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How unlikely was it that lawmakers would vote to change the state flag one year ago today?

“It would be the greatest legislative achievement in the history of the state,” a top adviser to Gov. Tate Reeves told this journalist just 12 days before the final vote. “There’s just no way it’ll happen.”

Many Mississippi elected officials tried unsuccessfully over the course of several decades to change the 126-year-old state flag, which would become the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.

Speaker of the House Philip Gunn did it.

For most Mississippi observers, the process to change the state flag lasted 22 days in June 2020. But for Gunn, the process lasted five years and one week — a harrowing period in the speaker’s career that has never been told in detail until now.

Gunn, in a series of one-on-one interviews this year, spoke candidly with Mississippi Today about what motivated him to make this the defining issue of his political career, and how he operated behind the scenes to make the change. Beginning today, the one-year anniversary of the historic legislative vote to furl the flag for good, Mississippi Today will publish a five-part series chronicling Gunn’s leadership that left a legacy on the state for generations to come.

It’s important to note a few things. The first is that Gunn himself will not take full credit for the change. While he acknowledged organizing and leading many of the key efforts, he’s quick to point out many people and factors came together at the right time — “divine providence,” he calls it. But those closest to the speaker and the process know that without Gunn’s leadership, the change would not have occurred. This series shares the perspectives of many of those people.

Second, Gunn wouldn’t have had the ground to stand on had it not been for the countless legislators and activists — namely African American leaders — who fought for decades to change the flag. Gunn even being in the position to take a stand came after generations of white elected officials lacked either the will or the savvy to change the flag. Nevertheless, Gunn went on a limb in 2015 and laid the groundwork for the historic vote. This reporting quotes several Black leaders who saw that from him over the course of several years.

Lastly, this series does not seek to diminish the work of the many people who fought for the change — both last year and in years past. The reporting does definitively show, however, how the flag would not have changed last year without Gunn’s leadership.

Gunn’s conviction to change the flag didn’t waver even as most of his white legislative colleagues feared the electoral repercussions. Exhibiting both patience and tenacity, he built relationships and coalitions over the past few years that would become critical to the final outcome. He used shrewdness the likes of which have rarely been matched in recent political history. 

He pleaded to the humanity of resistant white lawmakers, and he inspired their changes of heart to the point a couple of the most stubborn legislative holdouts brought their children to the Capitol to witness the historic final vote. He showed decisive leadership during a couple key inflection points last June, including single-handedly saving the effort from being killed less than a week before the final vote.

This reporting is based on four interviews conducted this year with Gunn, with many lawmakers and other stakeholders intimately involved with the process to change the flag, and from personal recollections of the past several months and years.

Part one of the series will publish on June 28, part two on June 29, part three on June 30, part four on July 1 and part five on July 2.

The post Inside Philip Gunn’s efforts to change the state flag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

OMAHA — You scratch. You claw. You somehow fight you way through three dramatic, one-run victories to get to the championship round of the College World Series. And then, who do you face?

Why, defending national champion Vanderbilt’s much-feared, soon-to-be-multi-millionaire Jack Leiter, of course. 

Mississippi State has a chore on its hands tonight in the first game of the CWS best-of-three championship series that begins at 6 p.m. at what will be a jam-packed TD Ameritrade Park.

“Best arm in the country,” Tanner Allen, Mississippi State’s SEC Player of the Year, said Sunday. “Unbelievable talent.”

Leiter, son of former Major League star Al Leiter, probably will be the first college pitcher chosen in next month’s Major League draft. He won 10 games for the Commodores this season. More impressively, he struck out 171 batters in 104 innings. He throws a 95 mph fastball that he can accelerate to 98. His curveball, which seems to drop off the face of the planet, is devastating. And he has a terrific slider, too. He commands all, which is why some Major League team is going to write him a huge check later this summer.

Funny, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said Sunday he didn’t know if he would start Leiter. He said it with a straight face, too. Forget that. Leiter will pitch tonight. He would have thrown against North Carolina State Saturday had the game been played. Now Leiter has had another 48 hours of rest. 

Even so, State knows Leiter can be beat. After all, the Bulldogs beat him in Nashville back in April. The Bulldogs lost two of three in the series, but they did scorch Leiter. Rowdey Jordan homered to lead off the game and the Bulldogs scored four runs on six hits in five innings off Leiter en route to a 7-4 victory. Logan Tanner also homered. Tanner Allen had two hits and scored twice off the Vandy ace.

