State officials are urging Mississippi residents to refrain from panic buying gasoline after a cyber attack halted operations for the Colonial Pipeline system on Friday.
“The reality is we do not have a fuel shortage in this state… The greatest risk that we face right now is panic buying,” Andy Gipson, Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, said in a video statement on Monday.
While some gas stations across the state have reported low or empty fuel inventories, officials say that less than 30% of Mississippi’s fuel supply comes from the Colonial Pipeline.
“So stay calm — buy your normal level of weekly gasoline — and live your life! If everyone takes this approach, this will be behind us with minimal impact,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Facebook post.
The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline system, which runs from Texas to New Jersey and primarily serves the East Coast, came under a ransomware attack on Friday. It delivered nearly half of the fuel for the East Coast. The corporate operator of the pipeline released a statement on Wednesday saying the company had started to resume operations, but it would take “several days” until fuel deliveries return to normal.
The number of Mississippians enrolling in health care coverage through the healhgare.gov marketplace is surging this year thanks to an expanded enrollment period and the expansion of premium tax credits that make the plans much more affordable.
The premium tax credit (PTC) is the Affordable Care Act’s main insurance subsidy that radically reduces the premium costs for those eligible to receive it. A provision of the American Rescue Plan, the stimulus package Congress passed earlier this year, increased the tax credit amount for those who are eligible and makes individuals with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty line eligible for the first time. This provision represents the first major expansion of the health care reform law since its passage.
For those who were eligible for a tax credit prior to the passage of ARP, the share of their income enrollees are expected to pay for premiums on a benchmark silver plan has been cut in half or removed completely.
Expanding the PTC has already had a major impact on the number of enrollees in Mississippi. In 2020, 4,341 Mississippians enrolled in health insurance plans through the marketplace from Feb. 15-April 30. This year saw 14,040 people enroll in the same period — a 223% increase.
“The premium tax credits, they’ve made a big difference in the number of individuals that are willing to accept the plans. The premiums are still extremely high, but those tax credits help to lower those payments to amounts they’re able to pay,” said Antwan Nicholson, a navigator at My Brother’s Keeper, Jackson-based community health organization.
Navigators like Nicholson help people navigate the complexities of the health insurance marketplace one-on-one. Just last week, as he was helping one woman enroll, her eyes widened when she saw the premium on the plan she selected was $493. Then Nicholson showed her that she was eligible for a PTC that would cover $443 of that premium, bringing her monthly out-of-pocket cost to $50. Though she had just been looking for health insurance, the plan also included dental and vision insurance.
“She purchased it immediately,” Nicholson said.
The stimulus packaged also created a 16-week special enrollment period (SEP) for people to get health insurance through HealthCare.gov that lasts from April 15-August 15. In previous years, SEPs were available primarily only for qualifying life events, whereas this year the Biden Administration opened an SEP to all Americans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week, Biden’s administration announced more than 1 million Americans have signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans during the special enrollment period that began Feb. 15.
“That’s one million more Americans who now have the peace of mind that comes from having health insurance,” Biden said in a statement this week. “One million more Americans who don’t have to lie awake at night worrying about what happens if they or one of their family members gets sick.”
Nicholson and his team had extra navigators for the six-week open enrollment period last year, but they’ve had to push through this new special enrollment period with a small staff. With each application taking between 20-40 minutes, dealing with the surge of enrollees has been a hefty task, he said. but they’ve handled it well.
The PTC expansion is temporary, lasting only through the 2022 plan year. Nicholson thinks it’s a vital lifeline for the uninsured and should be extended.
“I think it would be a great benefit to those that we serve and the citizens of Mississippi that can take advantage of it,” he said. “I think it’s something that we should look to expand. I hope that it is extended, so that we can still have individuals that are able to be covered receive the health care that they need.”
Even though the expanded PTC isn’t guaranteed for the future, that hasn’t deterred the people Nicholson has worked with from enrolling.
“It’s an ‘I need it now’ situation, ‘so I’m going to take advantage of it and I’ll deal with what happens later,’” Nicholson said.
Mississippi revenue collections through April are on near-record pace for the largest percentage year over year increase in the modern era.
Through 10 months of the fiscal year, the state has collected $5.35 billion in general fund revenue — a $756.9 million or 16.5% increase over the amount collected during the same time period last year, according to the April revenue report recently released by the Legislative Budget Committee staff.
Factors surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could be playing a strong role in the revenue collections. Those factors include:
Unprecedented federal assistance to individuals and to Mississippi governmental entities. For instance, during the current fiscal year, most Mississippians have received at least $3,200 in federal stimulus checks that economists say have helped fuel the state economy.
