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Public retirees likely to lose ability to serve in Legislature without losing retirement benefits
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Mississippi House speaker Philip Gunn speaks during Gov. Tate Reeves press conference at the State of Mississippi Woolfolk Building in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, May 7, 2020.
The board that governs Mississippi’s public employees retirement system could revisit and reverse its ruling that retired educators and state and local government retirees can serve in the Legislature while continuing to draw their pensions.
The Public Employees Retirement System Board had requested an IRS ruling on whether its decision could negatively impact the federal tax exempt status of the system, which could be detrimental for the system and its members.
The board had voted in 2019 to change its regulation to allow the public retirees to serve in the Legislature and draw their pension as they do in other states, such as Florida. But in making the change, board members said they needed approval of the IRS.
In a letter sent to the PERS Board in early May, officials at the IRS said: “In this particular instance we have determined that we cannot issue a ruling based on the factual nature of the matter involved.”
When contacted, the IRS refused to provide any additional details. And PERS officials only referenced the letter and indicated the issue would be discussed by its governing board as early as its next regular meeting on June 23.
Members of the House leadership believe the IRS ruling – or lack of ruling – means that the PERS Board will have to reverse its ruling allowing public retirees to serve in the Legislature and draw their pension or risk losing the tax exempt status.
“My understanding of the issue is the absence of the IRS endorsement changes everything,” said House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton. “It puts the tax exempt status of the plan in jeopardy.”
House Pro Tem Jason White, R-West agreed. He said if a request is made and the request is not granted: “Isn’t it the same as saying you can’t do that?”
The House leadership has opposed the change in regulation to allow public retirees to serve and draw their pension from the very beginning. Gunn argued the PERS change conflicted with existing state law.
For years, PERS’ regulations prevented public employees from serving in the Legislature and drawing their pension. But in late 2018, former Attorney General Jim Hood issued an opinion – based on a question from an elective official – saying that public employees could serve in the Legislature and draw their pension as long as they received only a portion of their legislative pay. Public employee retirees already can work part time for other governmental agencies. Hood ruled that they also should be allowed to serve in the Legislature.
In the 2019 election, four public retirees – all Republicans – were elected to the House with the expectation that they could draw their pension while receiving partial legislative pay. But the House leadership – despite the PERS change in regulation – refused to reduce the pay of the four members, meaning they were ineligible to receive retirement pay.
Two of the four members – Ramona Blackledge, former Jones County tax assessor/collector, and Billy Andrews, former Lamar County judge – already have stepped down from the legislative seats. The other two, Jerry Darnell of DeSoto County and Dale Goodin of Richton, both retired educators, are still serving and forgoing their monthly retirement benefits.
“It will eventually be resolved,” Goodin said. “You can’t continue to take people’s rights away.” Goodin and others have argued not allowing retired public employees to serve and draw their pension takes away a right from them that others, such as retirees from the private sector, have.
When PERS board members changed the regulation, they did so with the understanding that they might have to rescind the change if not approved by the IRS.
Retired public employees in other states are allowed to serve in their legislatures without their system being penalized by the IRS. The four elected officials told Mississippi Today this year that they do not understand why Mississippi is different.
For instance, Florida law says specifically “any retired state employee who is presently drawing retirement benefits under any state retirement system may, as any other citizen, serve in the Legislature without affecting in any way his or her retirement status or the receipt of retirement funds while a member of the Legislature.”
PERS Executive Director Ray Higgins said earlier the IRS might allow public employee retirees to serve in the legislature in other states without losing their pension and not allow it in Mississippi because “each state has different laws, regulations, and retirement plan designs.”
Most employees of state and local governments, public schools K-12 and university employees, participate in Mississippi’s retirement system, contributing 9 percent of their salary for retirement benefits.
According to PERS data, the average benefit is more than $23,100 annually for the more than 100,000 people drawing benefits. In total, more than 300,000 are in the public employees retirement system either drawing benefits, having paid into the system or currently paying into the system.
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Weekend Forecast
FRIDAY: A 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, it will be a mix of sun & clouds, with a high near 89. West wind around 5 mph.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy, with a low around 71.