So, it can be done, and the Bulldogs know it.

To win, the Bulldogs will need a terrific pitching performance of their own. They are counting on left-hander Christian MacLeod to provide that. MacLeod (6-5, 4.61 ERA) blanked Vandy for three innings in the opener of that April series before Vandy knocked him out of the box with four runs in the fourth inning en route to a 6-2 victory.

“I had some pretty good stuff early,” MacLeod said Sunday. “My changeup was really working well.”

MacLeod struck out seven over those first three innings before he lost command of his pitches, especially his changeup. He fell behind in counts. The results were not good.

“I left some pitches up,” MacLeod said. “They made me pay for it. That’s a good lineup they have over there.”

It is. Vanderbilt, the defending national champion, has won eight of its last nine games.

“They have been here,” Chris Lemonis said. “They know how to win. … They know how to play the game and they are really well coached.”

Said Tanner Allen, “Vanderbilt is an unbelievable team… They have good arms and they can really swing it. We’ll have our hands full, but like I said, we didn’t expect this to be a cakewalk. We’re ready for it.”

Vandy is, too. These two Southeastern Conference teams have played some memorable games over the last few springs. There’s no reason to expect anything different here when the stakes are even higher.

The post Vandy’s Leiter, soon to be a very rich man, presents hurdle for Bulldogs in game one of national title appeared first on Mississippi Today.

OMAHA — So there’s a narrative making the rounds – particularly on social media – that no matter who wins this College World Series, it’s a tainted championship.

You know why. It is because North Carolina State, a CWS semifinalist, got eliminated by COVID-19, and not on the field. You know the story. No reason to rehash it all. It’s a terrible, horrible, awful, regretful thing that happened to the Wolfpack, who were a Cinderella story if there ever was on in college baseball. 

Chris Lemonis may have said it best. “Man, it sucks what happened,” he said in a Sunday press conference

But don’t try telling Lemonis or his Bulldogs that if they somehow defeat Vanderbilt – the defending national champion, after all – in a best of three championship series that Mississippi State’s first-ever national championship would be stained, that there would be an asterisk beside it. Don’t tell me either. That’s just not right. 

If anything, North Carolina State’s elimination from the CWS made State’s road more difficult – much more difficult, actually. Now, the Bulldogs will face well-rested Jack Leiter – “the best arm the country,” says State star Tanner Allen – in the first game of the championship series.

While State needed to use its ace, Will Bednar, to beat Texas Saturday night, Leiter and Vandy rested. To win the championship, State will have to go through both Leiter and Kumar Rocker, who probably will be the top two pitchers taken in the Major League draft next month. Tainted? An asterisk? Come on… 

“I don’t see that,” Lemonis said Sunday. “I mean, I see us having to play. They way that we came through it and the games that we’ve had to play and now you’re having to play Vandertbilt. There will be no asterisk for us.

“And I hate it for N.C. State,” Lemonis continued. “I have three coaches who worked for (NC State coach Elliot Avent) on my staff I have a long relationship with Elliot. My nieces and nephews all went to N.C. State. I have a lot of respect there. Man, it sucks what happened.

“But for our guys, that stuff’s out of our control. All we can do is show up and play., and whoever is in the other dugout we compete against. … Actually, it probably makes our job a little harder – not easier…”

Oddsmakers certainly agree. Vegas has made Vanderbilt a -200 betting favorite, meaning if you want to bet on Vandy you have to risk $200 to win $100. In baseball, that’s a heavy, heavy favorite.

But nothing ever seems easy for this State baseball team, which has won three one-run ballgames here in Omaha. These Bulldogs really do seem to play their best when they have their backs against the wall.

In Vanderbilt, they play a team they know well and respect. They played the Commodores a three-game series at Nashville in April. Vandy won two of the three. (But State beat Leiter and roughed him up in a Game 2 victory.) In recent seasons, the rivalry has been fiercely competitive and so much fun to watch. Indeed, State’s memorable victory in the Super Regional at Nashville in 2018 was just about as good as college baseball gets.

