Kamren James’ fourth inning home run to left field was a no-doubter, as his reaction shows. (MSU athletics)
STARKVILLE — The Ole Miss Rebels didn’t have Jake Mangum to kick them around Friday night. But Mississippi State’s deep, talented pitching did the job anyway in the Bulldogs’ 5-2 victory before an announced crowd of 10,291 fans that might well have been even larger.
The festive crowd surely seemed larger and louder when Bulldog freshman Landon Sims struck out T.J. McCants on a 96 mph fastball for the last out, setting off an extended fireworks show beyond the right centerfield stands at Dudy Noble Field.
So make that 15 Mississippi State victories in the last 17 meetings between the two arch-rivals. Mangum, now in the minor league system of the New York Mets, had been the catalyst for many of those 14 previous Bulldog victories. Mangum was watching on TV from spring training in Florida, but State was just fine without him.
Starter Christian MacLeod, reliever Preston Johnson and closer Sims provided the pitching, allowing only six Rebel hits, while striking out a combined 12 batters. That was more than enough to make up for the sharp pitching performance by Ole Miss starter Gunnar Hoglund, who allowed only four Bulldog hits, while striking out nine, over seven innings.
Rick Cleveland
It was the kind of well-played game you’d expect from two teams ranked among the best in the country. No. 4 (USA Today coaches poll) Mississippi State moved to 26-7 overall and 9-4 in the SEC, while the No. 6 Rebels dropped to 25-9 overall and 8-5 in the league.
The Rebels will try again to break the Bulldog’s seeming hex Saturday in a 2 p.m. game, and a third game is scheduled for Sunday at 1. You can expect Saturday’s crowd to be even larger as it follows immediately State’s spring football game.
State coach Chris Lemonis has utilized a remarkable 24 pitchers in 33 games thus far. Even more remarkably, those 24 pitchers have struck out 430 batters in 296 innings. None of the three Bulldog pitchers were really taxed Friday night. MacLeod, a freshman lefty, threw 85 pitches and fanned five in his five innings. Johnson, a sophomore righthander, struckout four in his two innings and then Sims fanned three in his two innings. It seemed as if any of the three could have pitched more if needed. But if you’ve got all that pitching depth, why not use it?
Sims deserves another paragraph here. A sophomore in school but a freshman eligibility-wise, he has now allowed only one run in 23.1 innings. He has struck out 46 – or two per inning – while walking only seven. This was his fourth save.
Said Lemonis of Sims, “He’s just one of those guys, he brings energy to the ballpark. Our fans, when they see him coming in they give him a standing ovation. Our fans understand. He’s a special player. . . . I’m glad he’s on our side.”
Said Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, “Credit their pitchers. They were outstanding.”
But then so was Hoglund, who not only fanned nine Bulldogs but did not walk any. “I felt really good,” Hoglund said. “Yeah, it’s a tough atmosphere here, but you just have to make good pitches.”
Hoglund mostly did. There were a few he would have liked to have had back. And all those were thrown to Tanner Allen and Kamren James, the second and third batters in the Bulldog lineup. Allen ripped a double and triple off Hoglund and scored two runs. James powered a fourth inning home run to tie the score after Ole Miss had taken a 2-1 lead. He then put the Bulldogs ahead for good with a sixth inning sacrifice fly, his first of two.
All the while, the SRO crowd cheered lustily.
Lemonis doesn’t take the crowd for granted.
“It’s how much they love baseball,” Lemonis said. ”It’s not out of control, it’s knowledgeable. Our fans know what’s going on. They know everything. They’re in it at the right moments….It just makes it fun for us. Even in batting practice, when the gates open, you see all the fans and students load into the berms. …We’re very fortunate to have a fan base like ours.”
The number of new COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths in Mississippi has continued the sharp decline seen since their peak in January. This is thanks to the rapid expansion of vaccination efforts across the state, though health officials continue to warn that this progress is threatened by the emergence of new variants.
