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Noah McRae was the kind of kid who, if you said the sky is blue, would argue it is red until he was ready to fight.

Growing up in the Jackson suburbs, McRae had problems with authority and his temper. His parents divorced. He bounced from school to school, and he eventually started using drugs.

But he had at least one thing going for him that other young men didn’t: His great-uncle is Phil Bryant, Mississippi’s governor from 2012 to 2020.

And the governor had two things: A friend named Nancy New and a welfare department with millions in flexible cash and free rein to hire whomever it wanted. Both came in handy when McRae needed some help.

Bryant’s subordinates and friends helped McRae secure a spot at an exclusive school, a job after he was expelled and specialized supervision.

And according to records recently obtained by Mississippi Today, federal investigators have been told New even paid for McRae to go to rehab.

An early assist came when McRae was having difficulty in school. His family eventually linked up with Nancy New’s private New Summit School in Jackson. New was a campaign contributor to Phil Bryant and worked closely with his wife, Deborah, the sister of McRae’s grandmother.

Bryant had previously praised New’s private school district. He said it was an example of what public schools should look like.

Mississippi’s current governor Tate Reeves even used the Jackson school as a film location for his campaign advertisement, which aired in 2019 while New was under state investigation for fraud and theft related to the massive contracts her nonprofit received from the welfare department under Bryant’s administration.

Agents from the state auditor’s office arrested New, her son Zach New and Bryant’s former welfare director John Davis in early 2020 in what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history. Each of them pleaded not guilty and still await trial while the governor, despite his involvement with the players in the case, appears to have coasted.

But at the time, New was well-known in political circles. Prominent state figures touted her school for its work in educating children with intellectual disabilities and for taking students with behavioral problems.

McRae had been diagnosed with ADD, anxiety and a visual processing disorder called Irlen Syndrome, according to court documents, so his family felt fortunate that he landed a spot at the school.

“The governor pulled strings to get him in there,” said Darin Cooper, McRae’s stepfather. 

Because of Noah McRae’s relationship to the governor, Cooper said the family paid a discounted tuition at New Summit.

It didn’t work out as hoped, but McRae still managed to get a safety net.

“He got expelled from there,” Cooper said, and then the school “turned around and hired him as a groundskeeper.”

Things were not quite what they seemed at the school, either. Federal prosecutors say that for four years the News filed fraudulent claims to illegally collect millions in public school dollars typically reserved for kids who have mental health disorders and need hospitalization. Nancy and Zach New also pleaded not guilty and still await trial in that separate federal case.

Cooper said the family believes McRae was one of the students whose names the News used to draw down the funds.

“We had a lot of hope in that school,” Cooper said. “It was real big for the family when he got admitted to that school. They were promising to fix everything, you know, and turn him around.”

McRae never made it past 10th grade. Shortly after in April of 2017, police in neighboring Madison arrested the 18-year-old McRae after he and his friends broke into several vehicles, stealing guns and other items.

McRae pleaded guilty in June of 2017 to three counts of auto burglary, according to the court file obtained by Mississippi Today. McRae agreed to be a sheriff’s trusty, which kept him out of the penitentiary. But after just shy of a year, officials terminated him from the program for cause. He sat in jail for five months until his sentencing. By then, he’d been locked up for about a year-and-a-half.

Madison County Circuit Court Judge Steve Ratcliff sentenced McRae to seven years in prison, four years suspended, meaning he only had to serve three years. With credit for the 18 months he had already been incarcerated, McRae had served half of his sentence and was parole eligible. The Mississippi Department of Corrections released him about a month later.

A few weeks after leaving prison, New’s nonprofit began paying the 19-year-old small, sporadic payments, records obtained by Mississippi Today show. He was paid under a welfare-funded program called Families First for Mississippi, according to the ledger of purchases. 

While New’s nonprofit claimed to provide reentry services to people leaving the correctional system, New stressed to Mississippi Today in 2018 that Families First did not provide direct assistance to clients.

So it’s not clear what McRae may have been doing in exchange for the payments, but it wasn’t long until an exchange of text messages indicated that something was amiss with the young man. State employed welfare officials were spending work hours trying to keep an eye on him.

Eventually, Gov. Bryant would take concerns about McRae to his appointed welfare director John Davis, according to text messages Mississippi Today obtained and have reprinted here as they appear without correction.

“The boy needs help quickly or he is going to fall badly. Thanks for all your have done,” Bryant said in a text to Davis on April 1, 2019.