Last year the filing deadline for state income taxes was postponed from April 15 to July 15, meaning that about $230 million in income taxes that would have been collected in the prior fiscal year were pushed into the current fiscal year.
Revenue collections in the past fiscal year were down as a result of the onset of the pandemic and other circumstances, such as the postponement of the income tax filing deadline. The 2.5 drop in revenue collections during the last fiscal year helps inflate percentage increases in the current fiscal year.
Still, if the 16.5% increase holds for the next two months, that means it would be the strongest year-over-year increase since 1981, which also saw a 16.5% increase.
It is not clear what fueled the large increase in fiscal year 1981. Revenue collections could be impacted by multiple factors, including the economy, rebuilding in the aftermath of a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina, tax cuts or tax increases or even circumstances surrounding a pandemic.
“Revenues continue to be good. We are grateful for that… This has allowed us to fund what cuts we made last year,” House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, said earlier this year.
There are two key numbers to assess in the monthly Budget Committee revenue reports. One is how revenue collections look year over year, which is generally viewed as an economic indicator. The second is whether revenue collections are meeting the official estimate, which is the number the Legislature used in making its budget. If collections do not meet the estimate, the governor or Legislature could be forced to make mid-year budget cuts.
For the month of April, collections continue to be strong — $212.1 million or 28.5% above the estimate. For the year, collections are 17.7% or $804.2 million above the estimate. Much of the excess money will be directed to the Capital Expense Fund at the end of the fiscal year. Money in that fund often is used by legislators to fund various projects throughout the state.
Not surprisingly, most sources of state revenue have increased significantly year over year. Sales tax revenue, the largest single source of state revenue, is $124,2 or 8% above the amount collected during the same time period last year while use tax revenue, which is essentially the sales tax levied on internet purchases, is up $75 million or 28.5% year over year. Income tax collections are up $291.1 million or 20.1%, but that includes the revenue that was collected after the tax filing deadline was pushed back to July.
Casino revenue collections have been strong during the pandemic, up $204 million or 20.2%.
In a more fair and just Mississippi, James Thomas Bell — JT to his family and friends around Starkville — probably would have attended his hometown college, then Mississippi A&M, where he surely would have become a baseball star.
Of course, in a more fair and just Starkville, Bell and other Black children could have attended 12 years of high school and not had to work the fields to help feed their families. Those schools did not exist in Bell’s day.
Yes, and in a more fair and just America, Bell would have become a famous Major League Baseball player — and/or perhaps an Olympic track star — and never had to worry about money the rest of his life.
Sadly, there was little fair or just for a child of African American and Native American descent, born in 1903 on a farm three miles from downtown Starkville. So at age 17, JT Bell moved to St. Louis to live with older brothers, earn money in the factories there and attend high school in night classes.
Rick Cleveland
The high school thing never happened. Factory work didn’t last long. Baseball discovered Bell, his dazzling foot speed, natural baseball instincts and quick bat. He became a professional baseball player in the old Negro Leagues. He became Cool Papa Bell, the most accomplished Mississippi-born baseball player ever, the only native-born Mississippian enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. Bell was inducted in 1974 despite never having played in the Major Leagues.
And if you are wondering why this is written today, you should know that his hometown college — now Mississippi State University — will pay tribute to him Thursday night. An area on the left field terrace at Dudy Noble Field will be dedicated as Cool Papa Bell Plaza, replete with a handsome plaque.
“Cool Papa Bell remains one of the greatest players in the history of the sport,” State athletic director John Cohen said. “No, he didn’t go to school at Mississippi State but he worked on our campus as a child. He should be recognized in his hometown and at our stadium. He will be.”
The moral of this story: It is never too late to admit — and correct as best you can — old mistakes.
Cool Papa probably said it best himself when asked if he had any regrets about never having played Major League Baseball. Bell replied that he did not and then added, “They say I was born too soon. I say they opened the doors too late.”
“They say I was born too soon. I say they opened the doors too late.”
Cool Papa Bell
For those who don’t know the Cool Papa Bell story, he is widely recognized as the fastest player in the game’s history. For Cool Papa, a walk or a single quickly became a triple because he usually stole both second and third bases. He achieved a lifetime batting average of .341 in the Negro Leagues, playing for several different ball clubs. He also starred on teams in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba.
What would he have done in Major League Baseball? We have strong clues. Bell played in many exhibition games between barnstorming players from the Negro Leagues and Major League ballplayers. Facing some of the best pitchers in the history of the game, Bell hit .391.