SATURDAY: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Otherwise, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 92.!Calm wind becoming east northeast around 5 mph.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy, with a low around 71.
SUNDAY: A mix of sun & clouds with a high near 92!. East northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
COVID-19 Data: Day-of-death
While the state health department publishes new deaths each day, those reports are not necessarily from the previous day. This chart uses day-of-death data, reported by the health department after COVID-19 death investigations, to show the date that each death happened, both in long-term care settings and the general population.
Though long-term care residents are not driving overall new case growth, they are comprising most COVID deaths in the state — currently accounting for 52 percent of all deaths and accounting for nearly two-thirds of all deaths over the last two weeks. Late-May, the state completed universal long-term care facility testing of every resident and staff, accounting for nearly 27,000 tests.
Learn more about long-term care cases here.
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Artificial Kidneys Are a Step Closer With This New Tech
10 percent of the global population suffers from some form of kidney disease. That includes 37 million people in the US, 100,000 of whom pass away each year awaiting a kidney transplant.
Our kidneys are crucial for keeping us alive and healthy. A sort of chemical computer that keeps our blood chemistry stable—whether we’re eating a sugary birthday cake or a vitamin-filled salad—they prevent waste buildup, stabilize our electrolyte levels, and produce hormones to regulate our blood pressure and make red blood cells.
Kidneys clean our blood using nephrons, which are essentially filters that let fluid and waste products through while blocking blood cells, proteins, and minerals. The latter get reintegrated into the blood, and the former leave the body in urine.
Scientists have struggled to come up with viable treatments for kidney disease and renal failure, and their complexity means kidneys are incredibly hard to synthetically recreate; each kidney contains around one million intricately-structured nephrons.
But new progress from chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas has brought functioning artificial kidneys one step closer. The researchers created a device that was able to filter blood in a way similar to biological nephrons. They described the device in a recent paper published in Nature Communications Materials.
There are two basic processes that take place when blood passes through the kidneys. First, clusters of blood vessels called glomeruli let small molecules, waste, and water through, while proteins and blood cells stay behind. The material that gets through this first filter then flows into the nephron network, where it’s further filtered in a process called ion transport.
The researchers’ work focused on the second step, ion transport. They placed a porous mesh made of platinum between two ion-exchange wafers to create a wafer that pushes ions through membranes using an electric field. The platinum meshes serve as electrodes when voltage is applied, enabling the team to select different ions and adjust their transport rates independently. They tested the technology with various ions and were successfully able to mimic the ion transport done by the kidneys.
In their paper, the team points out that other research groups have tried creating artificial nephrons using living, cell-based systems, including stem cells; but outside a native, living environment and absent the physical and hormonal signaling that control their function, biologically-based systems have struggled to replicate the nephrons’ function, especially ion transport.
Christa Hestekin, Arkansas associate professor of chemical engineering and the lead author of the paper, said, “The system could work as a stand-alone device or in conjunction with peritoneal dialysis to control the chemistry of solutions used in treatment. And, minor modifications to the device could enable it to function as a wearable and potentially implantable artificial kidney.”
In the US alone, over 93,000 people are currently on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Though a fully-functioning artificial kidney is likely still years away at best, scientists are making incremental progress in recreating this vital organ; an artificial nephron like the one described here is just one piece of a complex puzzle.
Another crucial piece is a functioning network of blood vessels. In 2015, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory created bioprinted kidney tissue that replicated some of the functions of biological nephrons. In 2016 a group at Harvard’s Lewis Lab used 3D printing to re-create the nephrons’ tubules, complete with a vascular network for blood flow—but they only stayed alive for a little over two months.
The fully synthetic nature of the Arkansas team’s technology could thus have a leg up on biologically-based approaches. According to Hestekin, the nephron could be combined with ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, or reverse osmosis systems and integrated into an artificial kidney.
Given the vast number of people in need of them, artificial kidneys can’t come soon enough, and will be a miracle of modern science when they do arrive. Though it’ll be some time yet, incremental progress like this gives us the confidence to say “when” instead of “if.”
Image Credit: crystal light / Shutterstock.com
Marshall Ramsey: The A.G.’s New Division
Read more about this story here.