“They have been here, they know how to win,” Lemonis said of Vandy. “They are a very formidable opponent, and they just know how to play the game and they are well-coached. It will be a tough matchup. It will be who gets the big hit or who makes the big play because they are very good.”

Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin had similar praise for State Sunday, and what you can tell listening to both men is that it’s not just coachspeak. Vandy knows State. State knows Vandy. It must seem to Corbin like he’s been facing Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen forever. For sure, it must seem to Jordan and Allen that they’ve been facing Kumar Rocker forever.

Now, they’ll face off at least two more times, maybe three, with the national championship on the line. Yes, it’s a shame what happened to North Carolina State. Nevertheless, this ought to be good stuff.

Mississippi State has been playing baseball for 136 years. The Bulldogs have won 18 SEC championships, played in 39 NCAA Tournaments, won multiple NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals and have played now in 12 of these College World Series. There’s one trophy missing from the case.

Here, in Omaha, State has endured much heartbreak.

Lemonis was asked Sunday if this team feels the burden of all that past history.

“We can’t — you know, you can’t go back. We know our whole university and our whole state is behind us, and we just want to play good and represent our fan base,” Lemonis said. But the reality is, these poor kids, I mean, Tanner Allen I don’t think was born when some of these we lost or whatever. They are here. They are making their own mark on history. That’s our goal.”

And if, they somehow do it, there’ll be no asterisk.

The post Tainted? Asterisk? Forget it. CWS drama made State’s route to a national title more difficult. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippians might need to buckle up for the next several months. The issues pending before the Mississippi Legislature could be some of the most impactful in recent history.

Legalizing medical marijuana, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in unexpected federal funds and a major restructuring of the state’s tax law are just some of the issues that the Legislature could consider in the 2022 session or perhaps a 2021 special session. It might behoove legislators and Gov. Tate Reeves to consider some of those issues in special session to ease a crowded regular session agenda.

Presumably, legislative leaders are still working behind the scenes in an attempt to reach agreement on proposals to legalize medical marijuana and to reinstate the ballot initiative process.

If that agreement can be reached, Reeves has indicated he would call a special session to address medical marijuana and the ballot initiative.

But reaching that agreement could prove more difficult than on first blush. While most of the state’s political leadership might agree that they want to legalize medical marijuana and reinstate the initiative process — both of which were struck down in a recent landmark Mississippi Supreme Court decision — the devil might be in the details.

For instance, who can obtain medical marijuana and how much can they obtain are examples of issues that could bog down an agreement on medical marijuana. Or, should Mississippians be allowed to gather signatures through the initiative process just to amend general law or the state Constitution or both?

Many want the two issues addressed during a special session because both have the potential of taking up a lot of time and oxygen during the 2022 regular session.

Politically, legislators will face pressure to approve both issues. They do not want to be accused of ignoring the will of the voters on medical marijuana or restoring the right of citizens to place issues on the ballot.

In other words, if that agreement is not reached in a special session, both issues are expected to be priorities during a busy 2022 legislative session.

In a regular session, medical marijuana and the initiative process will be competing with some other major issues.

First off, in the 2022 session that begins in January, House Speaker Philip Gunn and Reeves will be vying to pass competing tax restructuring plans. Reeves wants to phrase out the general income tax, which accounts for about one-third of the state’s general fund revenue. Reeves’ fellow Republican, Gunn, wants to phase out the income tax, cut in half the 7% sales tax on groceries and raise by 2.5 cents the sales tax on most other retail items.

Either plan would represent a dramatic change in state taxing policy. Reeves’ plan also could dramatically impact the state’s budgetary policy.

But there is more.

The Legislature will have to redraw the four U.S. House seats early in the 2022 session to match population shifts found by the 2020 Census. The Legislature will have to move quickly on congressional redistricting because the deadline to qualify to run for Congress later in 2022 is March 1.

In addition, it is likely that legislators will redraw their own districts later in the 2022 session — always a combustible process that often leads to bitter division and fights.

Then there is the long-shot issue of expanding Medicaid as is allowed under federal law to provide health care coverage to up to 300,000 Mississippians — primarily the working poor who do not earn enough to obtain private health insurance. Both Reeves and Gunn say they oppose expanding Medicaid, but Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, has said that the issue should be studied.

Expanding Medicaid would be a defining accomplishment — for better or worse — in any legislative session.

