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Rob Hill, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign of Mississippi, talks with Mississippi Today reporters Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison about how he believes the legislation recently signed into law by Gov. Tate Reeves discriminates and portrays a negative image of Mississippi.

Listen here:

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The number of times Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has recessed the Mississippi Senate in recent days would make elementary-age students green with envyMany of those recesses, it appears, have involved medical marijuana — time needed to strategize on how to pass a medical marijuana proposal out of the Senate, where Hosemann presides.

Arguably no issue has taken more of the Senate’s time this session, counting the recesses, than medical marijuana.

Earlier this month on a key deadline day, with multiple bills pending that would die if not taken up, the Senate spent hours in recess presumably trying to develop a plan to pass a medical marijuana bill. They eventually did, though the Senate stayed in session until after 1 a.m. to finish its work.

On the surface, the issue does not seem that controversial. Hosemann said his only intent is to pass legislation “as a backstop” in case the Mississippi Supreme Court rules later this year that the process used to gather the signatures to place on the ballot an initiative to legalize the use of medical marijuana was unconstitutional. Voters overwhelmingly approved that initiative.

“My Senate could have said the heck with it, but they care about medical marijuana and the people who voted for it..,” Hosemann explained of the Senate’s preoccupation with the issue. “What happens if they (Supreme Court justices) declare it unconstitutional? We don’t come back until next year. What happens to all the people the advocates said would really have to have this… We are trying to make sure the issue they voted on is in effect immediately.”

But some supporters of that initiative fear Hosemann and others are trying to send the signal to the court that it is OK to throw out the initiative because they have “a backstop” so voters will not be too upset if the initiative is found unconstitutional. No doubt, many legislative leaders oppose the medical marijuana initiative because it prevents medical marijuana from being taxed to support education and other aspects of state government, and it severely limited the regulation of the drug.

READ MORE: House kills medical marijuana bill. Senate tries a hail Mary

Warning: The following gets deep in the weeds… of the legislative process.

Last week, the Senate’s effort to pass medical marijuana accelerated after the House killed the bill that Hosemann kept the Senate in session until past midnight to pass earlier this session.

Not to be deterred, the Senate found another bill — a House proposal called “Harper Grace’s Law” dealing with research on cannabidiol, or CBD oil — to insert the language legalizing medical marijuana. The decision to place the medical marijuana amendment in the cannabidiol bill, of course, was done after multiple recesses.

Despite those recesses, the bill would have been voted down if not for Sen. Jeremy England, R-Vancleave, who said he opposed the medical marijuana bill but ultimately opted not to vote, instead “pairing” with a senator who presumably supported the bill but was absent for a family illness. England was on record as being opposed to the bill, but his vote did not count. If his vote had counted, the bill would have been defeated by one vote.

But the Senate leadership made a strategic mistake during recess. The bill had “a reverse repealer,” meaning it would be repealed before it ever went into effect. In this case, the bill stood repealed on Jan. 1, 2021.

Reverse repealers often are added to ensure bills go to conference committee, where further negotiations between Senate and House leaders take place. But in this case a conference committee most likely would guarantee the death of medical marijuana during the 2021 session.

The language added to the Harper Grace’s bill in the Senate probably would not be allowed to stay in the bill had it gone to conference, according to numerous legislative sources. But the complex legislative rules would not prohibit the House from simply concurring in the changes the Senate made and sending the bill to the governor.

But the problem was that the bill as passed the Senate could not be sent to the governor because it would stand repealed even before it reached his desk. So, after more time in recess, Senate leaders mustered the votes to go back into the bill and remove the reverse repealer and pass it again by a narrow margin.

The second time it passed, two senators, England and Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown — both of whom said they opposed the bill legalizing medical marijuana — did not vote, instead pairing with absent senators who supported the bill. Had either England or McMahan actually voted, the bill would have been defeated.

The question now is whether the House will concur with the work the Senate has done to pass a proposal legalizing medical marijuana. If not, Hosemann and senators wasted a lot of time in recess.

READ MORE: Mississippi’s medical marijuana mess

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Last week, our team sent a message to subscribers of our COVID-19 text line making them aware that Gov. Tate Reeves had lifted all mask mandates across Mississippi and removed restriction on businesses.

We also asked subscribers how they felt about Mississippi being one of two states to lift these kinds of restrictions.

We received a wide range of responses: Many were disappointed. Some were happy. Several wished more people had been vaccinated first. A couple felt it was politically motivated. Most expressed it was too soon.

How do you feel about the restrictions being lifted? Text COVID to 601-633-2220 to join our COVID-19 text line.

Read some of the responses we received:

We have been following Mississippi’s cases, deaths and vaccinations since the pandemic hit the state a year ago. View all of our data here. Keep tabs on daily case numbers and follow us as we continue to provide data and news to help keep Mississippians safe and informed.

Last updated: March 13, 2021

Sign up for our COVID-19 text line:

For more ways to connect with Mississippi Today, click here.