The request brought the combined resources and interests of the state’s welfare department and New’s nonprofit together for another attempt to help McRae. It’s unclear how far that help went.

“I’m sure I told John at some point, ‘This is a tragedy and we’re worried about his health,’ and John would have said, ‘Let me help you with him,’” Bryant said in a recent interview with Mississippi Today when asked about the connection between McRae and the welfare agency. 

According to the texts, Bryant was specifically asking Davis for information about how to get his great-nephew into a treatment program, but an individual with close ties to the welfare scandal says McRae received much more than a referral.

In a transcript from a 2021 interview with federal investigators, the person told agents that New said she paid for McRae to go to rehab. 

Bryant told Mississippi Today in a recent interview that he did not recall New paying for his great-nephew to go to rehab, but that he felt it might be an appropriate use of her resources.

“I don’t know all the guidelines, but for an agency that works with the Department of Human Services and I don’t remember her doing it, but saying, ‘We think we can pay for a rehab of this very fragile, indigent child. We think that’s the right thing to do,’ would not have shocked me,” Bryant said. “I would not have said, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, let me go read the code books and make sure we can do all of that.’”

Investigators did not immediately ask follow-up questions about the alleged payment, moving on to other topics, according to the transcript. The interviewee said they didn’t know which facility McRae went to, but that he was in treatment around the same time that New and Davis allegedly sent professional wrestler Brett DiBiase to a luxury rehab clinic on the taxpayer’s dime. That began in February 2019. DiBiase pleaded guilty to defrauding the state – collecting money for work he didn’t do while he was in rehab – in December 2020.

New had a strong motivation to keep Bryant and Davis happy. Under the two men’s leadership, the Mississippi Department of Human Services had started funneling tens of millions from the federal welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to New’s nonprofit through a no-bid contract. 

The idea was for her nonprofit, Mississippi Community Education Center, to run a state-sanctioned initiative called Families First for Mississippi, which Gov. Bryant frequently touted as part of his plan to help poor people get off welfare. Bryant has not been accused of misconduct and has denied any wrongdoing. 

Drug rehab payments have played a key role in the welfare scandal.

It has been widely reported that Families First paid the $160,000 tab for retired wrestler Brett DiBiase to stay four months at the Rise in Malibu, Calif., which bills itself as a luxury rehab center with “private en suite rooms, majestic ocean views, world-class treatment and luxurious accommodations.” Prosecutors say the payments were made using welfare funds.

Brett DiBiase is the son of Ted DiBiase Sr., who WWE fans know as “The Million Dollar Man.” The dad also received welfare funding in his role as a Christian minister. Brett DiBiase was one of six people arrested in the welfare fraud case, and he’s since flipped to aid the prosecution.

Jackson attorney Scott Gilbert, who represented McRae in his 2017 car burglary case, currently represents the other son, Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., another character in the scandal who received more than $3 million in federal funding to make motivational presentations to welfare department staffers and other state employees. Gilbert said his office does not comment on their client representation.

In the indictment against Davis, prosecutors allege the welfare director conspired with New to use the taxpayer money her nonprofit received to pay for Brett DiBiase’s drug treatment in Malibu.

States are allowed to use some Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding to pay for substance abuse treatment for needy, qualified residents, a progressive policy focused on meeting the actual needs of families.

But in Families First’s many million-dollar promotional campaigns, brochures and thousands of dollars worth of spots on radio stations, the program did not advertise that families could receive drug treatment through the program.

In fact, Bryant previously signed and publicly lauded a new law that requires applicants and recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to take drug screenings and tests or face rejection from the program. The policy became a significant barrier to eligibility, even for people who don’t abuse substances, because applicants must find transportation to the testing clinic.

These days, Bryant is a spokesman for local rehab facility Mercy House Adult & Teen Challenge, part of a national Christian program that has received scrutiny recently for imposing harsh discipline and forcing residents into unpaid labor.

Throughout January and February of 2019, Mississippi Community Education Center paid Noah McRae several small, sporadic payments totaling about $1,500, ledgers obtained by Mississippi Today show. Officials have told Mississippi Today that these ledgers likely contain errors and omissions, especially since nonprofit officials had been transferring funds between several different bank accounts.

Under the Families First program, it was common for employees to appear as if they were working for the Mississippi Department of Human Services but receive their paycheck from the nonprofit, whose expenses were shielded from public view.