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Less than a quarter of Mississippi high schools will host traditional graduation ceremonies
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Courtney Webster receives her diploma at during Greenville High School’s graduation Thursday, May 21, 2020.
COVID-19 closed schools across Mississippi and the nation, and left districts scrambling to figure out how to plan one of the most memorable events for high school seniors: graduation.
Mississippi Today reached out to all of the 233 public high schools in the state to ask what their graduation ceremony plans are. Respondents’ plans, if they have any, fall into one of three categories. Traditional ceremonies will have graduates walk the stage to receive their diploma while following social distancing measures. Virtual-only ceremonies can only be viewed via live stream or by video. In-person, non-traditional ceremonies are an abbreviated version of a graduation ceremony including, but not limited to: drive-thrus, parades, and movie drive-up graduations.
As of June 2, almost 16 percent of schools did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request or had no information on their websites or social media pages. About a third will hold in-person, non-traditional ceremonies. Less than a quarter of schools will hold traditional ceremonies. Almost 20 percent indicated they were planning to host a graduation ceremony but did not provide specific details, and 17 percent of respondents plan to hold virtual-only ceremonies.
In late May, the Mississippi Department of Education provided guidance to school districts including that outdoor traditional ceremonies should have no more than 100 people present, and 50 present for indoor ceremonies. These types of ceremonies come with increased risk and “are strongly discouraged and should not occur in counties with higher levels of transmission,” the department wrote.
Additionally, some districts will hold multiple types of ceremonies at later dates. For example, East Webster High School conducted a virtual ceremony on May 17. However, the school plans to have a formal, traditional graduation ceremony on July 19.
As a way to celebrate the Class of 2020, Mississippi Today created a landing page to share their stories on how the coronavirus pandemic interrupted their final moments of senior year.
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A tour of Mississippi: Greenville Bridge
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‘Slap in the face’: Columbus DA rips AG Lynn Fitch for dropping charges against white officer who killed black man
16th Circuit Court website
Scott Colom, the district attorney for Columbus and surrounding counties
The district attorney in Columbus, a predominantly African American city of about 20,000, called Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s decision last week to dismiss 2015 charges brought after a black man was killed in an officer-involved shooting a “slap in the face.”
District Attorney Scott Colom initially transferred the case from his office to the state in 2016 to put a distance between the outcome and any local influence.
“I don’t know if they’re just not aware of how serious this case was in Columbus back in 2015 and early 2016,” Colom said.
Ricky Ball, 26, was shot to death during a police traffic stop in October 2015. Columbus Police Department officer Canyon Boykin, who is white, was later fired and pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges brought by the state in 2016.
As tens of thousands protest inequities in the criminal justice system and the police killings of black Americans, Fitch announced last week that her office had dropped the charges against Boykin. In a two-sentence statement, Fitch’s office said its review of the evidence concluded Boykin had acted in self-defense.
“The Attorney General’s Office did a thorough and independent review of the thousands of documents in this case file and concluded that there is not evidence on which to prosecute the case against Officer Boykin,” the statement read. “In fact, all evidence, including forensics and the sworn statements of four separate MBI investigators, points to necessary self-defense.”
Fitch’s office did not answer questions asking to elaborate on the findings or about the timing of the decision, as protests continue nationwide in response to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and George Floyd in Minnesota involving current or former law enforcement.
“It was not something that I expected to happen,” said CPD Chief Fred Shelton of the case’s dismissal.
Photo by: Deanna Robinson/Dispatch Staff
Protesters gathered at Leigh Mall Saturday to protest Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s decision to drop the manslaughter charge against former Columbus Police Department officer Canyon Boykin in the 2015 shooting death of Ricky Ball.
“They just thought (releasing) two paragraphs, we’re dismissing it, that’s all we need to do. That to me was kind of a slap in the face,” added Colom.
About 250 demonstrators gathered at Leigh Mall in Columbus on Saturday to protest the decision, the Commercial Dispatch reported.
Colom said he plans to request the evidence used in the finding, which he expects to get back in the next 10 days.
