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Governor Tate Reeves throws a little political red meat out with his budget proposal. Will it be enough to win back his voters who are mad at him for signing the legislation to change the flag or proposing mask mandates?

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Gov. Tate Reeves wants lawmakers to eliminate the state’s income tax, which generates about 32% of Mississippi’s general fund revenue, forgo a public school teacher pay raise, which was one of his key 2019 campaign promises, and spend $3 million on a “Patriotic Education Fund,” which would financially reward schools that combat “revisionist history” that is “poisoning a generation.”

The Republican governor released his budget plan on Monday in advance of the 2020 session, when legislators will work to fund a budget for the new fiscal year starting July 1. Lawmakers set the state budget and seldom follow recommendations from a governor.

The executive budget recommendation advocates that the personal income tax, which generates about $1.9 billion annually, be phased out by 2030.

“Because this plan is a phased approach, we will be able to ensure adequate funding will be available for education, law enforcement, health care, and transportation priorities,” the governor wrote in a budget narrative. He said the proposal will save someone earning $40,00 about $1,850 per year.

During his successful 2019 campaign for governor, Reeves proposed a four-year plan to increase teacher pay by $4,200 as one of his top priorities. During the 2020 session, it appeared that the legislative leadership and Reeves were poised to provide teachers a major salary increase, but those plans were put on hold by an anticipated decrease in state revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As recently as last week, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said he supports a 2021 teacher pay raise if revenue allows it.

On Monday, during a Facebook event, Reeves said state revenue was strong and advocated for the elimination of the income tax, but did not address the teacher pay increase.

“Mississippi needs to make a bold move to attract new business and residents,” he said, explaining his reasoning on eliminating the income tax.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who is the 1990s authored a major income tax cut, said “now is not the time to be cutting taxes” during the pandemic. He said education, transportation and multiple other areas of state government were under funded.

“If we cut taxes, there is that much less much money available for the public schools,” Bryan said. “We are not funding the schools now at what the law requires and the reason they (political leadership) say we are not doing that is that we do not have the money, but we have the money for this tax cut.”

The Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which provides for the basic operation of local school districts, is level-funded in Reeves’ proposal – more than $250 million short of full funding.

Bryan argued that if a tax cut was passed by the Legislature, it should be to eliminate the 7% tax on food, which is the highest state-imposed tax of its kind in the nation. He said Mississippi’s high tax on food disproportionately harms the state’s poor residents.

Overall, Reeves said most agencies were level-funded in his $6.13 billion budget proposal. Reeves’ proposed budget is in reality $1.17 billion or 16.1% less than the actual budget for the current fiscal year. But the budget for the current year contains more than $1 billion in one-time federal funds to combat the coronavirus. Of that federal money, $200,000 went to public schools.

In his budget, Reeves proposes limiting funding to schools that are not providing in-person learning because of COVID-19.

In the area of education, Reeves is proposing $3 million for a Patriotic Education Fund to combat “indoctrination in the far-left socialist teachings that emphasize America’s shortcomings over the exceptional achievements of this country.”

“Revisionist history has aimed to tear down American institutions, and it is poisoning a generation,” Reeves wrote in his budget proposal. “Capitalism, democracy, and other uniquely American values have been the victims of a targeted campaign from foreign and domestic influence—aiming to destroy the pillars of our society. The United States is the greatest country in the history of the world. No other nation has done more for its citizens or to advance freedom and prosperity across the globe. We need to combat the dramatic shift in education.”

In addition, Reeves also is touting funds to hire math coaches for the public schools, expand computer science programs and provide additional funds for workforce training.

The governor proposes funds to help small businesses impacted by the pandemic. He also wants additional funds for the police training academy, saying those funds were in response to others calling for a reduction in police funding.

“Over the last several months, law enforcement officers across the country have come under attack for doing their jobs,” Reeves wrote. “These brave men and women put their lives on the line every day to ensure the safety of our communities. I am committed to providing adequate resources for our law enforcement officers so that they have the training and resources necessary to perform their duties.”