By March, McRae had stopped receiving funds from Families First, according to the ledger, but Davis and his communications director Lynne Myers were still discussing McRae as if he were a rogue agency employee.

“I’m needing your direction on how you would like me to handle Noah,” Myers messaged Davis in early March. “He has not been at work since last Wednesday … He hasn’t shown up at all this week and I can’t get him on his cell. How would you like me to proceed?”

It’s unclear what position McRae may have held at the nonprofit or welfare department or what qualifications he possessed for the job. Current MDHS leadership says there is no record of McRae’s employment at the agency.

In the weeks after Myers reached out, Davis sent McRae several text messages asking the governor’s great-nephew to meet with him or call him. It’s unclear why the director would have had a direct line to a Families First client or employee, let alone one at McRae’s level, as that kind of exchange was not common.

When asked why welfare officials would have been texting with McRae, Bryant responded, “because he was my great-nephew.”

Finally, Nancy New chimed in. In late March 2019, New messaged Davis and Myers, “I have an update on Noah McRae.”

“Is he okay?” Myers responded.

No texts on the group chat follow. 

Less than a week later, Gov. Bryant himself messaged Davis about his great-nephew.

“Would you have a number for David at Region 8. Trying to get Noah into a treatment program,” Bryant wrote on April 1. “The boy needs help quickly or he is going to fall badly. Thanks for all your have done. He has to do some of this own his own but David can tell is what he thinks is best for him.”

David Van is the director for Region 8, the Community Mental Health Center in the Jackson-metro area. The Community Mental Health Centers are a series of quasi-public-private clinics and treatment facilities that accept payment on a sliding scale depending on what a person can afford.

Van told Mississippi Today it was not unusual for the governor to call him, asking for help guiding constituents to services, but that he did not remember ever talking to John Davis or triaging someone named Noah McRae.

Davis and New are bound by gag orders which prevent them from speaking to the media about their cases. Their attorneys declined to answer questions for this series. Myers would not respond to Mississippi Today’s calls to offer further context about her involvement with McRae. Myers has not faced any charges, but agents from the auditor’s office did interview her early on in their investigation about why she moved merchandise purchased with taxpayer money from state property to the nonprofit after the state placed Davis on administrative leave in June 2019, according to a recording of the interview.

Myers took over the communications division in the fall of 2018 right after her predecessor, Paul Nelson, became the subject of a complaint for failing to release public records in a timely manner. The agency was soundproofing itself, forcing all agency communication with reporters to go through the attorney general’s office. It also enacted a media policy that reporters must submit all questions for the agency in writing, which it would often not answer.

Davis and New’s involvement with McRae isn’t the only example of the welfare officials helping a colleague deal with a family member in addiction.

Texts show the assistant attorney general assigned to MDHS sought help from Davis and New for his coworker’s son, who was at the time checking into Pine Grove, an addiction treatment facility in Hattiesburg. The son worked for MDHS’s child support contractor before he passed away in 2021. “I will reach out to Dr. New,” the assistant attorney wrote in late June of 2019, after Bryant kicked the director out of office but before Davis announced his retirement publicly. “Again, thanks for all you have done.”

In general, Davis and New ran a government program rampant with nepotism, texts show.

The welfare-funded Families First program also hired Myers’ husband, Kevin Myers, former director of the Department of Public Safety’s administrative operations, as a community liaison. He pulled a salary of at least $86,000 from New’s nonprofit, according to its ledger. Text messages show that Davis also secured a job at Families First for their daughter Mason Myers, who was paid roughly $600 a week, the ledger shows.

“You have blessed our family greatly John, and I just needed to tell you you’re awesome and we are so grateful,” Lynne Myers texted Davis in mid-June of 2019, about a week before he would face his first polygraph test in connection with the audit of his department.

Myers previously served as the special projects coordinator for Bryant’s office. On LinkedIn, she described herself as a network account executive for TeleSouth Communications, also known as Supertalk radio, beginning in 2017. She was director of communications for MDHS in 2018 and 2019. SuperTalk radio is a hyper-conservative talk radio station that state agencies pay hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars each year in exchange for advertising and, in some cases, the luxury of soft-ball interviews for state bureaucrats. 

New’s nonprofit funneled nearly $330,000 in MDHS funds to the station, a 2020 audit report shows. 

Davis had close communication with Supertalk CEO Kim Dillon and the two would discuss the progress of her son Logan Dillon, who worked as a lobbyist for the welfare department.

