70 paid off and in addition to that, all of our bills are current. We don’t have any bills that we’re not paying.” Peterson said. 

It is not unheard of for small, rural towns to find themselves in this kind of debt. 

About 50 miles southeast of Mound Bayou, the city of Itta Bena was potentially going to lose its power because of $800,000 in unpaid bills before the state intervened. 

Hope Policy Institute Director Diane Standaert said that lack of wealth in some rural, small towns can be understood through the lens of policies that have historically divested from these kinds of places.

“Generally, the big picture of smaller town finances is not disconnected from what’s happened in the region in terms of the history of extraction and exclusionary policies and practices. (That includes not) only extractive policies but a divestment, and not getting resources whether it be philanthropic public or private dollars into these communities on an ongoing basis,” Standaert said. 

Willie Simmons, central district transportation commissioner and former state senator of more than 26 years representing the Delta, agreed that state and national policies have tended to not prioritize small-town economic development.

Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Standing near the former home of Mound Bayou founder Isaiah Montgomery, Mayor Eulah Peterson describes how during more prosperous times, the train travelled through the center of town past the founder’s house.

Rural Mississippi — especially the Delta — lacks the necessary infrastructure to attract and maintain a thriving population. With a loss of population, so goes economic development, employment opportunities and new business. 

“We have to rethink what we have done in the past if we want to have a holistic state, if we want to have a holistic nation,” Simmons said. “We have to invest in those communities that we may have neglected in the past due to public policies and population migration, and begin to invest in those communities so that they can grow.”

Though these types of policies are not the sole reason for Mound Bayou’s debt, they have played a role in what the city couldn’t afford to do while paying it off. And now that the town is mostly out of debt, Peterson said the town can prioritize infrastructure projects.

She wants to fix the streets and sewer systems as well as revitalize the community center. This June she plans to run for re-election so she can continue on the work she’s started. If not successful, she’ll continue to push for the rest of the debt to get paid off before the new mayor comes into office. 

“It became a goal of mine to not have a new administration come in with these debts over their heads,” Peterson said.

The post Mound Bayou leadership pays off nearly $700,000 in inherited debt appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,365 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 27, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Sunday, December 27:

New cases: 1,365 | New Deaths: 41

Total Hospitalizations: 1,377

Total cases:206,388| Total Deaths: 4,606

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 78 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 16

On Tuesday Mississippi hit a new record with the seven-day average for cases, reaching 2,196. After going nine months without reporting 2,000 cases in a day, the state has reached that point nine times in just the 16 days of December so far. 

On Dec. 9, Mississippi also hit a new high for total hospitalizations on the rolling average, surpassing the summer peak. The state had already reached a new high for confirmed hospitalizations at the end of November, but hadn’t yet for the total tally, which includes suspected cases as well.

As seen in MSDH’s illness onset chart, the record for most illnesses in a day — Dec. 11, with 2,442 — is within the last two-week period, meaning those numbers could still go up.  

Mississippi’s present rise in cases mirrors the national surge, as the state currently has the 26th most new cases per capita. According to the Harvard Global Health Institute tracker, every state except Vermont is now in the “red zone” (recording over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 people). 

The health department reports that 148,466 people are presumed covered as of Dec. 13.

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,365 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

State Capitol in Jackson Friday, August 24, 2018.

States that consume the most sushi per capita have a higher work force participation rate than Mississippi.

But wait, states where more venison is eaten also have a higher percentage of eligible works employed than in Mississippi.

No actual research has been done on those statistics, but rest assured they are correct. After all, every state, except for perhaps West Virginia, has a higher work force participation rate than the Magnolia State.

There have been efforts in recent days to buoy support for Gov. Tate Reeves’ proposal to phase out Mississippi’s income tax by pointing out that the nine states with no tax on earned income have higher — much higher in some instances — work force participation rates than Mississippi. It’s an interesting point, but states with the highest tax on income also have higher work force participation rates than Mississippi. The point is: Mississippi’s work force participation rate is lower than every state except that of West Virginia.