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Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday added seven more counties to a mask-wearing mandate because of COVID-19, bringing the total to 22 counties.

The mandate, which includes mask wearing and tighter restrictions on group gatherings, will run at least through Dec. 11.

The counties added Monday are: Hinds, Madison, Pontotoc, Tate, Winston, Itawamba and Montgomery. Counties that were already under the mandate: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Humphreys, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Marshall, Rankin, and Yalobusha.

Reeves, who remains in isolation along with his family after one of his daughters tested positive for COVID-19 last week, in a Facebook live address urged all Mississippians to wear masks in public, even if they are not in counties under his executive orders mandating them.

“It does make a difference,” Reeves said. “It does have an impact.”

Reeves said the pandemic “is not getting significantly better — in fact, it’s getting marginally worse.”

The average number of daily cases in Mississippi surpassed 1,000 on Friday and has continued to climb, nearing record numbers from during the peak in the summer.

Reeves on Sept. 30 lifted a statewide mask mandate — making Mississippi the first state to rescind such a mandate — that he had issued on Aug. 4, and he relaxed restrictions on social gatherings. Since then, cases have risen.

During the span of the statewide mask mandate, Mississippi cases plummeted, dropping by 54%.

Reeves had been hesitant to issue a statewide mask order in the summer, instead taking a county-by-county approach until state hospitals were becoming overloaded. He has said that a county-by-county approach to mask mandates and other restrictions as cases spike is better because people are more likely to pay attention and heed the orders. He has also said he dislikes using the “heavy hand of government” to order mask wearing and other mandates.

Calls for a reimplementation of a statewide mask mandate have increased in recent days, as top health officials in Mississippi continue to directly or indirectly pressure the governor to act.

“It’s time. We are tired. And worried,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the vice chancellor of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, tweeted on Nov. 14. “Wearing a mask makes a difference. We all want to keep businesses and schools open. We don’t have to continue to watch the trainwreck. We can change the outcome. Please.”

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It was 50 years ago last week the college football world took a long timeout to grieve. The charter plane carrying the Marshall football team home from a game at East Carolina on Nov. 14, 1970, crashed and burned about a mile from the strip where it was supposed to land in Huntington, W.Va.

And here’s something I never knew until Sunday: That same plane, a Southern Airways charter jet, was supposed to pick up the Mississippi State football team later that night in Baton Rouge to return the Bulldogs home from a game at LSU.

“We waited and waited and waited; that plane never came,” said Jackson dentist Lewis Grubbs, a star sophomore halfback on that 1970 Mississippi State team.

The plane, a Southern Airways two-engine DC-9, was carrying 70 passengers and a five-person crew. All perished in the crash. Investigators determined the cause of the crash was either pilot error or instrument panel malfunction.

As with those in most of the country, State players had heard the horrible news of the Marshall team crash, which occurred at just about the time their own game with LSU was beginning. They did not know that the crashed plane was supposed to be their plane until well into their airport wait. Coach Charles Shira gathered the team and explained the situation to them while Southern Airways searched for another plane.

Older folks may remember that the Marshall team crash was the second football-related air tragedy of the 1970 season. On Oct. 2 of that year, a plane carrying members of the Wichita State team crashed in Colorado, killing 31 of 37 on board.

The Marshall crash was more deadly and is the one more remembered. A documentary and an acclaimed movie, “We Are Marshall,” was made, the latter starring Matthew McConaughey.

Says Grubbs, “I don’t see how anyone can watch that movie with dry eyes.”

Grubbs, a Prentiss native, was working toward his own pilot’s license at the time.

“So I knew something about flying, including all the statistics about how much safer it was getting on an airplane that getting into your car,” Grubbs said. “Still I was like everybody else that night. I had serious reservations about getting on the plane.”

Grubbs remembers one funny part of the entire episode. “They opened up the canteen at the airport and let us get whatever we wanted to eat and drink,” he said. “We had some fans with us and one of them – he was a judge I think – found the liquor cabinet. He told us he wasn’t going to get on any plane sober that night, and he made darn sure he didn’t. No way he ever knew he got on that plane or got off.”