“Everybody tells me how great Logan is doing,” Davis once texted the CEO. “I’m so proud of him.”

A couple months before Davis abruptly retired, Kim Dillon invited the welfare director out to dinner at Tico’s Steakhouse in Ridgeland. 

“I talked with Logan last night and told him I had dinner with you. I didn’t go into what all we talked about but did let him know. I appreciate everything you have done for him!” Dillon texted Davis in early May of 2019.

While the good ole boy system in Mississippi’s government provided McRae opportunities and second-chances not enjoyed by most, the alleged scheme also exploited McRae.

Prosecutors say the News converted at least some of the public school funds they allegedly bilked in the name of students like McRae to their own personal use.

“From what we understand with the private school, they were receiving a bunch of state or federal funds and pocketing them,” Cooper, McRae’s stepdad, said. “None of them ever went to Noah. No help ever went to Noah from those people. They were just using his name as a shell to collect government funds.”

Despite gaining a spot at New’s private school, a job on the campus and Families First, and supervision from powerful bureaucrats, McRae didn’t achieve a better outcome.

After McRae’s time under the wing of the welfare department and Families First, he went back to breaking into cars in late 2019 and wound up convicted of conspiracy to commit auto burglary in neighboring Rankin County. 

In February 2021, a couple months after the birth of his daughter, McRae pleaded guilty and a judge sentenced him to five years in prison, according to MDOC records.

He is currently incarcerated at Leake County Correctional Facility.

This is Part 5 in Mississippi Today’s series “The Backchannel,” which examines former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the running of his welfare department during what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history.

The post Family first: Gov. Phil Bryant turned to welfare officials to rescue troubled nephew appeared first on Mississippi Today.

WATCH THE LIVE RECORDING:

LISTEN:

Mississippi Today’s political team breaks down what lawmakers accomplished and ignored during the historic 2022 legislative session. They spent a record amount of money, passed the largest tax cut and teacher pay raise in state history, and redrew congressional and legislative districts. They also let several key issues fall by the wayside. 

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

The post Podcast: What happened — and didn’t — in the 2022 legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Jared South was a model client of Mississippi’s welfare agency.

A photo of South and details about his life appear on the Mississippi Department of Human Services website on a page dedicated to the agency’s success stories. The department used South’s experience in its workforce program as an ideal example. 

Mississippi Today caught up with South in 2020 to learn how the state’s social safety net helped the young man improve his life, but discovered that within days of MDHS documenting South’s story, the agency cut him off from services because he lost the car he used to get to work.

Young childless men are particularly out of luck when it comes to assistance programs offered by the welfare agency – unless they’re related to someone with ties to the state government. Mississippi Today’s investigation, “The Backchannel,” sheds light on the depth of nepotism at MDHS during then-Gov. Phil Bryant’s administration, including preferential treatment offered to the governor’s wayward relative.

READ MORE: Gov. Phil Bryant turned to welfare officials to rescue troubled nephew

Bryant’s great-nephew and South, two young white men from Mississippi who didn’t finish traditional high school, share a lot in common — except for their connections. Bryant told Mississippi Today that he believed his great-nephew was just the kind of person MDHS exists to help.

“How come when he (Phil Bryant) helped his nephew, he didn’t quote-unquote visit the other people that were going through the program,” South told Mississippi Today recently. “You understand what I’m saying? He never made any visits to any of the students that were going through the program. Why? Where’s your heart? What are you really in this for? You want to help your nephew with this program, but at the same time, how much do you really care about these people in the program that are in your nephew’s situation also?”

“I feel like if you’re going to help your nephew, at least stick your neck out to see who else is out there, to get a better insight for your nephew. At the bare minimum,” he added.

South possessed a GED, had a spotty employment history, received food stamps and experienced homelessness for several years throughout his twenties. Several years ago, he entered a work training program through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program at the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

South demonstrated a strong work ethic in the EDGE program, an acronym for “ethics, discipline, goals, employment.” He worked his way up to “gold” status on the WorkKeys assessment, a test used nationwide to gauge a person’s career readiness. The program administrators even labeled him the “MVP” of his cohort.

Within a couple months, South finished the program’s academic portion, which consisted of classes and watching training videos at the local campus of Itawamba Community College. His job coordinator asked him to pick a future career, and South chose veterinarian technician – “the only career I could think of,” he said. 