Still, the argument made that eliminating the income tax would help improve Mississippi’s work force participation rate is an interesting one since Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has made improving the state’s work force participation one of his primary goals. Hosemann, as do most economists, cite improving the rate as a way to improve the economy of a state.

In order to steer a proposal to phase out the income tax through the 2021 Mississippi legislative session, which begins Jan. 5, Reeves probably needs buy-in on the plan from Hosemann, who presides over the Senate.

House Speaker Philip Gunn has previously voiced support for eliminating the income tax and appears to be solidly behind Reeves’ proposal to do so during the 2021 session. When asked about the proposal, Hosemann simply said “everything is on the table.” Perhaps the thought is that if the income tax phase-out is linked to increasing Mississippi’s work force participation rate, Hosemann might be more likely to jump on board.

In fairness, the work force participation rates of many of the nine states that do not tax earned income are above the national average. Based on information provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national work force participation rate for November was 61.4%. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was above 63%. Mississippi’s was at 55.8%, seasonally adjusted for November. Of the nine states with no tax on earned income, six were above the national average. The states with the highest work force participation rate of that group were South Dakota at 67.9% followed by New Hampshire at 66.3%.

But, of course, most of the states with work force rates higher than the national average have a personal income tax, most with much higher rates than Mississippi’s relatively low rate. They include Maryland with a 65.8% work force participation rate and Minnesota at 67.9%.

Incidentally, Kansas had a 68.3% rate in November. In the early 2010s, Kansas famously enacted deep income tax cuts but repealed them in 2018 as state revenue plummeted.

When announcing his plan, Reeves said Mississippi needed the boost that the income tax cut would create.

“We as a state need to think big,” Reeves said in November. “We need to think about not only what can we do to make strategic investments, but what can we do to make a splash.

“What can we do to say to the world not only do we want to invest capital here, (but) we want you to move here? Mississippi needs to see population growth in the coming years. We need more people moving into the state to grow our economy.”

He said phasing out the income tax by 2030 would spur that growth.

Reeves said the states with no tax on personal income are experiencing faster population growth. Many are. The top 10 fastest growing states between 2010 and 2019 include four with no income tax. All nine were growing much faster than Mississippi, which was in the bottom 10 in terms of population growth.

In most categories, measuring a state’s economic vitality — gross domestic product, per capital income, education attainment and so on — most states with or without a personal income tax are ahead of Mississippi.

Former Gov. William Winter, who died earlier this month, used to famously say, “The only road out of poverty runs past the schoolhouse door.”

No doubt, those states that have had strong school systems for a prolonged period and have high educational attainment levels also are outperforming Mississippi economically.

Some of those states do not have a personal income tax, but most do.

The post Mississippi’s work force participation rate lags, but is it because of taxes or sushi? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 845 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 26, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Saturday, December 26:

New cases: 845| New Deaths: 3

Total Hospitalizations: 1,377

Total cases:205,023| Total Deaths: 4,565

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 78 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 16

On Tuesday Mississippi hit a new record with the seven-day average for cases, reaching 2,196. After going nine months without reporting 2,000 cases in a day, the state has reached that point nine times in just the 16 days of December so far. 

On Dec. 9, Mississippi also hit a new high for total hospitalizations on the rolling average, surpassing the summer peak. The state had already reached a new high for confirmed hospitalizations at the end of November, but hadn’t yet for the total tally, which includes suspected cases as well.

As seen in MSDH’s illness onset chart, the record for most illnesses in a day — Dec. 11, with 2,442 — is within the last two-week period, meaning those numbers could still go up.  

Mississippi’s present rise in cases mirrors the national surge, as the state currently has the 26th most new cases per capita. According to the Harvard Global Health Institute tracker, every state except Vermont is now in the “red zone” (recording over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 people). 

The health department reports that 148,466 people are presumed covered as of Dec. 13.