Satchel Paige, the great pitcher and Bell’s teammate, once said, “Bell was so fast he could shut the light off in his hotel room and be under the covers before it got dark.”
What we know of Bell’s early life comes mainly from interviews of him late in life. We know his father was African American and his mother was largely of Native American descent. We know he was fourth of eight children and that his maternal grandfather owned 200 acres of land outside Starkville where he grew cotton, corn, fruit trees and vegetables. We know that Cool Papa Bell not only worked those fields but also worked at the college’s creamery and at the agricultural experiment station. In a recorded interview in 1981, Bell told of having to dodge rocks thrown at him by some of the agriculture students.
Although he didn’t attend State, Bell knew all about the rivalry between State and what he called “Old Miss.”
When “Old Miss” came to town to play, Bell said State students would “soap” the train tracks to stop the train from running. He laughed as he told the story.
He also told about coaching Jackie Robinson with the Kansas City Monarchs before Robinson broke the color line in Major League Baseball.
“Jackie wasn’t the best player in the Negro Leagues, but he was the best to represent us in the Major Leagues,” Bell said. “He played better in the Major Leagues than he did in our league.”
Bell took great pride in Robinson’s Major League success. He called his own induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame his second greatest thrill, second only to Robinson’s breaking baseball’s color line.
We can only imagine what it would mean to the great Cool Papa to be honored all these years later at his hometown university – the one where he worked as a child but could not attend.
•••
The dedication of “Cool Papa” Bell Plaza and the plaque noting the life and career of Bell is a joint project between MSU athletics and the University’s Student Association. MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen, Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill, student association Vice President Kennedy Guest and Bell’s cousin Allen Landfair will each speak during Thursday’s pregame dedication.
Fans are encouraged to be in their seats at Dudy Noble Field at 7:15 p.m. prior to the game. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU. The ceremony will be shown on the video board as the “Cool Papa” Bell Plaza, located on the left field terrace, will be dedicated.
Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with journalist, author and teacher Curtis Wilkie to talk about his long career and his new book, When Evil Lived in Laurel: The “White Knights” and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer.
A 1963 graduate of University of Mississippi (He drew a map of what happened the night of the riot that is in the Ole Miss archives), Wilkie began his career at the Clarksdale Press Register covering the Civil Rights movement. From there, he went on to cover eight presidential campaigns (He was one of the Boys on the Bus during the 1972 Nixon Campaign.), being the White House correspondent during the Carter and Reagan administrations and then covering the Middle East for the Boston Globe.
After his retirement from the Globe, Wilkie became a professor and fellow at the Overby Center where he taught until recently. He is the also the author of several books including Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South, The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America’s Most Powerful Trial Lawyer, The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK’s Five-year Campaign (Co-authored with Tom Oliphant) and Assassins, Eccentrics, Politicians, and Other Persons of Interest: Fifty Pieces from the Road.
A frequent guest on CSPAN, Wilkie is a master storyteller who has helped document history for over a half century.
The state of Mississippi has applied for more than $2 billion in American Rescue Plan funds — a key first step to the state receiving the federal stimulus money for local and state governments to spend.
While Gov. Tate Reeves, supported by House Speaker Philip Gunn, opted this week to discontinue participation in an American Rescue Plan program that provides the unemployed in the state an additional $300 weekly in federal benefits, Department of Finance and Administration spokeswoman Marcy Scoggins confirmed the state had requested the federal funds for state and local governments.
The U.S. Department of Treasury set up a mechanism this week to begin the disbursement of $350 billion to state, local, territorial and Tribal governments as part of the American Rescue Plan that was passed earlier this year to provide financial relief to governmental entities and individuals who might have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mississippi is slated to receive $1.8 billion to be spent by the Legislature. Half of that money, based on Treasury reports, will be disbursed to the state this month, with the remainder scheduled to provided in 2022. The money must be spent by 2024.
According to the guidelines from the Department of Treasury, the states and local governments have broad discretion in how the funds can be spent. It can go for COVID-19 relief, including to offset revenue lost because of shutdowns caused by the pandemic. On a state level, Mississippi never suffered a revenue loss because of COVID-19, and, in fact, tax collections for the current fiscal year have been growing.
The money also can be spent to enhance broadband and water and sewer improvements but not for roads and streets. Funds also could be used to provide extra pay to essential workers.
Similar rules apply for the funds going to the local governments.
The funds cannot be used to cut taxes, though some Republican-led states have filed lawsuits challenging that restriction.