He later told Mississippi Today he felt rushed to make a decision and pressured to pick one of just a few careers that had a clear educational path; South’s coordinator told him he could enroll in the veterinary program at Mississippi State University.

The EDGE program hooked South up with a volunteer position at the Humane Society’s local animal shelter. There, he worked for free washing kennels in exchange for on-the-job training in basic healthcare for the animals, such as learning how to administer vaccines, with the idea that he would eventually secure a paid job in the field. South had an arrangement that he would use his aunt’s car for transportation, but after a couple weeks on the job and a flat tire, she took the car back. He could no longer get to work. 

“They was like, ‘Well, basically you had one shot and you missed it. So, after all this, we have to let you go.’ It was like, ‘There’s nothing else we can do for you,’ and they released me. That was it,’” South told Mississippi Today in 2020.

“I lost the car, I lost the job, and that was the end of the program for me,” South said. “I know you wanted a not depressing story but I don’t have one for you. That’s what happened.”

At the time, the Mississippi Department of Human Services was outsourcing more and more of its services to two nonprofits to run a program called Families First for Mississippi, which was supposed to help people like South secure a job, as well as connect to basic resources. South visited the Families First office in north Mississippi when he was homeless to try to find affordable housing, but it never assisted him. 

When Bryant’s great-nephew left prison in 2019 after a car burglary conviction, the Families First program almost immediately began paying the young man, while the state’s top welfare officials looked after him intently.

South, on the other hand, said he lost all access to benefits from the department when it kicked him out of the EDGE program. “I was basically red flagged,” South said. 

A brochure for EDGE says that participation in the program will not affect a client’s SNAP benefits – but that wasn’t the case for South. He hasn’t had any interaction with the agency since, he said, “except for every now and then they call me for a survey.”

South, now 30, is between jobs today. After a recent eviction, he’s living in a hotel. But South’s smiling face still appears on the MDHS website. His story is actually the only entry on the “success” page.

“I’m still their little pin on the wall,” he said when he found out. “Oh my gosh, that is frustrating.”

During his time in the MDHS program, South penned an essay about his journey. The welfare agency published an excerpt and titled it “a story of struggle.” Mississippi Today is publishing the entire essay below:

I have to admit, I am in a pretty tough living situation. I have a trivial limitation to hygiene, food, and water utilities. I am currently enrolled in a government funded program through EBT that is assisting me with employment opportunities, through which I acquire limited transportation, incentive pay cards (through strict participation), work skills training courses, a temporary paid internship, and SNAP EBT benefits. 

At the moment, I am unemployed without a car, a sufficient place of dwelling, a smart phone, or any cash. I am pretty much the living definition of ample limitations.

I can’t say this is anyone’s fault but my own. I put myself in this situation. I cannot, am not, and will not blame anyone else for this outcome. Yes, maybe I was influenced to make some of my choices, good or bad, still overall I am the one that has made all my choices. Even through losing my mother at a young age, and also friends and family to car wrecks, overdose, and house fires, my choices of progression have surely been my own. 

I have seen demons haunt and destroy households, and angels heal with a slight touch of adoration. Basically, I have experienced a wide variety of life. As of recent weeks, I’ve come to realize where I’m now at in life, and how I got here. It could still be a lot worse because, if fact, if it wasn’t for my dad at the moment, I would be cold.

Through my times of struggle I have witnessed, and or experienced, some of the hardest heart-breaking situations. Homeless, hungry, weathered, drug involvement, prostitution, job loss, theft, and also death. Most of my friends and family are, for the most part, all living in prison, pain, and poverty. 

Still, I tell you, this is all me. I chose to smoke and drink and involve myself with bad choices, bad situations, and bad influences, as opposed to focusing my time on better possible possibilities. I lost my temper and quit my job(s). I am where I’m at because it’s honestly what I wanted. I chose this life completely by myself. I have had many friends, relatives, even co-workers and church organizations offer me positive help and I neglected it. I wanted what would make me happy right then, or at least get me by.

I can still see the silver lining shining. Through my last few months, with a great deal of principled help, I have opened my eyes to positive concrete possibility. I am now, meekly pursuing a solid career. Like I stated, I am currently enrolled in training courses for job certification. 

I have come to the full understanding that life is not necessarily about what I want to do, but more so about what I need to do, so I can achieve the opportunity, to accomplish my desires. So I have set certain obtainable goals by which to achieve my main purpose. I am currently prospecting enrollment into a manufacturing skills training course, to establish a concrete foundation and develop a modest income, to later indulge in my real passion as a certified pet trainer, and in due time, become a veterinarian technician assistant.