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 845 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,527 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 25, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Friday, December 25:

New cases: 1,527| New Deaths: 6

Total Hospitalizations: 1,377

Total cases:204,178| Total Deaths: 4,562

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 78 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 16

On Tuesday Mississippi hit a new record with the seven-day average for cases, reaching 2,196. After going nine months without reporting 2,000 cases in a day, the state has reached that point nine times in just the 16 days of December so far. 

On Dec. 9, Mississippi also hit a new high for total hospitalizations on the rolling average, surpassing the summer peak. The state had already reached a new high for confirmed hospitalizations at the end of November, but hadn’t yet for the total tally, which includes suspected cases as well.

As seen in MSDH’s illness onset chart, the record for most illnesses in a day — Dec. 11, with 2,442 — is within the last two-week period, meaning those numbers could still go up.  

Mississippi’s present rise in cases mirrors the national surge, as the state currently has the 26th most new cases per capita. According to the Harvard Global Health Institute tracker, every state except Vermont is now in the “red zone” (recording over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 people). 

The health department reports that 148,466 people are presumed covered as of Dec. 13.

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,527 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Merry Christmas to all and may you have a peaceful remainder of 2020. If you like this drawing, you can order prints and T-shirts here. Thank you for reading my work this year! I am grateful for you. And thank you for supporting Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Merry Christmas! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 2,326 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 24, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Thursday, December 24:

New cases: 2,326| New Deaths: 24

Total Hospitalizations: 1,377

Total cases:202,651| Total Deaths: 4,556

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 78 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 16

On Tuesday Mississippi hit a new record with the seven-day average for cases, reaching 2,196. After going nine months without reporting 2,000 cases in a day, the state has reached that point nine times in just the 16 days of December so far. 

On Dec. 9, Mississippi also hit a new high for total hospitalizations on the rolling average, surpassing the summer peak. The state had already reached a new high for confirmed hospitalizations at the end of November, but hadn’t yet for the total tally, which includes suspected cases as well.

As seen in MSDH’s illness onset chart, the record for most illnesses in a day — Dec. 11, with 2,442 — is within the last two-week period, meaning those numbers could still go up.  

Mississippi’s present rise in cases mirrors the national surge, as the state currently has the 26th most new cases per capita. According to the Harvard Global Health Institute tracker, every state except Vermont is now in the “red zone” (recording over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 people). 

The health department reports that 148,466 people are presumed covered as of Dec. 13.

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 2,326 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Aallyah Wright, Mississippi Today

The Career Empowerment Center in Marks, Miss.

MARKS — Dennis Washington, an 11-year custodian and bus driver for the Tunica County School District, has long aspired to become an electrician as a way to make additional income. For a few months now, the 50-year-old Tunica native has searched for online certification classes. 

Not long into his search, his wife learned of an opportunity: a six-to eight-week residential electrical wiring class in Marks. It was free, so he applied. 

“I would’ve had to pay for (the online class). I found this and by the grace of God, I got in it. I get hands-on experience. It saved me a lot of time and a lot of money,” Washington told Mississippi Today in a phone call. “I took the class because I have a son who is an electrician. I told him now I’ll be able to help him out. It motivated me to get it done.”

This “hands-on experience” is a part of the Career Empowerment Center, a job training program for people 18 and older in Quitman County and neighboring counties. 

Aallyah Wright, Mississippi Today

Forklifts at the center in Marks, Miss.

The program is run by the Marks Project — a nonprofit organization focused on empowering residents with resources, skills, and education — in partnership with Coahoma Community College and Northwest Mississippi Community College.

Founded in 2018, the goal of the Marks Project is to eradicate poverty through education, recreation, quality of life employment and job training. In Quitman County where the organization is located, the median household income is $25,283, according to U.S. Census data.

Launched in 2019, the program offers training in residential electrical wiring, welding, forklift operating, screen printing, report writing, basic computer skills, and GED prep. Both community colleges offer classes for the project and each class is required to have at least five students. It is housed in a 24,000 square foot building owned by Quitman County.