Oh yeah, legislators in the 2022 session also will have to begin the task of deciding how to spend $1.8 billion in federal American Rescue Plans funds coming to the state. Federal officials are giving the state considerable latitude in how to spend the American Rescue Plan funds. That flexibility could lead to considerable wrangling and deal making during the 2022 session.

The bottom line is that under any circumstances, 2022 will not be an ordinary, mundane session. Any issue that could be resolved earlier — say in special session — probably would help make for a smoother regular session.

The post Lawmakers face historically impactful issues — whether in regular or special session or both appeared first on Mississippi Today.

OMAHA — Mississippi State did it. As is the Bulldogs’ trademark, they did it dramatically. The ‘Dogs defeated Texas in a 4-3 walk-off nail-biter Saturday night and will play SEC comrade Vanderbilt for the national championship in a best-of-three series beginning Monday.

The usual Bulldog heroes were heroic. Starting pitcher Will Bednar surely did his part. Closer Landon Sims did his. Doesn’t he always? Tanner Allen laced two hits. Logan Tanner had two more. Both knocked in a run. Rowdey Jordan, Brad Cumbest and Kellum Clark all chipped in.

None of that will surprise anyone who has followed the Bulldogs through 48 victories, 17 defeats and regional and super regional championships.

But to win a national championship, you must have surprises. It takes a village. It takes a full team. Here, Saturday night, at TD Ameritrade Park, Tanner Leggett and Brayland Skinner, former teammates at Northwest Community College, were those surprises. They were also heroes. Big ones. Clutch.

Tanner Leggett? Brayland Skinner?

“My juco bandits,” Chris Lemonis called them.

Leggett, the back-up shortstop and a junior from Raymond, didn’t come into the game until the sixth inning after starter Lane Forsythe was lifted for a pinch hitter. Understand, Leggett batted only 79 times all season. Had 18 hits. Batted .228. Knocked in nine runs. It was the 10th RBI he will remember forever. And we’ll get to that.

But first, about Brayland Skinner, who didn’t enter the game until the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied 3-3, as a pinch runner after Kellum Clark reached first, hit by a pitch. Skinner, a sophomore reserve outfielder from Lake Cormorant, doesn’t play much, either. He batted .215 in limited plate appearances this season. But the young man can run like a sprinter. He’s a blur. With one out, he took off and stole second, easily, to move into scoring position. That happened on Longhorn ace reliever Cole Quintanilla’s second to pitch to Leggett. 

On Quintinella’s third pitch, Leggett laced a line drive single to left centerfield. Skinner scored standing up just as the ball got back to the infield. Willie Mays, in his prime, could not have thrown out Skinner.

Skinner then joined teammates who raced from the dugout to congratulate Leggett.

Who would have thought it? With all the big names in the Bulldogs lineup, the guys who combined to win the most important game of the year were two small-town Mississippians, juco transfers, who were just waiting for their chance. When they got it, they made good.

Such a situation — hitting with a chance to put your team in the national championship series — might be too big for some guys, especially a guy who hasn’t gotten that many chances especially on a stage like this.

“What an opportunity,” Leggett said. “Some people get nervous for that situation, but I pray for that situation.”

He was hitting against a guy, Quintanilla, who had shut down the Bulldogs over 3.1 innings of stellar relief. Quintanilla was good all season. He entered with a 1.27 ERA, but he hung a slider and Leggett put a short, crisp swing on it and nailed it. Game over.

How did it feel?

“It’s incredible,” Leggett said. “I had a couple guys come up to me in the dugout and tell me that I was going to get a chance to win it. I had a chance for a big hit a couple nights ago but grounded out to third. I kept my head up and said my little prayer and when Bray got the bag stolen — I knew if I got a pitch to hit, I would be short to it, and I did, thank the Lord.”

As has been the case nearly all season, Bednar and Sims were dynamite on the mound. Bednar wasn’t as sharp as he had been in the Bulldogs’ CWS opener, a 2-1 victory over this same Texas team. But he was sharp enough. He gave up three runs on just four hits over 6.1 innings. What he did was set the stage for Sims, who, as usual, was nails. Sims pitched 2.2 hitless innings, striking out four.

“I felt good,” Sims said. “I felt pretty confident right there in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, and if we had to go into extras, I would have felt confident, too.”