In closing, it is still an honor to be alive, although it’s still a struggle to live. I can only blame me for my success, as much as my failures. Thank you, everyone, for your involvement, that has assisted me. If through all this, I have indeed acquired a line of advice to give it would most certainly be, “If it’s not good, righteous, or worthy of grace, it’s not worth being a deciding part of your life. So make sure what you do, is also what you want to inform someone else about tomorrow night.” 

This is a supplement to Part 5 of Mississippi Today’s series “The Backchannel,” which examines former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the running of his welfare department during what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history.

The post What it’s like to navigate Mississippi’s welfare programs without political connections appeared first on Mississippi Today.

On this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with magician, entertainer and speaker Joe M. Turner. Turner is an American corporate magician, mentalist, and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and other meetings.

A native of Mississippi, Mississippi State graduate and now Atlanta based, he is widely respected in the field of corporate magic, as well as customizing magic performances, keynotes, and seminars for trade shows, product launches, other marketing efforts, conferences, or corporate events. He frequently incorporates sleight-of-hand, escape magic and mentalism into keynote addresses as a motivational speaker for corporate and private groups, speaking on topics of customer experience, brand engagement, memory training, change management, and creativity.

He was one of only six performers selected to represent various aspects of the magic industry on the CNN Headline News feature “A Day of Magic,” and also appeared on network television programs in Europe and South America. Turner talks about growing up in Mississippi, overcoming challenges presented by the pandemic and how his many talents led to a magical career.

The post Mississippi Stories: Joe M. Turner appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Fort House appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi’s political leaders have talked for years about cutting the 7% tax on groceries, the highest statewide tax of its kind in the nation in its poorest state.

But those efforts never go anywhere.

Earlier this session, tax cut plans touted by the leadership of both the House and Senate included a cut to the grocery tax in addition to reductions or elimination of the personal income tax.

But the plan finally approved by legislators cuts only the income tax.

“We are not opposed to a grocery tax cut, but as we have said the income tax cut is the priority,” said House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton.

Referencing the $525 million income tax cut that passed during the just-completed session and the negotiations with Senate leaders to develop the plan, Gunn added, “Even with this plan we insisted the $500 million tax break we passed this year be income tax. Some of the negotiations that took place early on had about $120 million of that being grocery tax and we said we are not looking at a $500 million tax cut, which includes $120 million of groceries. We want $500 million in income tax. If y’all want to throw a grocery tax (cut) on top of that, we are fine with that … But we are looking at income tax as the main objective.”

For some time, many have viewed it as a cruel irony that Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation with fewer safety nets in place for the poor, taxes food at the highest rate in the nation. Some states provide local options that place a higher tax on food in individual municipalities or other local governmental entities, but no state levies a higher tax on food statewide.

Most states, recognizing the tax on groceries as a regressive tax that places more of a burden on the poor, either do not tax food or tax it at a lower rate than what is levied on other items.

Through the years Mississippi politicians have talked about cutting or eliminating the tax on food. In the early 2000s, the Legislature, led by Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, made several efforts at eliminating or reducing the tax on food. Most of those efforts offset the lost revenue by increasing the tax on cigarettes.

Then-Gov. Haley Barbour, who previously served as a national tobacco lobbyist, vetoed those efforts. Barbour later acquiesced and signed legislation increasing the 18-cent per pack tax on cigarettes by 50 cents. But interestingly, the governor never agreed to reduce the tax on food. He said it was a fair tax that he supported.

In 2016, when the Legislature, led by then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who is now governor, and Gunn passed at the time what was the largest tax cut it history, nary a dime went for the elimination of the tax on groceries. Instead, there were tax cuts for businesses and on personal income. Research of state Department of Revenue data at the time revealed that most of the companies being aided by the cut were based out of state.

The north star under Barbour and now for many Republican leaders is cutting or eliminating the income tax, which accounts for about one-third of state general fund revenue. Another priority for Mississippi politicians also has been reducing the tax on businesses — primarily large out of state corporations.

It was interesting that the bulk of that tax cut went primarily to out of state corporations in light of an earlier 2013 study by the Department of Revenue that revealed 111 of the state’s 150 largest companies, in terms of employment, paid no income tax. While the companies were not named, the bulk of those companies not paying were likely large out of state retailers. 