After his election in 2016, Colom said, he had conversations with then Democratic AG Jim Hood’s office about making sure the case was independent of any local influence. Fitch, a Republican, replaced Hood in last year’s statewide elections and became the first Republican elected to the statewide seat since Reconstruction.
Colom called the dismissal’s timing a “gut punch,” emphasizing that there were no deadlines and the officer was out on bond, and there was little to no ability to hold a trial right now due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We need to put the information out there in the public so people can know what happened in this case because there are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said. “There are a lot of people (wondering), what happened? How did you make the decision to dismiss this case after four years and you’ve only had it for four, five months?”
He said any next steps in the case depend on if the charges were dismissed with or without prejudice.
Colom also noted the importance of accessing footage in any officer-involved shooting. Boykin and the other officers on the scene during Ball’s death were wearing body cameras but did not turn them on.
“If you look at what happened in Minnesota, if you look at what happened in Georgia, without the video, we only get one version of events,” Colom said.
Shelton said new policies and structure in the department have improved accountability of officers. After Ball’s death, CPD enacted stricter penalties for officers who do not turn on their cameras during public interactions, including suspension and termination, and since have had no such issues, Shelton said. The department also now has an oversight committee to receive complaints about excessive use of force.
Shelton said he is meeting with Colom’s office this week to plan a public forum that will both be used to discuss the use of force and racial profiling, and then to institute new training policies for police officers.
“We’re continuing to build and foster the trust we that we have in the community,” he said.
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Madison County prosecutor: ‘We can only hope the deadly coronavirus strain spreads in riots’
Madison County Prosecutor Pamela Hancock
Pamela Hancock, the second-term prosecutor of Madison County, defended herself Monday after posting and later deleting a Facebook comment in which she suggested “the deadly strain” of coronavirus should spread among rioters who are protesting inequity in the criminal justice system.
Hancock, who was first elected county prosecutor in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, wrote the post as a comment to another person’s post: “Does Covid spread during massive street riots or just in bars and restaurants? Asking for a friend.”
Hancock, in a since-deleted comment, replied: “We can only hope the deadly (coronavirus) strain spreads in riots!”
In a phone interview with Mississippi Today on Monday, Hancock defended the comment.
“My job is to prosecute all crimes, including civil disobedience,” Hancock said. “I’m against any breach of peace or criminal activity, and I would prosecute it. I have nothing against people peacefully protesting, but breaking into businesses and stealing things is a crime.”
When asked specifically about her expressed notion that the virus kill rioters, Hancock rebuffed.
“I was really just making light of it,” she said. “I was not serious about wanting anyone to die. That’s not who I am. The post was kind of a joke, and I was attempting to joke back. Obviously, I did it very poorly. If you ask anybody that knows me, I don’t hold any ill will towards anyone or any group. I only try to be fair.”
County prosecutors in Mississippi bring misdemeanor charges against individuals in justice court and county court. Those charges would include disorderly conduct, trespassing and driving under the influence. County prosecutors are elected every four years.
Black Americans, upset with inequities in the criminal justice system, organized the recent protests in dozens of cities across the country that have garnered international media coverage. Inspired by the recent police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia — all black victims — many of the protests have become violent after police, in many cases, escalated the conflicts.
Madison County, the sixth-most populated county in the state, is home to at least 40,000 African American residents.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult few days,” said Brandon Jones, policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Jackson. “You’d hope in moments like this that people throughout the law enforcement community and certainly prosecutors would be reflective about how we talk about these issues. Because she’s an elected official, it’s an office of public trust. Frankly, (her post) sends all the wrong messages.”
Jones continued: “We worry when people like Ms. Hancock say these things because of what message it might send to people who might have to face her in court. It erodes the public’s trust that they’re going to be treated fairly with comments like this, even if they were in jest.”
In the phone interview on Monday, Hancock discussed, unprompted, how her Facebook post had been perceived as racist.
“I never meant to offend anybody, and it was not directed toward anyone except for people that were rioting,” Hancock said. “What I saw on TV seemed to be people of all races. If you ask anybody that knows me, I don’t hold any ill will towards anyone or any group.”
Hancock continued: “When I prosecute, I don’t look at someone’s color. I look at the crime they committed, the facts of the case… I only try to be fair.”
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