Lemonis must be getting used to these late-game heroics, and the drama that seems to come with each victory. All three Bulldogs victories in the 2021 CWS have been by a single run. Five of their last six postseason victories have been by one run.

“It has become our identity,” Lemonis said. “I told our team last night in the rain delay, if you ever thought it was going to easy, it’s not our way. We have to fight for it and for us to get here, it was going to be a battle. Our team has been so resilient all year It’s probably our No. 1 quality — just grit, being able to stay locked in, focused and keep competing.”

So now they will compete for the one trophy that is not in the Bulldogs’ baseball trophy case, the one that signifies a national championship. They will go against Vanderbilt, a team they know well.

What would it mean to win it all?

Said Landon Sims, “It would mean everything, to us, to the school, to the city. I think it would mean the world. I think we have a really good shot to do it right here.”

The post Mississippi State will play for it all, and you won’t believe who put them there appeared first on Mississippi Today.

OMAHA — On a bizarre day when the College World Series entered baseball’s version of “The Twilight Zone,” Mississippi State’s road to a national championship hit a stormy detour.

The Bulldogs, 8-5 losers to Texas Friday night (and Saturday morning), now have to defeat the Longhorns Saturday night in order to advance to the CWS championship series. They’ll need to throw more strikes to do it.

The really weird stuff was on the other side of the CWS bracket, where Vanderbilt was declared the winner after a strange sequence of events sci-fi legend and Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling would appreciate. First, the Vandy-North Carolina State game was delayed for more than an hour because the NCAA had to sort out major problems with North Carolina State’s COVID-19 testing. Stay with me here. Apparently, several Wolfpack players tested positive. Others were sidelined because of contact tracing.

North Carolina State was given a choice: forfeit or play with 13 available players, missing several starters and facing Vanderbilt All-American Kumar Rocker on the mound.

The Wolfpack, playing baseball’s version of the Texans at The Alamo, made a terrific game of it before falling 3-1. Then, early Saturday morning, the NCAA announced Saturday’s rematch of the two teams would not be played. North Carolina State was effectively disqualified from the CWS. Because of privacy concerns, the NCAA would not elaborate. So weird. So awful for NC State. And so fortunate for Vandy, which enters the national championship series without having to use any more pitching.

Texas and Mississippi State also endured their own delay, but it came in the ninth inning and was much more routine: a thunderstorm that delayed the game for two hours, 27 minutes and well into Saturday morning.

Amid all the craziness and delays, one fundamental maxim of baseball rang all too true for Mississippi State, that is: Walks will kill you.

The Bulldogs had fought back from a 5-2 deficit to tie the game with a three-run eighth inning. It should be noted that Texas pitchers walked four Bulldogs in that inning, fueling the comeback.

And then, just when it seemed we were watching another one of State’s patented late-game comeback victories, rain commenced and Bulldog reliever Cade Smith walked Mike Antico to start the Texas ninth. There may be worse things than walking the leadoff hitter in a tie game in the ninth inning. Maybe. 

State quickly found out. It started raining harder. After a sacrifice bunt, new reliever Parker Stinnett walked Zach Zubia, putting runners at first and second with clean up batter Ivan Melendez coming to the plate. The count went to three balls, two strikes, before Melendez smashed a grooved fastball through the now-pouring rain for a three-run home run to make it 8-5. Stinnett walked the next Texas batter and apparently Mother Nature had seen enough. Heaven knows, Chris Lemonis had. Lightning in the vicinity sent the game into a long delay.

Here’s the deal: The home run surely hurt. But the two walks that preceded it count twice as much in the scorebook. Walks do kill. Seven State pitchers walked 11 Texas batters. Three of those scored. The final score was 8-5. Do the math.

 “It’s hard to beat anybody when you walk 11 guys,” Lemonis said. “We’ve just got to make sure – got to throw strikes. We’ve got to compete in the zone. I think that’s where we fell short a little bit tonight.” 

He doesn’t think. He knows so.

So, we are left with so many questions. Will we ever learn all that happened behind the scenes on the North Carolina State-Vanderbilt side of the bracket? Eventually, I suspect, the news will leak.

Another question: Had North Carolina State somehow won Friday afternoon’s game, thus eliminating Vandy, would Saturday night’s Texas-Mississippi State winner have been declared the national champion?

