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The flag redesign commission has already met without Governor Tate Reeves’ appointed members — who are unnamed at this point. When asked about it at Wednesday’s press conference, the Governor said he was busy with COVID-19, would do so when he was darn well ready and questioned the Legislature’s authority to name people to the commission.

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The post Marshall Ramsey: Charles Evers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Charles Evers passed away this week. He was 97. (AP Photo/Rogelio Solis)

Civil rights activist and politician Charles Evers, brother of slain NAACP leader Medgar Evers, died Wednesday morning in Brandon, his family said. He was 97.

“The world lost a fearless Civil Rights leader this morning,” a statement from his family said. “… The life mission of Charles Evers was to advance the work of his beloved brother, who was assassinated on June 12, 1963. After his killing, Charles Evers rushed to Jackson to take his brother’s place as field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP and in 1969 he became Mississippi’s first black mayor since Reconstruction in a biracial town (Fayette) … Our family is heartbroken and proud of his legacy.”

Charles Evers ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1971 and for U.S. Senate in 1978, as an Independent candidate.

He was born in Decatur, was a World War II Army veteran and along with his brother, became active in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1950s. He served two decades as Fayette mayor.

Evers in recent years was a Republican, although he supported President Barack Obama. He endorsed President Donald Trump and was part of a welcoming committee for Trump when the president attended the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

Gov. Tate Reeves in a social media post on Wednesday said Evers “was a true friend to me and so many Mississippians.”

“His memory will always be cherished and honored,” Reeves said.

The post Charles Evers, civil rights activist and politician, dead at 97 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The commission lawmakers charged with putting a new Mississippi flag design before voters held its first meeting Wednesday, minus three members Gov. Tate Reeves failed to appoint by last week’s deadline per a new law he signed.

Six members of what is supposed to be a nine-member commission unanimously moved up their deadline to have a new flag design from Sept. 14 to Sept. 2 to allow more time to put it on a Nov. 3 ballot.

Geoff Pender

House Speaker Philip Gunn opens the first meeting of commission to redesign Mississippi’s state flag.

The commission agreed to over the next few weeks review hundreds of designs the public has submitted — and likely to choose a final design from one of those. They agreed to meet next week with a vexillologist, or expert on flags. They also unanimously chose former state Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson as chairman of the commission.

Officials at the meeting had little comment on Reeves’ failure to make his three appointments to the commission, other than the commission has enough members for a quorum and will move forward regardless.

Reeves, who opposed the Legislature removing the state’s 1894 flag with its divisive Confederate battle emblem but signed the bill into law, has given little explanation for his delay in appointments other than he has been too busy.

On Wednesday, after the commission had met, Reeves said: “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but we are dealing with serious hospital capacity issues (from COVID-19) and people are dying every day … We will make our appointments when we make those appointments.”

Although he had signed the flag commission legislation into law without raising such issues, on Wednesday he questioned whether lawmakers have the “constitutional authority to call a meeting of an executive branch entity” or to make appointments to such a commission.

House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann made their appointments to the commission last week.

Gunn, who led the legislative push to remove the 1894 state flag and authored the bill, thanked commission members and stressed the historic “weight” of their work as he opened Wednesday’s meeting.

“We are making history,” Gunn said. “Whatever banner we decide will represent this state, probably forever.

“When that thing goes up, you can say, ‘Hey, I did that,’ and your grandchildren will know you did it,” Gunn said. “… The children of Israel have a banner they unite behind … even pirates have a banner, skull and crossbones that says we rape and pillage, but they unite behind it … We need a design the entire state can be proud of that does in fact represent all our people.”

Gunn marveled that the Legislature voting to remove the flag with a Confederate emblem after decades of debate was “nothing short of a miracle” and said, “I want to be on the right side of history.”

Anderson, serving as the first African American justice of the state high court from 1985-1991, said he didn’t seek the role as chairman, but, “Now that I think about it, I’m probably uniquely qualified.”

“I went to law school at Ole Miss in 1965, and I think that every person on campus back then was carrying that flag,” Anderson said. “The marching band back then marched in Confederate uniforms. So I was not welcomed there.

“Every courtroom I walked into all those years, that flag told me I was not welcomed,” Anderson said. “I and thousands of Mississippians have been stiff-armed by that flag … We are the right group to take care of it.”

Four of the commission members attended Wednesday’s meeting at the Two Museums in person, with two there via video conference. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is providing clerical help and support for the commission.

The commission reviewed its charter set forth by the Legislature: select a new flag design —which must include the words “In God We Trust” and cannot have a Confederate battle emblem — present it to the Legislature, governor and secretary of state so it can go before voters on Nov. 3 for an up or down vote. If voters reject the proposal, the commission will go back to work on a new design for the ballot in 2021.

Archives and History Director Katie Blount told the commission on Wednesday that the secretary of state’s office and county circuit clerks had expressed concerns that the Sept. 14 deadline for choosing a new design would be cutting it close on getting the flag on the ballot. Commissioners moved up that deadline to Sept. 2. They set meetings for July 28, Aug. 19 and Sept. 2, and said they might schedule others.