Mississippi’s 7-day average for new cases is 235, which represents a more than 90% decrease from the January peak. This decline is higher than the national average, which has decreased by 75% during the same period. COVID-related hospitalizations in Mississippi have also decreased by nearly 86% since their peak.
As COVID-19 numbers have trended downward, the arrival of new variants bodes the possibility of a new wave of infections. On Friday, The White House announced a new plan to dedicate nearly $2 billion from the American Rescue Plan towards strengthening and expanding the tracking of COVID-19 variants across the country.
“State and local public health departments are on the frontlines of beating back the pandemic, but they need more capacity to detect these variants early on before dangerous outbreaks… This investment will give public health officials the chance to react more quickly to prevent and stop the spread,” Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said during a press briefing.
The B.1.1.7 variant, which originated in the United Kingdom, represents the vast majority of variant infections in Mississippi and the majority of new infections nationally. The variant is estimated to be around 60% more contagious and 67% more deadly than the original version.
Over the last month, three new variants of COVID-19 have been detected in Mississippi: one that originated in South Africa and two that originated in California.
Vaccination is still the best guard against the virus in all its forms, officials have said. Though the state passed the 1.5 million shot mark earlier this week, Mississippi currently ranks last in the nation in the share of its population that have received at least one dose. A delayed start in the vaccine rollout, accessibility issues and vaccine hesitancy have all contributed to the state’s comparatively low rate of inoculation.
Vaccination efforts across the country were slowed on Tuesday after federal health agencies recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine after six recipients developed an extremely rare blood clot.
The Mississippi State Department of Health instructed vaccine providers to refrain from using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until more guidance is available from federal health agencies. Out of all the Mississippians who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, less than 5% of them received Johnson & Johnson.
It is unclear how long the halt will last and how it will impact public trust in COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared on several local TV stations across Mississippi on Wednesday to assuage the concerns of those troubled by the Johnson & Johnson halt.
In an interview on WLOX, Dr. Fauci encouraged Mississippians to remember that they have a less than one in one million chances of forming the blood clotting in question after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“So if I were not in my position, and I was looking at it from the outside, I would say the bottom line is that those people (federal and state health agencies) are paying a lot of attention to safety,” Fauci said. “So when they say something is safe, you better believe them because they are really paying a lot of attention.”
A year after all but one of Mississippi’s public universities declined to increase tuition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s business as usual: Tuition is once again going up this fall for most students at public universities.
The Board of Trustees for the State Institution of Higher Learning (IHL), which oversees the state’s eight public universities, unanimously and without discussion approved tuition increases at its monthly meeting on Thursday. Every university requested a tuition increase except for Jackson State University, which will not increase tuition in the fall.
This brings the average tuition for in-state undergraduates to $8,219, up $222 from last fiscal year, a modest increase compared to previous years. In-state tuition increases will range from $6,928 at Mississippi Valley State University, an increase of $202, to $9,110 at Mississippi State University, up $310, according to the IHL finance committee.
To some families, those increases may not seem like much. But for working-class students and their families, a couple hundred dollars “is often the make or break between, ‘Can I go to the university or do I go to community college?’” said Ann Hendrick, the director of Get2College, a nonprofit that works to increase the number of students attending college statewide.
These tuition increases mean that students and families in Mississippi will continue to shoulder the bulk of the state’s public university budgets, Hendrick said. This is a trend that goes back to 2000, when Mississippi started to slash its higher education budget. As state funding has plummeted in the years since, universities increasingly turn to tuition revenue to cover their operating costs.
Tuition now comprises the majority of universities’ revenue in Mississippi. In 2018, tuition comprised 54% of public university revenue, compared to 25% in 2008, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
“Any time there’s a cut to higher education, it results in an increase in tuition, and it pushes the cost to students and their families,” Hendrick said. “It puts college out of reach. And it lowers choices for students, in particular choices for low-income students.”