We must assume so. As it is, Vandy will have a fresh Jack Leiter to start the championship series. That’s a huge advantage.

On the other side of the bracket: Does State pitch ace Will Bednar Saturday? Surely, the Bulldogs would have much preferred to have Bednar available to open the championship series. Of course, you have to win to get there.

Lemonis wouldn’t say, but I have to believe he goes with his best available and that’s Bednar for certain.

And who does Texas go with? Probably Tristan Stevens, a junior right-hander with an 11-3 record and a 3.23 earned run average, who was mostly ineffective against Tennessee earlier in the week. We can surmise from his numbers he is usually better than that.

Finally, will State pitchers throw strikes?

Where the majority of readers of this column are concerned, that might be the most important question of all.

The post State’s road to a championship hits snag, but not like poor NC State’s appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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MOUND BAYOU — For 45 years, Eugene Brown has been the person Mound Bayou residents turn to when they need help.

In 1976, he became an auxiliary police officer and volunteer firefighter. He later stepped into that work full time and was eventually named fire chief, cementing a life of pulling people out of burning homes, wrecked cars and flood waters. 

But on June 8, as water began seeping into every room of his house, the unbelievable reality set in that this time Brown would be the one who needed rescuing. 

“I’ve been 31 years in this house and I’ve never had this. And I worked the fire department and first responders for years. I was the chief taking care of everybody else. This is my first,” he says, trailing off as he surveys his evacuated home. 

“Realizing that it happened to me has been the hardest part. I’ve always had love and compassion for people,” Brown continued. “That’s why when they call I go. But when I woke up and looked around I realized it was me this time. They couldn’t call me because I was in the same shape or worse as some of them.”

The heavy rains started on June 7, pounding Bolivar, Sunflower and Grenada counties for 5 days. 

According to precipitation reports from the National Weather Service, the worst hit parts of these counties received more than 14 inches of rain. The unusually abundant rainfall makes recovering in an area with high poverty rates a steeper challenge.

“There’s a .001% chance of occurring. That’s a pretty extreme event to get that type of rainfall,” said Marty Pope, senior service hydrologist at the National Weather Service.

Brown’s home flooded almost up to his knees in less than an hour, he said. 

“The water just started coming in. In about 30 minutes this (the living room) was completely flooded and in the rest of the house, the water was seeping in through the walls,” he recalled. 

That gave him about half an hour to evacuate his wife and wheelchair-bound son to higher ground. First they went to a neighbor’s home across the street. When the water continued to rise, it became clear they would have to leave and book a hotel in nearby Cleveland. 

Nearly three weeks later, they’re still staying there.

All around Mound Bayou, others were experiencing the same devastation as Brown. 

“The ambulance came maybe three times that day (June 8), but they were not able to make it to some peoples’ homes because of the water. They had to come back later on. And with some of them, they (first responders) had to get a boat to get the person and bring them back to the ambulance,” said Leighton Aldridge, mayor elect of Mound Bayou. 

He continued: “We had quite a few families who lost when I say everything — they lost everything.”

Mound Bayou wasn’t the only Delta town affected by flooding. Rosedale, 26 miles west of Mound Bayou, and Shelby six miles north were flooded by the heavy downpour as well. Sunflower, Grenada and other surrounding counties were also hit hard.

Volunteer first responders worked to rescue people from their homes day and night throughout the rainfall, Bolivar County Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Lamb said. 

“They were jumping in water, boats, and helping people get out of homes, getting pets out of homes. A lot of our volunteers — their homes were flooding. They left their homes to go get other people. So that speaks volumes for them,” Lamb said. 

The storms finally relented after five days. A week later, standing water still remained on Brown’s street. Tiny fish, washed up from surrounding creeks, swam in the flood water that lingered outside of his now empty home. 

Volunteers, both locally and from faith based organizations around the country, have deployed to the areas ravaged by flooding to help.

Initial assessments by state officials suggest Bolivar County wouldn’t qualify for Individual Assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which sends direct relief to disaster victims. FEMA considers several factors, such as the number of homes with “major” damage, which means in most cases that water has reached 18 inches or an electrical outlet in a home. 