Larry Templeton, who was a sports information assistant who would go on to become the school’s athletic director, was on the flight as well.

“That’s been a long, long time, but I remember how somber the mood was waiting for the flight and then how quiet it was on the plane,” Templeton said. “And I remember a couple players who had been really scared riding back in a car with the highway patrol men who had been with us for the game.”

Says Grubbs, who really was a running back, “LSU had popped us pretty good. We had beaten Oklahoma State and Georgia and we would beat Ole Miss. We had a winning record. But I do remember that all the sudden none of that mattered very much. I remember that I just sat there and thought about how an entire football team, one just like ours, had been killed in an instant. All those young people with a whole life in front of them. I still think about it every time I see a Marshall score.”

•••

Twenty-one years after the Marshall tragedy, I was speaking with Nate Ruffin, who was then of the human resources director of The Clarion Ledger, where I worked at the time. During the course of conversation, Ruffin, since deceased, told me that he was a captain of that 1970 Marshall team. He would have been on that disastrous flight if not for an injury that caused him to miss the trip.

After the tragedy, Ruffin manned the phones in the Marshall athletic department, delivering the news to families of his friends. He attended funerals and memorial services in eight states. He then played on the 1971 Marshall football team, highlighted in the movie, that heroically won three games.

Worst assignment of all: Ruffin was asked to help identify bodies at the morgue.

“These people, these big, strong young men, were shrunken to the size of dolls,” Ruffin told me.

Ruffin identified his best friend from the jewelry he wore.

For Ruffin, nightmares continued for years. Strangely, he felt guilty. “Why them? Why not me? It makes no sense but you tell yourself: I should have been on that plane.”

Ruffin told me he spent a dozen years numbing himself with alcohol and drugs before coming out of that dark period while making a speech at a memorial to his fallen teammates. For the first time since the tragedy, he said, he bared his soul, wept openly. It was a spiritual cleansing and healing, he said.

He spent most of the rest of his life helping other people.

Nate Ruffin was a big, friendly guy — solid as a rock. He died in 2001, a victim of leukemia. He is buried in Huntington beside six of his teammates — six who could not be identified.

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States across the country are scrambling to finalize plans to distribute thousands of rounds of COVID-19 vaccinations to high-priority patients.

Mississippi has slated vaccination distribution plans into three phases — first priority for front-line health care workers, then long-term care residents. Phase two focuses on high-risk folks such as those with other diseases that make their immune systems more vulnerable, people over the age of 65, essential workers and incarcerated people. General population will be last, likely not expected to see widespread availability until well into next year.

Pfizer-BioNTech announced earlier this month that their initial vaccination trials were 90% effective. Though they were the first to announce, more are expected to follow soon. Drugmaker Moderna announced Monday that its early trials were 94% effective.

No vaccination has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration yet, but officials anticipate final stage clinical trials, and subsequent emergency-use approval, by year-end for high-priority patients. Widespread availability would likely not be seen until next spring.

Both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccinations require ultra-cold storage and need freezers that can store more than 1,000 doses at below-zero degrees — Pfizer’s at -94 degrees and Moderna at -4. Meeting the strict storage requirements requires states to plan ahead for not only a new vaccine, but also a new distribution model.

Mississippi health officials say they are working through logistics to ensure the cold-chain storage can be executed, but they also say there’s just not enough money.

“We’ve gotten minimal (federal) financial support for personnel to pull this off,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, state health officer, told a local town hall last week. “For us to be successful in this vaccination, additional money to pull it off and ongoing National Guard support are the critical elements.”

The National Guard has assisted statewide in early testing efforts, and the state plans to replicate the drive-thru testing models for widespread vaccination distribution to enforce social distancing, according to initial state plans. Extra public health practitioners are needed to help distribute, track, coordinate and promote vaccination efforts. The state health department has been knee-capped by years of budget cuts that have netted flat state cash flow since 2010, severely hindering their ability to fight — much less get in front of — the pandemic. 