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To his credit, Senator Roger Wicker championed legislation to help out restauranteurs. But when it was added into the COVID Relief legislation, he voted against it. And then praised it. It’s just one of politics little side steps.

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Jackson’s long-term infrastructure problems are far from over, but the crisis the mid-February winter storm left on the city’s residents has been largely addressed.

The city’s large-scale water service disruptions are over for most residents, with the remaining incidents of low or no water pressure being mostly caused by faulty water meters or broken pipes at individual buildings.

A historic winter storm beginning on Feb. 14 froze water plant equipment and burst many pipes in the capital city, and at least 40,000 residents — mostly Black — were without water for about three weeks.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the city said she does not know how many of Jackson’s 43,000 water connections were down after the winter storm but that the number of calls to the city’s help line to report service issues had greatly diminished. 

Of the 126 reported water main breaks since the winter storm, 80 have been repaired, 7 are ready for repair and 39 are yet to be confirmed.

The city’s next hurdle is removing the boil water notice for its 43,000 surface water connections. City leadership has not presented a timeline for this, but hopes to be able to submit samples over the weekend. The city lifted its boil water notice for its 16,000 well water connections on Wednesday, but this affects a small number of customers in South Jackson as well as the cities of Terry and Byram.

City leaders, who have neglected funding the water system for decades, say they need major investment from the state to repair system, which is estimated to cost at least $1 billion. State lawmakers are debating how to address the water crisis before they are scheduled to leave Jackson on April 4.

READ MORE: Lawmakers consider Jackson water crisis options as end of session nears

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March 11, 2021

Today is Pandemic Day.

It’s the one-year anniversary of the day that world slowed to a grind. You know, the day Tom Hanks tested positive for COVID and the NBA shut down. Since then, there have been victories (the courageous efforts of our health professionals and the creation of not one but three successful vaccines) and tragedies (over 525,000 Americans dead with many more struggling to recover to normalcy). There have been ugly moments, mostly revolving around the politicization of the virus. That, sadly, has made the tragedy so much worse.

Looking back, I think about how the world changed. We learned how to Zoom, how to virtual learn, how to eat takeout and how to social distance. We learned how much we need human connection. (Thank God this happened when we had the Internet.) Mask mandates came and went. We helped and complained — we grieved and put all five stages out there on Facebook. Cases waxed and waned. Medical professionals learned on the fly how to treat seriously ill patients as science worked hard to catch up. At first, we couldn’t touch our faces. Then we figured out we were most likely to catch the disease from swapping air with those around us. Businesses struggled. Our mental health struggled. We lost parents and grandparents and friends –so many suffered alone. There has been a mix of outrage and sadness.

It has been exhausting.

The 1918 Flu, which is the only pandemic in the U.S. to have killed more Americans than this one, was quickly pushed aside after the third wave of deaths. There were no memorials to the dead other than the lingering fear of the survivors. Reading about that dark time, I wonder how this time will be viewed by history. The virus has ripped back the curtain on our institutions and our individual souls, revealing our true natures. It hasn’t always been pretty. The economy will come roaring back. Businesses that survived the initial heart attack will too.

The light at the end of the tunnel is upon us.

I look forward to the day when I can get back on a stage and speak to 1,000 people, sit in a bar, cheer my team in a crowded stadium and go to a concert.

Personally, I am grateful. The curtain got ripped back on me as well. I see the world in a different way than I did a year ago. I don’t look for the best in people anymore — I realize that is naive. I also know that most people are inheritantly selfish. We have viewed this pandemic through the lens of our own experience. For me, it took a physical toll. My back is garbage and I am not in good shape from sitting so much. On the bright side, I have perfected new skills and have adapted to the changes required. I also have gotten better at cutting people some slack.

We’re all going through this together, even if some handle it in a different way. One year. Twelve months. Three hundred and sixty five days. We are changed. It’s up to us to make it for the better.

I just hope Dr. Dobbs can get a day off.

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Economist Arthur Laffer, an adviser to former President Ronald Reagan whose beliefs helped shape U.S. economic policy in the 1980s, has endorsed Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn’s proposal to eliminate the state’s income tax while raising sales, “sin” and other consumer taxes.

“For decades, I’ve worked with state legislators to eliminate the tax that is the single greatest threat to state economic growth and prosperity — the income tax,” Laffer said in a statement in a Gunn press release. “My hat goes off to (Gunn) and his colleagues for their bold plan to make Mississippi more prosperous through income tax elimination and fiscal discipline. America is watching. Mississippi has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-position itself for economic growth.”

The House leadership’s proposal, HB 1439, awaits action in the Senate, where reaction from Gunn’s fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has been lukewarm and noncommittal. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who himself has proposed eliminating the state income tax, has said he opposes the plan’s commensurate increases in other taxes, such as adding 2.5-cents to the state’s 7-cents on the dollar sales tax.

Gunn’s plan would also over time cut the sales tax on groceries in half.

READ MORE: House leaders move to eliminate Mississippi income tax, raise sales and other taxes in landmark bill

Economic and policy experts’ reactions to and analysis of Gunn’s proposal have been mixed.