The website for the Department of Treasury instructs: “The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds provide substantial flexibility for each government to meet local needs—including support for households, small businesses, impacted industries, essential workers, and the communities hardest hit by the crisis. These funds can also be used to make necessary investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure.”
Mississippi is slate to receive:
$1.8 billion to the state, to be spent by the Legislature.
$97 million for the metro cities of Biloxi, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Moss Point and Pascagoula, with Jackson receiving the largest share at $47 million.
$258 million for smaller cities.
$577 million for the state’s 82 counties.
$1.6 billion for K-12 education, with most directed to local school districts using existing formulas for federal money disbursement. For perspective, the state K-12 budget is a little more than $2 billion a year.
$429 million for the state’s colleges and universities.
$166 million for capital projects statewide, primarily for rural broadband access projects.
“Clearly this is something that is transformative to Mississippi,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said earlier this year of the funds coming to the state. “… It is a good problem to have. Part of our process in my own mind is not only using this over the three years, but how to make this have an effect over the next five, 10 years or longer.”
Earlier this year the Legislature opted to establish a fund to be administered by the Department of Finance and Administration to deposit the funds with the legislators in the coming years deciding how to spend the money. The Legislature will have no say in spending the funds going to local governments and education entities.
Gulfport School District is awaiting approval for additional flexibility next year to be able to reduce achievement gaps, increase student learning and other goals because the board overseeing public education in the state has too many vacancies to take a vote.
And in one Delta county, funding for an early learning program for preschool children hangs in the balance for the same reason.
The nine-member State Board of Education is currently operating with only five members, and soon to be four after a longtime member rolls off next month. The low numbers means any time one board member must recuse him or herself from a vote, the board can’t proceed.
Two — and soon to be three — of the vacancies on the education board are Gov. Tate Reeves’ responsibility to fill, while Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn each have one seat to fill. Hosemann and Gunn have said they are actively meeting with candidates to determine who to appoint.
But Reeves remains silent about when he’ll make his three appointments, ignoring questions from Mississippi Today over the course of several weeks. Meanwhile, the board cannot take critical votes.
In April, Gulfport School District was on the list along with several other districts to be approved as a “District of Innovation,” a special status granted by the state to districts that allows them additional flexibility to expand curriculum choices, develop programs that increase students’ college and career-readiness and make special efforts aimed at low-performing students to decrease learning disparities.
Glen East, the district’s superintendent, is also a member of the State Board of Education and had to recuse himself from the vote, leaving the board with four members, or one member shy of a quorum, and unable to vote on the matter.
“We’re still currently working on the District of Innovation for this school year through the end of June, so we’ll see what happens,” said East, whose district has used the status to create a Middle College program where students can achieve a high school diploma at the same time as an associate’s degree.
He said he’s hopeful an appointment will be made in the next 60 days so the district’s status will be able to be approved once again.
“We’re working hard as a board of five right now … We’re all waiting for the next appointments to come through to help make the process more efficient,” he said.
The State Board of Education must also soon approve additional grant funding for the Tallahatchie Early Learning Alliance, along with other collaboratives across the state. But because of Board of Education member Angela Bass’ work with the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance, she must recuse herself from the vote — meaning the board is, once again, unable to move forward in securing an additional nearly $40,000 in funding for Tallahatchie.
Early learning collaboratives are partnerships among school districts, Head Start agencies, childcare centers and nonprofit groups. There are currently 18 collaboratives serving more than 3,000 children across the state. They were recently recognized by a national group as having the highest quality standards, but access to them remains very low, with only 8% of the state’s 4-year-olds attending one.
One of the Board of Education seats became vacant after the former board chair Jason Dean resigned in February. Dean’s seat is appointed by Hosemann, the lieutenant governor. The others have been vacant for at least several months, and one nearly a year.
Board of Education Chairwoman Rosemary Aultman said she has a meeting with Gunn, the House speaker, on Thursday to discuss his appointment and hopes to have more news then. A spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said his office is in the process of interviewing candidates.
Reeves’ office has ignored multiple questions about his unfilled appointments.
Bass said, however, a contact in Reeves’ office told her appointments would be made by the State Board of Education’s meeting on May 20.
Jonathan Smith of Amory was on Christmas break from his job as a forklift operator in 2017 when he thought he was having a stroke.
Doctors instead found a brain tumor, then determined he had a rare cancer of the nervous system.
Smith said his company was in the process of switching insurance providers, and employees were without health coverage for about three months — including Smith when his cancer was diagnosed. Many treatments and surgeries later, Smith, now 35, cannot work, owes more than he could ever repay for medical care, and his family struggles. He’s just learned he needs another surgery.