The tuition increase comes even as the Legislature increased funding for public universities by 4.3% this session. Much of that increase will go to fixing up infrastructure and boosting faculty and staff compensation.
Ford Dye, the IHL board president, said the trustees appreciated the increased appropriations intended for faculty pay raises.
“It is important that we invest in those who work hard every day on behalf of our universities, our students, and our state,” Dye told Mississippi Today. “The board has advocated for additional funds to be used in this manner for several years.”
“However, our faculty salaries remain 20% lower than the Southern Regional Education Board average, and 11.2% lower than the universities in our neighboring states,” he added.
The average family income in Mississippi has also stagnated compared to the rising cost of college. In 2019, the Clarion-Ledger reported that in-state tuition rose 71% from fall 2009 to fall 2019, while annual income for the typical Mississippi family increased by 25%.
This fall, a typical family will spend 18% of their annual income to afford the average tuition at Mississippi’s public universities.
“We have so many students that simply can’t afford the cost of college without borrowing,” Hendrick said.
As a result, more than half of Mississippi college students graduated with an average of $31,651 in student debt in 2019, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.
At Thursday’s meeting, IHL also approved tuition increases for professional schools, including UMMC, and raised tuition for out-of-state students to $12,273, up $358. Four universities — Delta State University, Alcorn State University, Mississippi University for Women, and MVSU — don’t add a surcharge to tuition for out-of-state students.
The average dorm room rates for double occupancy is also increasing to $5,545, up $74, though JSU is dropping its rate by $59. Meal plans are also increasing to an average of $3,873, up $123.
Most universities did not increase tuition last year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The sole school to increase tuition was Delta State.
Editor’s note: Get2College is a program of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation, a Mississippi Today donor.
We want to hear from Mississippians — particularly millennials and Gen Z — about the future of the state we call home.
We intimately understand that constant internal question: “Should I stay in Mississippi, or should I leave?” We watch in sorrow but understanding as our peers make the decision to leave and build their lives elsewhere. We hear the complaints of young people who stay about a lack of policy focus on what we need, and we continue to cover the same tired platitudes from politicians.
Additionally, many young people speak up about the importance of Jackson — our state’s capital city and the anchor of our largest metropolitan area. However, as our friends and family members are leaving Mississippi for nearby vibrant cities, Mississippi state leaders continue to offer little support to Jackson.
Many young people are thriving in Mississippi. More often, many are struggling or making great sacrifices to stay. Others want to leave but don’t have the means or ability.
Regardless of your perspective, we want to hear from you. We’re launching a reporting project centered on these realities, and we need your help. Spend some time with these questions, and share them with your friends. The more data we have, the better informed our reporting will be.
The information you share about yourself will not be shared outside our newsroom. But if you’d be willing to talk more with us about your thoughts and ideas, please say so in the final question.
Jake Mangum kisses the Governor’s Cup after Mississippi State defeated Ole Miss in 2019. Mangum helped State dominate Ole Miss in recent seasons with the Bulldogs winning 14 of the last 16. But Mangum has moved on and perhaps the most anticipated Rebel-Bulldog games in the series’ 128-year history are this weekend in Starkville..
Ole Miss and Mississippi State have played baseball for 128 years. That’s a lot of history. And yet, there probably has never been a more anticipated Rebel-Bulldog baseball series than the one scheduled for this weekend in Starkville.
That’s why seats are selling for $400 on Stubhub. There’s no official word, but I am told that nobody will be turned away from the Friday, Saturday and Sunday games. Crowds of more than 12,000 are entirely possible, depending on the weather. Standing room only seats are available for $80 on Stubhub, but here’s a veteran tip: You can just go on hailstate.com and buy an SRO ticket for 10 bucks.
What we have here is the perfect storm (and I am not talking about the rain predicted for Friday and Saturday). Here’s what I mean by a perfect storm:
No. 1: These guys are good. State, 25-7, is ranked No. 4 in the USA Today coaches poll, while Ole Miss, 25-8, is ranked No. 6. Both teams have national championship aspirations.