Lamb pointed out that it doesn’t make sense to broadly apply an 18 inch threshold to the entire state given its topographical diversity. Bolivar County essentially sits at the bottom of a bowl, he said; once it starts raining, the water has nowhere to go. 

He also said that a home shouldn’t have to have 18 inches worth of water in it to be considered major damage. 

“Two inches of water inside your home is a lot of water. That will make the floor come up. People here don’t have $10,000 to replace the floors. Hardly anyone (who the county helped) had insurance. The ones who did didn’t have flood insurance,” Lamb said. 

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials told Mississippi Today that although FEMA doesn’t have a hard minimum, a county usually needs at least 50 homes with major damage to receive Individual Assistance. The last assessment in Bolivar County only found 19. 

But that could change as FEMA gives the state 30 days — in this case until July 13 — to submit damage reports, and state officials plan to reassess damages as the water recedes.  

“Unfortunately in most cases in Mississippi we just don't meet the federal threshold for individual assistance and we have to get creative,” said Todd DeMuth, MEMA’s State Coordinating Officer. 

DeMuth alluded to a new program the state Legislature approved in 2018 called the Disaster Assistance Repair Program, which sends up to $250,000 to a county should it not qualify for federal aid. So far, the program has funded almost $3 million in repairs across 22 counties, rebuilding over 800 homes.  

MEMA officials said that Bolivar plans to request DARP funds next week, adding that it usually takes about a week for the county to receive the money and that it can immediately utilize the funds.

“We have about $2 million worth of damage in the county,” Lamb said. “But $250,000 in aid would be better than what we have right now.”

He’s concerned about what the after effects will be for the communities who were hit the hardest but aren’t likely to get aid from FEMA. 

“There’s going to end up being a lot of vacant homes and a lot of sick people because they’ve already got mold growing in their homes,” Lamb said. 

The post ‘Water was seeping in through the walls’: Extreme rainfall pours into Bolivar County homes, leaving need for emergency aid appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The board that oversees the Mississippi Public Employee Retirement System is pondering whether to increase the amount paid into the pension plan by state agencies, local governments and education entities.

The issue of whether to increase what is known as the employer contribution rate to ensure the long-term financial viability of the public pension plan was discussed recently by the Administrative Committee of the Board of Trustees of PERS, but no action was taken.

But Shelley Powers, a spokesperson for PERS, said the issue “most likely will be revisited” during the Aug. 23-24 meeting or during a special-called July meeting.

The increase in the contribution rate could cost state and local governments an additional ten of millions of dollars annually.

A recent report by the Legislature’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee highlighted the possibility of the employer contribution being increased. The report pointed out that because of multiple factors some warning indicators were “flashing red.”

The system had a full-funding ratio of 58.8% last June, down from 61.3% the previous June. That means that it has almost 59% percent of the assets needed to pay the benefits of all the people in the system, ranging from the newest hires to those already retired. Theoretically it is recommended that a system has a funding ratio of about 80%.

Most state, city and county employees and public educators are in the system that currently has about 325,000 members, including current employees, retirees and others who used to work in the public sector but no longer do. In total, about 10% of the state’s population is in the system to some extent.

Under the state Constitution, the Legislature cannot block a decision of the Board of Trustees to increase the amount paid by state agencies, local governments and education entities into the pension plan. If the Legislature opted not to provide the extra money to pay for any increase, it would just come out of the amount the Legislature budgeted for the agency, taking money from other programs.

In 2018, the board increased the contributions from employers from 15.75% of payroll for each employee to 17.4%. That small increase cost state and local governments, including education entities, an additional $100 million annually.

Traditionally, the state does not help local governments funds their share of the retirement system.

Funding the increase, minus the local government’s share, cost about $76 million in 2018 — $18.1 million for state agencies, $15.9 million for universities, $37.4 million for kindergarten through 12th grade and $4.9 million for community colleges.

Employees in the system pay 9% of their salary toward their retirement. It was increased from 7.25%  in the late 2000s. The average yearly benefit from the plan is about $24,400.

In June 2020, according to PERS’ actuary, the plan’s funding ratio was projected to be at 67.6% by 2047 compared to a projection of 83.2% by 2047 made the previous year.

The decline in the funding ratio was attributable to multiple factors, including “less than expected revenue gains.”

The system has total assets of $28.2 billion.

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