Steven Jossell, executive director of Coahoma Community College Workforce Development Center, said the mission is to address the needs and demands of industry, and the center is a proponent for workforce development. This is why Coahoma provided a welding class. 

“Welding is one of the most lucrative, skilled vocations in the country with a median entry-level wage in excess of $40,0000 annually,” Jossell said in an email.

The American Welding Society recently projected a shortage of 400,000 welders by 2024. As a result of this shortage, Jossell said the welding industry will have numerous employment opportunities for people “desiring to enter the vocation.”

Since the inception of the empowerment center, nearly 200 people have been trained, though it is unclear the total number of students who have gotten jobs.

“I think it really goes above and beyond and keeps a person (in their hometown),” said Wylie Lavender, advanced workforce trainer at Coahoma Community College Workforce Development Center. “Oftentimes, people are homebodies and hate to relocate … but we’ve had people gon’ up to Olive Branch and have got jobs.”

These jobs range from $14 to $19 an hour, Lavender said.

Lavender teaches a four-hour forklift class that includes OSHA and safety guidelines at the center. After the student completes the class, they receive a certification and a three-year license in forklift operation. 

Aallyah Wright, Mississippi Today

Judy Bland, director of the Marks Project, tours the facility.

The center halted operations for six months due to the coronavirus pandemic and major renovations to cooling and heating systems. Its doors reopened in October.

Until last year, the Marks Project’s efforts focused primarily on youth. For example, the organization helped build a playground and reopened a fitness center. The organization also partnered with Quitman County, Northwest and Coahoma colleges on a job readiness and GED program, and secured tutoring, ACT Prep, and Jump Start program in the Quitman County School District.

Mitch Campbell, co-founder of the Marks Project, said the Career Empowerment Center is an extension of their work.

“We had two ladies that went through our screen printing program. They set up their own businesses. One of the ladies told the class, ‘You’ve just received $1,000 worth of free training on how to do screen printing.’ She got it,” Campbell said. “People are coming forward. They want to support their family. They want a better opportunity … the goal is to hopefully bring something that sticks in Marks.”

Campbell said a lot of this wouldn’t be possible without the tireless work of Bland, the Marks Project director. Bland, 76, handles coordination of partners, daily operations, activities, bookkeeping, and a host of other responsibilities. 

After her retirement, she wanted to give more to her community.

“I like it here and I just want to be able to help people have a good standard of life,” Bland said. “This allows more people to work. If people could get trained and get jobs (as welders and electricians), they’re probably gonna make more money than I made teaching school.”

It took a collaborative effort byway of nonprofit, colleges and universities, and local government to push these initiatives forward, she added. The challenge, though, has been getting more community members involved, attracting more resources and funding. 

“It’s a community project. We’ve got to have community involvement. It’s just not going to work if we don’t get parents and teachers and students involved in this,” Robert Mehrle, board member for the Marks Project. “Then it’ll help the community and we’ve got to get people to stay.”

In spite of this, the important factor is creating change for people like Washington, the custodian and bus driver in Tunica County. This is why the group’s leaders plan to expand programming from birth through adulthood.

“It’s been a wonderful experience so far,” said Washington. “(Last year) I took a class at Coahoma and did plumbing. Now I’ll have a certificate in electrical wiring.”

The post How a Delta nonprofit and local community colleges are teaming up to provide free job training appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves, left, listens as State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs speaks about the state’s COVID-19 response during a press conference on April 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

As COVID-19 cases rose dramatically the past few weeks, Gov. Tate Reeves increasingly fell from public view, skipping chances to talk directly to Mississippians about his response to the worsening crisis.

Reeves, Mississippi’s top executive and the only leader who can issue statewide protocols that can stem the spread of the virus, has limited press conferences as he’s faced growing criticism from all corners of Mississippi.

In the early days of the pandemic and during the state’s first COVID-19 spike, the governor held press conferences almost daily. His staff organized those events — usually broadcast live by television stations across the state — to announce details of executive orders like mask mandates and limits on gatherings. They also gave Mississippians the chance to hear directly from Reeves while he answered questions about his decisions.