No. 2: It’s Super Bulldog Weekend in Starkville, which traditionally means multiple sporting events, including the spring football game, and big crowds.
No. 3: Hopefully, we are nearing the end of a pandemic. At the very least COVID-19 numbers are down in Mississippi. Many folks have been vaccinated and are eager to return to live sports events.
No. 4: It’s Ole Miss vs. State. No explanation necessary.
Rick Cleveland
Since we began today talking about history, let’s continue. State leads the all-time series 258-207-5. At State, the Bulldogs lead 123-81-1. At Ole Miss, State leads 100-99-3. Neutral sites, including the SEC Tournament? State leads 42-29-1.
The first game ever between the arch-rivals was in October 1892. State won 6-3 at Starkville. The two teams tied 5-5 the next spring at Oxford when rain ended the game after three innings.
The rivalry was intense, even then in the 19th century. State beat the Rebels 5-2 at Columbus in 1897, but Ole Miss claims a 9-0 victory over State by forfeit later that spring. Must have been a helluva dispute over that forfeit because the two didn’t play again until seven years later in 1904 when State won two of three one-run games, all played at Columbus.
Clark Randolph “Dudy” Noble, for whom State’s baseball stadium is named, was a four-sport letterman and played baseball on the Mississippi A&M teams of 1913-15. He captained the 1914 team that lost three of four games to an Ole Miss team coached by none other than Casey Stengel, the future New York Yankees manager and Baseball Hall of Famer.
Dudy Noble knew the Ole Miss-State series from both sides. Credit: MSU athletics
Noble fared much better against Ole Miss in football. In fact, in 1915, he quarterbacked State to a 65-0 victory, throwing three touchdowns back when passing at all was a rarity. It remains the largest margin of victory in Egg Bowl history.
But here’s where the story takes a turn. Not long after his graduation from State, Noble became a coach at Ole Miss. His 1918 Ole Miss team finished 9-1, winning three of four games with its Starkville rivals. Noble’s 1919 Ole Miss team lost three of four to State. Apparently, Dudy had had enough of living at the school to the north.
Noble returned to State and became State’s baseball coach in 1920 and for the next 24 years. The first State team he coached split four games with Ole Miss. There should never, ever be a smidgen of doubt about Noble’s loyalty to his alma mater, even though he coached football, baseball and basketball for a couple years at Ole Miss. Later in life he told a sports writer, “I know what hell is like. I once coached at Ole Miss.”
One of Noble’s best-ever decisions as State’s baseball coach was to sign Dave “Boo” Ferriss to the first full baseball scholarship in Mississippi history. Ole Miss and Alabama had offered Ferriss half-scholarships. Noble offered a full ride and got a bargain. Ferriss, a future Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer, would pitch right-handed, play first base left-handed and bat left-handed, as well. He was amphibious, as Stengel would say. He did all well.
William Winter as a student journalist at Ole Miss Credit: 1949 Ole Miss annual
In Ferriss’s last pitching performance for Mississippi State, he beat Ole Miss at Oxford. Future Mississippi governor and lifelong baseball fan William Winter, who covered the game for The Mississippian, interviewed Ferriss coming off the field. “I was an Ole Miss man, but I was also a Boo Ferriss fan,” Winter once told this writer. “I probably called him Mr. Ferriss. I just knew he was going to be a Major League star.”
There have been so many more legendary players and future Major League stars on both sides of the rivalry: Don Kessinger, Joe Gibbon, Jake Gibbs, Seth Smith, David Delucci, Lance Lynn and so many more at Ole Miss; Willie Mitchell, Buddy Myer, Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Brantley, Bobby Thigpen, Jay Powell, Hunter Renfroe and so many, many more at State.
No doubt, there are future Major Leaguers on both sides this season. Clearly, these are two of the elite teams in the SEC, which means two of the elite teams in the country.