The conservative Tax Foundation, on whose policies Gunn said he based his proposal, has agreed with Reeves that the income tax should be phased out without personal exemptions and offsetting tax increases Gunn proposes. It warned that some of Gunn’s sales tax increases — particularly on manufacturing machinery, farm equipment and other “intermediate transactions”— could cause “tax pyramiding.” Tax pyramiding is where the same good or service is taxed multiple times through the chain of production. The foundation said this would put some Mississippi businesses at a competitive disadvantage, and these tax costs would be passed on to consumers.

READ MORE: Study: House tax proposal increases burden on poor Mississippians

A study by economics professors at the University of Mississippi found that the bill would increase the state’s gross domestic product by $371 million annually by making the tax structure more efficient. In general, the study found that the income tax, which the House plan would eliminate, creates inefficiencies in the economy while a tax on consumption, such as the sales tax which would be increased by the House plan, does the opposite.

Another analysis by a progressive Washington, D.C.-based think tank warned that the plan would put too much of the tax burden on poor people. It said the bottom 60% of Mississippi’s income earners would be paying more taxes under the legislation while the top 40% would be paying less.

READ MORE: Is Gunn on a political island with tax overhaul plan?

Other conservative-leaning groups, such as Empower Mississippi, have generally surmised the bill would positively impact the state.

Hosemann has said the proposal needs more scrutiny, and called for a study from the state economist.

In a statement Thursday, Gunn said: “I am very pleased to have Dr. Laffer’s support for HB1439. Dr. Laffer’s leadership was a key inspiration for President Reagan’s transformative tax cuts, which set off an unprecedented boom in the American economy. There is no bigger name in tax reform circles nationally than Dr. Laffer. His support demonstrates the strength of HB1439. It is a credit to the hard work of Chairman Trey Lamar, Speaker Pro Tem Jason White, and our House members. As Dr. Laffer said, this is a once in a generation opportunity. I urge Lt. Governor Hosemann and our Senate to work with the House to bring transformative tax reform to Mississippi this session.”

Laffer, who has been called “the father of supply side economics,” promoted the idea that lowering tax rates could result in higher revenues. He created the “Laffer curve,” which shows that, starting from a zero tax rate, increases in taxes increase government revenue, but at some point higher taxes begin to reduce revenue — cuts to marginal rates increase tax revenues.

Laffer’s theories influenced U.S. economic policies, including Reagan’s 1981 economic plan.

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Department of Education officials announced annual average ACT scores on Thursday, which indicate that the majority of high school juniors in the state are not college ready. 

While average ACT scores rose slightly for juniors across the state from 17.6 in 2019 to 17.7 in 2020, 90% of students are not hitting all four ACT benchmarks, which are used to gauge whether a student is likely to pass college courses that correspond to these test sections such as Algebra, Biology or Social Sciences. This is a 1% improvement from 2019, when 91% of students missed benchmarks for the ACT. 

“As we look at [these benchmarks] we see a close connection to college readiness for students,” said Nathan Oakley, Mississippi Department of Education Chief Academic Officer. 

Where ACT recommends that students score at least an 18 on English, 22 on Math, 22 on Reading and 23 on Science, Mississippi students on average scored 16.8 on English, 17.5 on Math, 17.9 on Reading and 18.2 on Science. 

Teachers and school administrators have said that lack of resources and fatigue from state testing often contributes to lower ACT scores. Because students’ state test scores account for so much of a school district’s accountability grade, school resources prioritize preparing students to perform well on the state tests, not the ACT. 

This means that a significant amount of classroom time is put toward preparing students for the state tests, which have no bearing on whether a student can get into college, rather than ACT prep, which has everything to do with college access.     

All schools and school districts are given an accountability score that rates A through F. These scores are of tremendous importance to the school district. Businesses evaluate these ratings when considering setting up shop in a community, potential homeowners are typically drawn to regions with higher ratings because it indicates a better school district. 

Also, if a school district scores an F on the accountability ratings two years in a row, the State Board of Education “may abolish the school district and assume control and administration of the schools,” according to MDE. This means the local school board would be dissolved and the superintendent would be removed from their position. 

All of this can trickle down — especially in resource strapped, underperforming schools — to intense pressure on students to perform well on state tests because those scores make up the majority of the accountability grade. 

Out of the 1,000 point system that schools with 12th grade classes are graded on for the accountability rating, 665 are based on how students perform on state tests. The ACT accounts for 47.5 points of that grade with 23.75 points depending on ACT Math performance and 23.75 points for ACT reading or english points. 

Teachers and education advocates have argued that this grading system disincentivizes underperforming, underfunded school districts from prioritizing ACT prep because so much of the accountability grade rides on the state tests results. 

They also say that this grading model does not benefit students; state tests results do not impact whether a student can get into college, while a student’s ACT score directly impacts whether they’ll be eligible for college enrollment, scholarships and other opportunities that are crucial for college access. 

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