In 2016, legislation was passed to phase out the franchise tax, which was the only tax many of those companies paid.

Despite the 2016 tax cut and the 2022 tax cut, both of which were billed at the time as the largest in state history, Gunn and Reeves, who also advocate for the elimination of the income tax, both made it clear they are not finished.

The 2022 legislation even includes language saying “it is the intent of the Legislature that before calendar year 2026, the Legislature will consider whether the revised (reduced) tax rates will be further decreased.”

But both Gunn and Reeves point out their intent is to take further steps as soon as possible to wipe from the state tax code the income tax.

“Elimination would be the ultimate goal and we pressed hard for that,” Gunn said.

But that is not the goal for the state’s tax on groceries that disproportionally impacts the poor.

The post Grocery tax cut considered, but never acted upon by state’s political leadership appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Lance Bass was just another freshman at Clinton High School in 1994 when he auditioned for Attaché, the school’s award-winning show choir. Barely a year later, he was a member of the “boy band” vocal group *NSYNC and well on his way to becoming a teen pop icon.

It’s no coincidence that he spent the intervening time learning how to use his voice and perform under the direction of David and Mary Fehr in what has become known as a showbiz bootcamp and de facto finishing school.

Nashville singer-songwriter Shelly Fairchild — who has three solo albums to her credit, has appeared on records by Jason Aldean, Eric Church and Terri Clark, and has carved a successful niche by placing songs in television shows — had a similar experience after joining Attaché as a shy teenager. So did Broadway star Heath Calvert, known for his roles in “Hair” and “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.”

All three former Clinton High School and Attaché students, with the addition of fellow alums Brittany Wagner, the breakout star of Netflix’s “Last Chance U,” Drew Wardlaw and Max Lyall, appeared onstage at the Attaché Alumni Theater at Clinton High School on April 2.

The four-act performance celebrated the 42^nd anniversary of Attaché by bringing alums back to the stage to raise money to support the program, which has earned the title Grand Champion at 85 competitions since 1992. The group’s current run of 23 consecutive Grand Champion wins dates back to 2014, and their 2019 bid was captured in ‘Attaché,’ a PBS and Reel South documentary film.

Bass, in his first Attaché appearance since *NSYNC made their debut as opening act for the group in December 1995, served as host and emcee for the evening. After learning to sing in church choir and while receiving further guidance from Fehr through Attaché, Bass began vocal instruction with Bob Westbrook in Germantown, Tennessee—the same voice coach Justin Timberlake used, and the man who introduced him to Bass when *NSYNC was searching for a bass singer.

Although Bass’s time in Attaché was relatively brief, it opened his eyes to his own talents and changed the course of his life. But much of the inspiration he felt came from watching his classmates. “I got to do ‘West Side Story’ with Shelly Fairchild,” he says. “She was our Maria, and good Lord, we knew then she was going to do something. She was so talented. I was just a freshman then and it was so new to me; I just couldn’t believe that high school students could be so talented.”

Fairchild did find success when she moved to Nashville and signed a record deal with Sony in 2004. The label released her debut album, Ride, the following year, and sent Fairchild on a whirlwind of promotion including radio appearances and concert tours with country music stars Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and Rascal Flatts. But her journey began when she arrived at Attaché around the same time as the Fehrs, who took over after founder Winona Costello retired.

“The first year that I was there, Mr. David Fehr was our new director,” Fairchild says. “I’ll never forget him coming up to us as we were learning some of the songs and yelling at me in my face, like, ‘Open your mouth, Fairchild!’

“To this day,” she adds, “people will ask me, ‘How in the world do you sing from your toes all the way up through the top of your head?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, if you had David Fehr as a director, then you would understand why your whole body is involved in this.’ So, it really made a big difference in my life.”

Fairchild remembers when Fehr brought Heath Calvert, then a freshman, to the group — an unheard-of move, since membership was usually open to students beginning with the sophomore year. He had just moved to Clinton, and while his mannerisms weren’t disrespectful — he didn’t say “sir” or “ma’am” like most of his new peers, Fehr says — they were a hard sell with his teachers. He had racked up nine detentions for such minor infractions, and one more would suspend him from school and activities.

“I went ahead and gave him his 10th detention so that he could serve his one day or whatever. It was so that we wouldn’t miss the performances coming up,” Fehr laughs.

On April 2, alums performed solo, in pairs and in groups throughout the three-hour program. Calvert performed “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz and “Anthem” from the musical ‘Chess,’ while the current Attaché students performed their 2022 competition showcase, “Vacation!” Bass and Wagner joined the chorus for a number of songs.