Mississippi State has dominated in recent seasons. The Bulldogs have won 14 of the last 16 meetings, including all four in 2019. (There were no 2020 games because of the season shortened by the pandemic.) One bright spot for Ole Miss: Jake Mangum, the catalyst for so many of those recent State victories, has moved on to professional baseball.
Three years ago, Mangum probably spoke for so many Rebels and Bulldogs after he scored the winning run in a Governor’s Cup game at Trustmark Park. “There’s nothing I’d rather do than beat those guys,” Mangum told me. “I like a lot of their players, but I can’t stand the team.”
SirSandra Jordan had worked in public education in Starkville for 24 years when she decided in 2018 to move away.
The youngest of her two kids had left for college on a football scholarship. She was due to retire in a few years. And she wanted to take care of her uncle, who lived with the rest of her family in Carrollton, a 181-person town on the edge of the Delta.
SirSandra Jordan
At the time, Jordan was an administrator in facilities management at Mississippi State University, overseeing the department’s credit cards. Her salary was $36,000. It had been barely enough to cover her expenses when her youngest lived at home, but it was also the most she’d ever made.
Jordan looked for local jobs in Carrollton, but none paid more than $30,000. Rather than take a pay cut, she kept working at MSU, where she’s still employed today.
Most days, Jordan leaves her house around 5 a.m. for the 70-mile, one-way drive. She maintains a modest lifestyle. Her fridge is rarely stocked; she often splits the same meal between lunch and dinner. Since gas is her biggest expense, she sometimes stays in Starkville with friends who cook for her. She’s had to defer car payments and borrow from family.
When money is tight, Jordan, who is diabetic, said she gets “so consumed and overwhelmed with finances that I just forget to take care of my own self.” She puts sticky notes on her bathroom mirror to remind herself to eat.
“With God’s help, I’ve survived and I’ve been able to maintain some type of livable life as a single mom with a son in college in another state,” Jordan said. “But it’s been a struggle, a true struggle for me.”
Jordan’s story is common among the nearly 25,000 people who work at Mississippi’s eight public colleges and universities. Like their K-12 counterparts, higher ed faculty and staff in Mississippi, no matter their institution or rank, are among the lowest-paid in the South, according to the Southern Regional Education Board.
These low salaries are among the lingering effects of the Great Recession, which began years of divestment in higher education by the Legislature. Like the rest of the country, Mississippi slashed its higher ed budget at the height of the financial crisis. But as neighboring states have slowly increased funding for higher ed in the years since, Mississippi’s spending per student continues to drop. To make up the shortfalls, community colleges and universities have increased tuition, but it has not been enough to fund regular across-the-board pay raises.
Year after year, the Institutions of Higher Learning and the Mississippi’s community colleges ask the Legislature to set aside funds for raises. This past session, IHL asked for an additional $29.5 million for a pay raise that would “begin moving faculty salaries to the SREB average.” The community colleges asked for $10 million, enough for a 3% across-the-board raise.
Their requests were granted — sort of.
In the final week of the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers eked out an agreement to set aside $12.5 million in general fund revenue for salary increases for higher education employees — $9.2 million for the public universities, and $3.3 million for the community colleges. This is enough for a 1% across-the-board pay raise, which will go into effect July 1. Campus leaders could grant some employees a 5% raise and others none.
For Jordan, a 1% raise would be about $35 a month.
“Something is better than nothing,” Jordan said. “But it’s effectively nothing. It’s not even a tank of gas for me. It’s really not anything of significance to someone like me.”
The Legislature most recently set aside money for salary increases for higher ed employees last fiscal year. About $874,000 was allocated for pay raises for community college employees, and another $1,951,762 was appropriated for universities that had not received a state-funded raise in the last three years.
Despite these appropriations, real average salaries for higher education employees in Mississippi have actually fallen since the Great Recession.Faculty at Mississippi’s public universities make nearly $1,500 less than they did in 2007, before the Great Recession, according to the SREB.