The Department of Archives last week put out a call for the public to submit designs, and has received about 600 so far. The commission considered letting archives staff winnow these down to a short list for them to view.

But commissioner Mack Varner, a Vicksburg attorney, said he wanted to look at all the submitted designs, to which others agreed. They plan to have have a short list of 25 designs selected by Aug. 19.

The commission is not required to pick a public-submitted design and could come up with its own, but commissioners appeared unanimous in wanting to choose from public proposals.

“I think the public’s engagement is very important in this,” said Commissioner Sherri Carr Bevis of Gulfport, a marketing and communications executive.

Anderson told his colleagues that as a longtime jurist he believes “the phrase In God We Trust is a challenge, constitutionally.”

“But if there ever was a time that Mississippi and the country needed In God We Trust, it is now,” Anderson said. “I look forward to supporting that phrase.”

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

The Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

Legislative leaders say despite the pandemic, the state budget is in a good place and do not foresee state agencies needing to make any layoffs.

The budget approved by the Legislature in late June and early July provides state agencies $113.5 million, or 1.8% less funds for the current fiscal year than they received during the prior year. The new budget year began July 1.

At one point, legislative leaders were expecting much deeper cuts because of the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19. Officials believed the shutdown would result in large reductions in state tax collections. But thus far, the coronavirus shutdown has not resulted in those big reductions in state revenue collections.

“We’re looking at about 50% of agencies taking about a 5% cut, only about 1% that we didn’t cut and the rest had about a 3% cut,” House Appropriations Chair John Read, R-Gautier, said in an earlier interview. “I’m thankful we wound up in this position. It could have been a lot worse.”

Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said “I am not aware of any agency that would actually be forced to lay off employees because of cuts.”

The total state support budget for the current 2021 fiscal year is $6.25 billion. The state support budget is built primarily on general taxes, such as on retail items and on income. It is the portion of the budget where legislators have the most discretion in how they spend the funds.

The entire state budget, including federal fund and special funds, is $21.8 billion. The Legislature usually has less discretion in spending those funds. The federal funds are designated for specific areas by the U.S. Congress, such as for Medicaid and Temporary Aid for Needy Families. Special funds are derived through fees or taxes to fund specific agencies. For instance, accountants pay a fee for the agency that regulates them. The largest special fund agency is the Department of Transportation that is funded primarily through the 18.4-cent per gallon tax on motor fuels.

In terms of state support agencies, the universities were cut $32.8 million or 4.6% while the 15 community colleges were cut $14.9 million or 6%.

In a statement, Kell Smith, a spokesperson for the community colleges said, “We do recognize the difficult decisions the Legislature had to make when it wrote the budget based on many unknowns at the time.  That said, we are grateful for the money appropriated to the community colleges.”

Smith continued, “At this time, we are optimistic about being able to provide affordable education and training opportunities to many thousands of Mississippians without a reduction in services.  Hopefully, we will not experience mid-year cuts which could force difficult decisions to be made at that time.”

Mid-year cuts would occur if revenue came in at a rate less than the projection used to construct the budget.

The state health department, which has been beset with dealing with the coronavirus, was cut $1.2 million or 2% in state funds. Much of the health department funding comes from federal and special funds.

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said the agency for the most part has the funds, through federal appropriations, to deal with the coronavirus, but that other aspects of what the agency does could be impacted by the cuts.

Dobbs said the funds will make it “a challenge” to continue many of its core non-coronavirus functions, such as combatting sexually transmitted diseases and providing tuberculosis treatment.

“We understand it is a tough budget year..,” he said. “We really depend on that money for being in the community and taking care of gaps in the health care system for people who are most vulnerable…We will continue to try to meet our mission the best we can.”

Medicaid, another major expense for the state, was aided by an increase in federal funding, making it easier to reduce state funding $32.1 million or 3.4%.

Almost a month since the new budget year began, parts of state government remain unfunded by the Legislature. Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed large portions of the $2.5 billion education budget, which was cut $60.7 million. Reeves issued the partial veto because the Legislature did not fund a program to provide bonuses to teachers and faculty in top performing and improving school districts.

And the Legislature left without funding the Department of Marine Resources, which provides oversight and law enforcement services on the Gulf of Mexico. DMR was not funded because of a disagreement between House and Senate leaders over how much oversight authority the Legislature will have of federal money the agency receives. Marine Resources receives only about $1 million in state funding – also depending on federal and special funds for the bulk of its money.

Marine Resources is still providing core services, though, it is not clear how long that can continue. And Reeves said K-12 schools can continue to operate because they are a constitutional function that must receive state funding regardless of the action of the Legislature.

But is not clear whether the fact that no money is currently appropriated to the school districts, based on the governor’s veto, will impact the amount of the next round of state funding the schools receive in August.

Reeves has said he intends to call legislators back in special session to deal with those budgets. But he said he wants to wait because more than 30 legislators tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month soon after they left the Capitol on July 1.

He said he “most likely” would have already brought the Legislature back if not for the COVID-19 outbreak.

“If is just not safe to do that,” he said recently.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

The Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

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