The third act, though, was all about the Fehrs. Fairchild debuted “What We Leave,” a song she wrote specially for the event, as a duet with her sister, Lindsey Fairchild Lenoir. The performance was a surprise to the Fehrs, organizers and the audience, but the current students were in on it; Fairchild recruited the daughter of a friend to circulate the lyrics to them so they could join her on the song’s finale.

While Attaché provides the platform for students to explore their talents, they also learn life skills, Fehr stresses. Work ethic is crucial to the success of the students who perform and those who run the show after graduation; perseverance is another. Fehr recalls a competition in California where Wagner performed while in pain from a broken finger she suffered during warm-ups, a show of grit and determination the public would later see on “Last Chance U.” 

“We produce just good kids; the talent and desire comes from good families,” he adds. “Don’t credit that to Attaché. I can develop whatever is there and help them out, but those families and kids, they have goals and missions, and my job is to help them along. But the 90 percent that don’t go into the arts, they’re still getting the same thing.”

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Mississippi Today’s “The Backchannel” series, which examines former Gov. Phil Bryant’s involvement in what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history, is renewing calls for a federal investigation.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on April 7, three days after the beginning of Mississippi Today’s series, asking for him to prosecute the people responsible for stealing federal funds meant to serve the nation’s poorest residents.

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

“We decided to move forward to request the Department of Justice to do a thorough investigation after the investigative reporting from Mississippi Today,” Johnson said Friday. “It is obvious others were involved. This is perhaps the largest federal fraud situation that we have seen in the state of Mississippi and maybe one of the largest in the country. The fact that the former governor could be involved and others, it requires a thorough investigation by the federal authorities to ensure that taxpayers in the state of Mississippi and across the country are made whole.”

In 2020, the State Auditor’s Office released a report that questioned $94 million in federal grant spending from the Mississippi Department of Human Services. While the office arrested six people in February of 2020 related to the alleged theft of $4 million, no one else involved in the sprawling scheme has faced charges.

Mississippi Today’s series uncovered never-bef0re-published private conversations Bryant had with retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre and the owner of Prevacus, the company that received $2.15 million in allegedly stolen welfare funds from the state. Favre and Prevacus owner Jake Vanlandingham offered Bryant stock in the company in for exchange the help he gave them during his time in office. Bryant agreed in text messages to accept the offer two days after he left office — but the arrests by the state auditor, a Bryant appointee and former campaign manager, derailed the arrangement.

None of these men have been accused of wrongdoing related to the deal.

“What was most striking about the Mississippi Today article is the fact that the governor knew or should have known” that the company was receiving funding from the state, Johnson told Mississippi Today. “And it appears from firsthand accounts from his emails and text messages that he was steering decisions as it relates to TANF funds, which obviously raises a lot of questions and should require a federal investigation into his involvement.”

“If, in fact, that was the case,” Johnson added, “he and others should be held accountable for their involvement.”

Much more has yet to be revealed about the widespread misspending of at least $77 million in federal public assistance funds.

“The audit report noted that its findings and all related information had been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice,” Johnson wrote in his letter. “However, nearly two years later, despite the overwhelming documentary evidence of fraud, forgery, and abuse in this matter, DOJ has not yet launched a criminal investigation.”

At the time of the 2020 arrests, State Auditor Shad White said his office had turned over all information to federal investigators. White justified his office making the initial arrests — including the former Bryant-appointed welfare director John Davis and nonprofit founder Nancy New — in order to quickly stop the flow of funds from the welfare agency to the contractors who were allegedly misspending the money.

Then-U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst in Jackson said the local FBI and his office were not aware of the welfare agency investigation until the arrests, but that “we stand ready to put the substantial experience and expertise of our offices and the entire U.S. Department of Justice to work to help our colleagues bring fraudsters to justice and stamp out public corruption,” the Clarion Ledger reported.

“Not only is it imperative that DOJ take prompt and aggressive action to protect the Mississippi residents who were and continue to be harmed by the wrongful actions of state officials,” Johnson wrote, “failure to investigate may lead to the impression that DOJ is continuing the previous administration’s pattern of looking the other way when laws are broken by white state officials, especially when the wrongdoing disproportionately
harms minorities.”

READ MORE: Mississippi Today investigation exposes new evidence of Phil Bryant’s role in welfare scandal

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