Community college instructors have experienced an even bigger drop in real average salaries — about $4,100. In years when the Legislature doesn’t allocate additional funds for raises, public universities can draw on their large endowments, pricey tuition fees and deep-pocketed alumni to increase salaries anyway. Community colleges don’t have those kinds of resources, so it’s harder for them to afford raises in years without state funding.
At Southwest Mississippi Community College, increasing employee pay according to the salary schedule has been “a balancing act” without commensurate state funding, said Steven Bishop, the president.
“If we get a cut in the appropriation and no money for a raise, it is very challenging,” to afford raises, Bishop said. “We have to muster up our resources, if you will, to determine if we can develop a raise.”
Some of the factors that influence whether SWMCC can afford a raise by itself in any given year, Bishop said, include revenue from increased enrollment and tuition, and the number of retirees.
“When a person or an employee retires,” Bishop said, “we hire another person. Typically they don’t have as much experience, so they get paid a little less.”
When Renee Moore, the chair of the english department at Mississippi Delta Community College, retires this July, she won’t be replaced. Since the award-winning educator started teaching at MDCC fifteen years ago, she has watched colleagues juggle side jobs, department budgets dwindle, and open positions go unfilled.
After years of state divestment in community colleges, Moore said a 1% raise is “insulting, really, and it’s short-sighted.”
“The Legislature is abdicating, just neglecting its responsibility,” to fund education, she said. “It is basically saying, ‘Here’s a little scrap of money. Do what you can with it.’”
At University of Mississippi, Conor Dowling, an associate professor of political science, said a 1% raise won’t do much for faculty and staff, especially those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. More than a year into the pandemic, many departments had prepared for painful budget cuts. Some adjuncts were told there likely won’t be jobs for them come the fall, said Dowling, who organizes with United Campus Workers, a union affiliated with Communication Workers of America. Several programs cut funding for prospective graduate students, leading some to decline admission to UM in lieu of better-paying schools.
“One percent doesn’t correct for long-standing reductions in state support for higher ed,” Dowling said. “It’s not enough and it’s a little late … especially for those who are rightfully concerned about what the future brings.”
Other UCW members, such as Michael Forster, a professor of social work at University of Southern Mississippi, are concerned the raises may not be equitably distributed among faculty and staff, since campus leadership can choose to forgo an across-the-board raise in order to give some employees a 5% raise and other none. IHL has historically directed university leadership to disburse raises based on merit, market and equity adjustments, and promotions. Forster said he would urge universities to use the funds to bring salaries in line with the cost of living.
“It’s like (lawmakers) don’t want to see anyone getting any money they don’t deserve,” he said. “If you’re breathing and you still have a job, you’re entitled to a cost-of-living increase.”
The kicker for many faculty and staff is that while their pay has stagnated, top administrators have seen their salaries shoot up. In 2019, the presidents of the state’s eight public universities had salaries ranging from $215,000 at Delta State University to $800,000 at Mississippi State University.
Jordan plans to retire as a state employee next year. She will collect a pension on the most money she’s ever made, which is around $42,000. She plans to find another full-time job closer to Carrollton, which she hopes, when combined with her retirement check, will provide her more financial security.
“It’s always unfair,” Jordan said. “The ones who make more always get more. The ones who make less always stay at the bottom.”
The medical marijuana program Mississippi voters approved in November, set to begin in August, hangs in the balance with the state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments about Initiative 65 on Wednesday.
The arguments have nothing to do with medical marijuana or the program voters enshrined in the state constitution, but on procedural issues — whether Initiative 65’s placement on the ballot through a signature petition was constitutionally proper.
Chief Justice Michael Randolph indicated the nine-judge court would issue an opinion as quickly as possible and, “I know many people are waiting on this.”
“It’s in the judges’ hands now,” said Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler, who filed a Supreme Court challenge to Initiative 65 just days before voters approved it on Nov. 3. “This is one of those defining moments for our state. Maybe we can take care of other antiquated laws that are hindering our progress and our growth.”