But in December, Mississippi’s worst month for the pandemic in every measure, the governor has made himself available to the public just twice. This week, he announced a substantial executive order that mandates mask-wearing in 78 of 82 counties. Instead of announcing it in front of cameras as he has all year, he announced it in short posts on Facebook and Twitter.

“Governor Tate Reeves has been more accessible to press than anyone in the media could have dreamed,” Parker Briden, Reeves’ deputy chief of staff, said in a text message. “Mississippi Today, in particular, has done nothing but insult and attack him at many of these press conferences, and most of the information he would present has been the same for months. Stay home if you can. Wash your hands. Be cautious. The notion that he has not been available for press is ridiculous, and it’s just more evidence that your outlet wants to do nothing but attack Tate Reeves. It’s your only interest.”

The numbers tell a different story.

When officials confirmed the virus reached Mississippi in late March, Reeves held press conferences nearly every weekday. The governor hosted 21 press conferences in the month of April. In May, he held 19.

In June, July and August, Reeves began scheduling press conferences every other day or twice a week. The governor hosted seven pressers in June, 13 in July and nine in August.

But since the current COVID-19 spike began, Reeves changed course and decreased his public appearances.

In September, Reeves held just four COVID-19 press conferences. In both October and November, he held just two. And so far in December, just two.

(Story continues below the charts.)

While press conferences have been placed on the back burner, Reeves’ office has remained accessible to reporters this year during the many crises the state has faced. Reeves has also taken some COVID-19 questions from reporters at other events, like on Dec. 6 following a legislative budget hearing.

In addition to the press conferences providing the public a chance to hear directly from the governor, they also gave a critical platform to health experts like State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs and Emergency Management Agency Director Greg Michel to offer important health and testing advice directly to Mississippians.

After Reeves called Dobbs his “closest advisor” and regularly offered time at the press conferences to the state’s chief health official, Dobbs has been hosting his own live pressers — usually once or twice a week — in lieu of the governor’s. Michel remains hospitalized himself with COVID-19.

Reeves has faced broad criticism from all quarters regarding his COVID-19 responses. With piecemeal orders on mask wearing and other measures, he’s been criticized both by those wanting stringent public health regulations and those who believe government should be hands-off.

He’s decried the “heavy hand of government,” defending criticism that he should have done more, sooner, but managed to issue enough pandemic edicts to also rile up the more libertarian wing of his base. 

Along the way, he’s also managed to insult state medical leaders, who he publicly called “so-called experts” recently. At a November press conference about medical experts speaking out publicly about his actions, Reeves labeled mask mandates as the latest pandemic “buzzword.” Still, as COVID-19 numbers have risen in recent weeks, the most consistent action he’s taken is issuing mask mandates on a county-by-county basis.

While issuing executive orders for Mississippians to wear masks and limit gatherings, he’s shown up in crowds not wearing a mask and hosted Christmas parties and fundraisers.

The last COVID-19 press conference he hosted was on Dec. 9. He faced more than 90 minutes of questions, mostly about his hosting the Christmas parties and attending fundraisers. He also faced questions about why he hadn’t re-issued a statewide mask mandate even as numbers spiked.

Reeves’ last appearance was on Dec. 20 in a live video on his Facebook page. That day, he prayed and read from the Bible for about 20 minutes on what he declared as the “Mississippi Day of Prayer, Humility, and Fasting.”

Meanwhile, Dobbs and other state health experts have warned that bed space in most hospitals across the state is already at its limit. The state reported its third-highest daily total number of new cases on Wednesday, and its highest number of deaths on a single day on Tuesday.

Dobbs, in his own press conference on Tuesday, issued a grim warning as holidays approach.

“It’s bad, and it’s gonna get worse,” he said.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves increasingly avoids facing public during worsening COVID-19 crisis appeared first on Mississippi Today.