Smith on Tuesday spoke to a crowd of medical providers and advocates for the kickoff of the “Yes on 76” drive to put Medicaid expansion before Mississippi voters on the 2022 midterm ballot. Smith says he would be one of about 200,000 uninsured Mississippians who could receive health coverage if Mississippi were to expand Medicaid through the federal Affordable Care Act, with federal tax dollars footing most of the bill.
“A lot of times I feel helpless,” Smith said. “But today I feel pretty good. This is something I can do, something I can help with… I’d like to be healthy enough to be a better father to my children… I should be battling the cancer, not worried about how to pay for my medicine.”
Physicians and nurses on hand for the kickoff of the drive at the Mississippi Hospital Association office inked the first signatures on the petition for Initiative 76. Organizers — led by MHA — must gather about 106,000 to put a constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid on the ballot.
“This is a human issue, not a political issue,” said Hattiesburg pediatrician Dr. John Gaudet, who helped file the initial paperwork for the initiative in February. “It’s a human issue, with a common-sense solution.”
But the issue has been political in Mississippi, and brought heated — and most often partisan — debate. Mississippi, despite being the poorest state and otherwise dependent on federal spending, is one of just 12 states that has refused to expand Medicaid. Most of the state’s Republican leadership, starting with former Gov. Phil Bryant, have opposed expansion, saying they don’t want to help expand “Obamacare” and don’t trust the federal government to continue footing most of the bill. This has left hundreds of thousands of “working poor” Mississippians without health coverage, with the state rejecting at least $1 billion a year in federal funds to provide it.
Proponents estimate that expanding Medicaid would provide coverage for at least 200,000 working poor Mississippians, in addition to the roughly 750,000 poor pregnant women, children, elderly and disabled people already on Medicaid.
Meanwhile, Mississippi’s hospitals, especially smaller rural ones, say they are awash in red ink from providing millions of dollars of care each year to uninsured and unhealthy people. Six Mississippi hospitals have gone under in the last decade, and a recent study said that about half of the other rural hospitals statewide are at risk of closure, as hospitals have to eat about $600 million a year and growing in uncompensated care.
MHA President Tim Moore said that in most rural Mississippi communities “lucky enough to have a hospital,” it’s typically the area’s largest employer. MHA says Medicaid expansion would help the state’s economy and create thousands of jobs, beyond helping impoverished Mississippi tackle one of the global and persistent problems that keeps it on the bottom: the unhealthiness of its people.
“We’re talking about chronic issues that could have been dealt with on the front end, like detecting diabetes and treating it and not losing a leg down the road,” Moore said. “… If you believe in your community and your believe in small town Mississippi, you have to believe in Medicaid expansion… It’s time to bring our Mississippi tax dollars back home from D.C. … 38 states have already done it.”
Gaudet said that Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the state chapter of the NAACP, ACLU of Mississippi, Mississippi Center for Justice, Mississippi Health Advocacy Program and the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund have joined in the initiative drive. He and Moore said they expect other groups to join as it gets rolling, including state business leaders.
“We are committed to creating the biggest, broadest, nonpartisan effort the state has ever seen, in order to bring health care to 200,000 of our citizens,” Gaudet said. “… As physicians, we want to bring our tax dollars home to take care of our patients here, just like Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma have done.”
Nakeitra Burse, CEO of Six Dimensions, a health research and health equity advocate, said Medicaid expansion would help Mississippi improve its worst or near worst in the nation status in categories such as maternal and infant mortality. Other states have seen rates of such chronic problems drop with Medicaid expansion.
“I have no doubt Mississippians will hear the call to action, and we will get the 106,000 signatures we need to get this on the ballot,” Burse said.
Two Mississippi firms have been hired to collect signatures for the drive, Moore recently said, and people and organizations have already lined up as volunteers. The drive has a website for people to learn more or volunteer, YesOn76.org.
Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn have recently reiterated their opposition to Medicaid expansion. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has said he’s open to discussion on the issue, one of few state GOP leaders to openly say so.
Hosemann in a statement on Tuesday said: “Key chairmen in the Senate will likely hold hearings later this year to learn more from providers, advocates, patients, and other stakeholders in the healthcare community about the delivery of healthcare in Mississippi. Our office is not involved in the ballot initiative.”
Moore said MHA and others have pushed lawmakers to expand Medicaid for nearly a decade, to no avail, so it was time for voters to take matters in hand through the state’s ballot initiative process. He believes, in part based on polling, that the push will have bipartisan support.
“Mississippians have the chance to do the right thing in 2022, and also be fiscally conservative,” Moore said.