Hawkins left the high court’s chambers without taking further media questions Wednesday.
Secretary of State Michael Watson, who took office after the November elections, said “brilliant attorneys” on each side of Butler v. Watson made compelling arguments and regardless the outcome, “we’re all friends, we’re all Mississippians and we’ll move forward.”
Butler argues that the ballot initiative language added to Section 273(3) of the state constitution in 1992 requires proponents to gather signatures evenly from five Mississippi congressional districts — with no more than 1/5, or 20% coming from any single district — to ensure geographic parity.
But Mississippi has had only four congressional districts since the 2000 Census. Butler argues it’s a “mathematical certainty” that of the nearly 106,000 certified voter signatures collected from what are now four districts to put Initiative 65 on the ballot last year, signatures from at least one of the districts surpasses 20%.
Secretary of State Michael Watson speaks with media after oral arguments were presented before the state Supreme Court regarding Initiative 65 on medical marijuana Wednesday morning in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Watson argues that while a panel of federal judges ordered Mississippi to use a four-district map for congressional elections, the Legislature never adopted it in state law and “five congressional districts exist under state law and may be used for anything but congressional elections.” The old districts are still used for appointments to state agencies, boards and commissions. Watson’s lawyers from the attorney general’s office say Watson’s predecessor, now Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, properly certified Initiative 65 petition signatures using the five old districts in state law.
Lawyers on both sides argued Wednesday that “plain language” reading of the passage in the state constitution makes their case.
“(The) language is plain, and a congressional district is the area from where a member of Congress is elected,” said Kaytie M. Pickett, attorney for Butler. “We have four … Ask anybody on the street how many we have, they’ll say four … Qualified elector — those words matter, too … Someone cannot be a qualified elector of the fifth district … a district that does not exist.”
Deputy Attorney General Justin L. Matheny, representing Watson, said a plain reading of the entire ballot initiative section of the constitution makes clear voters have the right to amend the constitution at the ballot box, and the 1/5 petition signature requirement is simply to make sure they are geographically dispersed. Both stipulations were met with Initiative 65, Matheny told justices. He said the section also prohibits the Legislature from doing anything to impair voters’ rights to a ballot initiative.
Justices noted that state congressional districts have changed and will continue to change with population shifts. Matheny said this shows the intent of constitutional framers was not to have the initiative right nullified by a change in congressional districts.
“We don’t think the intent was to set up something impossible,” Matheny said.
Justice Kenny Griffis said he understood the Legislature in the 1990s was reluctant to allow voters to approve a ballot initiative process and did so “kicking and screaming.” He questioned whether some of the wording had the “intent of defeating the ability of people to change the constitution.”
Chief Justice Randolph’s questioning of Matheny was at times pointed and sharp.
Chief Justice Michael Randolph poses a question during oral arguments regarding Initiative 65 on medical marijuana Wednesday morning in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
“You want me to go to a statute in order to interpret the constitution?” Randolph told Matheny. “I’ve got a problem with that … The dictionary says a congressional district is a part of a state from which a member of the U.S. House of Representatives is elected … If the words are clear, everybody in this room including you agrees we have four congressional districts. Why go anywhere else? What license do we have to go past the plain language, outside of that?”
Justices Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell II questioned Pickett why the Legislature and voters would have adopted a constitutional amendment thinking it would be subject to Census changes.
“Your position is the Legislature adopted this with the understanding it could be impossible to meet in 10 years or less?” Chamberlin said.
Maxwell said: “So if we lose a federal representative, through federal law, it means our citizens don’t have the means to change our state constitution? Somehow those two things are related?”
Justice Josiah Coleman noted the state statute with five congressional districts “has never been declared unconstitutional, we’ve never been asked to declare it so.” Pickett responded that “a statute cannot change the plain meaning of the constitution.”
Justice Dawn Beam at the outset of the hearing noted her children were watching a livestream of the proceedings, “and I want to make clear, it is totally irrelevant what this court thinks about or how we voted on Initiative 65” but the court will make its decision on constitutional issues. Medical marijuana was barely mentioned during Wednesday’s hearing.
Attorney Kaytie Pickett before the Mississippi Supreme Court during oral arguments challenging ballot Initiative 65 on medical marijuana Wednesday morning in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Justices James Kitchens and Leslie King did not ask any questions of either side during Wednesday’s arguments.
Some legal and political observers have questioned whether an adverse ruling on Initiative 65 could open other ballot initiatives from the last 20 years, such as limits on eminent domain and voter ID requirements, to being challenged and overturned.
Watson said he believes that is not a concern because the “doctrine of laches” barring unreasonable delays in legal challenges would prevent such issues. He said laches should also have prevented Butler’s challenge of Initiative 65 just days before the Nov. 3 election.
But Watson said he is concerned about current and future initiatives, and noted that “three or four are to the point of gathering signatures now” amid uncertainty until, and maybe after, the court rules.
It would appear a ruling totally accepting Butler’s arguments would nullify voters’ rights to ballot initiatives until the Legislature and voters changed both the constitution and state law.
Angie Calhoun of Puckett, one of the leaders of the citizen-led drive for medical marijuana in Mississippi, attended Wednesday’s high court hearing and had signed on as an amicus, or friend of the court, on Watson’s side. Calhoun is the mother of a son who suffered medical problems she said could have been treated with marijuana. Her son, now an adult, eventually moved out of state so he could use medical marijuana.
“I believe our justices will do what’s right an uphold the will of the voters,” Calhoun said. “… I feel like our Legislature obviously has failed us.”
After lawmakers failed for years to approve use of medical marijuana despite a groundswell of public support, voters took matters in hand in November with Initiative 65. The Legislature tried this session to pass a “backstop” or alternative medical marijuana program should the Supreme Court strike down the one voters pass, but the legislation was killed after much debate. Initiative 65 supporters viewed it as a legislative move to usurp the will of voters.
With less than a week before Gov. Tate Reeves must approve the education budget passed by lawmakers this year, a merit pay program he supports was not funded this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The School Recognition Program, which provides bonuses for public school teachers in high-performing schools and those that improve their students’ achievement, went unfunded this year by the Legislature. And with less than a week before Reeves must sign or veto the state’s education budget, it is unclear whether he will push back.
Last year, Reeves partially vetoed the education budget because it did not fund the School Recognition Program, which he championed dating back to his time as lieutenant governor. Lawmakers overrode Reeves’ veto but also passed a separate bill for $28 million for the School Recognition Program.
Sen. Dennis DeBar, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the program went unfunded this year after state testing was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program awards bonuses to educators based on schools’ accountability ratings, which are based partly on students’ performance on state tests. Without year-over-year test results, bonuses would prove difficult to award.
Reeves’ office did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about whether he would sign or veto the education bill.
Schools will also keep their previous accountability ratings for the 2020-2021 school year after the State Board of Education decided testing would take place this year to get a sense of where students are academically, but no new accountability grades would be issued. That means the program likely won’t be funded next year either.
The Legislature created the program in 2014. It financially rewards schools and teachers for student performance and improved letter grades in annual accountability ratings, which are based partly on students’ performance on state tests.
Teachers in A-rated schools or those that improve from a ‘F’ to ‘D,’ or ‘D’ to ‘C,’ receive $100 per student, and teachers at ‘B’ rated schools receive $75 per student.
Supporters of the program, including Reeves, say it incentivizes educators to work harder to raise student performance. But critics say it exacerbates inequity among wealthy and cash-strapped school districts. There are also concerns about a lack of guidelines in how to distribute the funds and who is eligible for them.
“I think it’s a program that needs some work, as far as ensuring some of the kinks that are in it are worked out,” said DeBar.