Dobbs separately expanded on the financial shortfalls, telling the New York Times, “We absolutely do not have enough to pull this off successfully. This is going to be a phenomenal logistical feat, to vaccinate everybody in the country. We absolutely have zero margin for failure. We really have to get this right.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent Mississippi  $1,511,866 for COVID-19 vaccination preparation as part of $200 million it sent to states — a far cry from the $8 billion requested of Congress by state health departments. Further funding discussions have been caught up in the deadlock in Congress over additional COVID-19 relief funding. 

In the official COVID-19 plan sent to the CDC last month, the Mississippi State Department of Health outlined a “closed point of dispensing” plan for first and second phase distribution.

This means MSDH will order the vaccinations for providers across the state, but the shipments will go straight to the clinics where they’ll be distributed. MSDH says it’ll partner with community clinics, colleges and hospitals to reach first-priority populations, but many of these clinics tend to be under-funded and especially strapped for cash this year.

To be able to directly receive the vaccination, clinics will need to have ultra cold freezer capabilities to meet the cold-chain requirements for the Pfizer vaccination storage — with minimum orders of 1,000. That means any distribution points will be responsible for directly receiving large shipments needing to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures for an undetermined amount of time.

MSDH also tells providers that they don’t need to buy special freezers to store the vaccinations.

“Most providers will be unable to store vaccines at this temperature range in their current vaccine storage units. Vaccines that require storage at ultra-cold temperatures will be shipped in containers that can be replenished with dry ice once received. It is not required to purchase ultra-cold vaccine storage units,” reads guidance to providers. But goes on to add that providers themselves, not necessarily facilitated by the health department, must comply with CDC cold-chain requirements.

Following first-priority vaccinations and moving into wider distribution, MSDH will rely on “open point of dispensing.”

“MSDH plans to conduct drive-through vaccination sites to assist with social distancing, as well as expand partnerships with community clinics and pharmacies.”

This method will be set up to mimic the state’s drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites that are currently being held statewide at satellite locations and county health departments. MSDH says this model can manage 500 people per day.

MSDH has allotted the following phases and doses for vaccination distribution:

• Phase 1a: Front-line health care workers, including first responders, pharmacists and the national guard (90,000 doses estimated)
• Phase 1b: long-term and home care residents and staff (55,000 doses)
• Phase 2: those over the age of 65; essential workers, including workers in: education, public health, dentistry, funeral homes, transportation, postal workers, grocery stores, meat packing; homeless people; people with obesity, heart disease, CPOD, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, asthma; and people incarcerated in prisons and jails (2.7 million)
• Phase 3: general public (200,000 doses)

Due to a high rate of people with co-morbidities in Mississippi, the second phase is actually the largest.

The CDC partnered with CVS and Walgreens to handle all vaccinations for long-term care residents who will directly coordinate with the pharmacies for distribution, so MSDH’s role will be limited once the vaccinations have been ordered.

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, who have been devastated by the coronavirus, will coordinate with Indian Health Services, not the state health department, to distribute vaccinations, according to MSDH spokesperson.

University of Mississippi Medical Center recently announced that they are in the beginning stages of local vaccination trials.

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State of Mississippi Judiciary

Mississippi Supreme Court

The Mississippi Supreme Court will be the tiebreaker in a dispute between members of the Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves on whether the governor’s partial veto of a bill providing funds to health care providers to combat COVID-19 was constitutional.

Before breaking that all-important tie, it might behoove the Supreme Court justices to gather all the facts — facts they did not seem to have during last week’s oral arguments.

Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution gives the governor partial veto authority, but court rulings through the years have dramatically limited that authority. When Reeves partially vetoed the bill providing funds to health care providers, his fellow Republicans, House Speaker Philip Gunn and House Pro Tem Jason White, filed a lawsuit alleging the governor exceeded his authority. A lower court in Hinds County agreed with the House leaders. Reeves appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.

While the issues surrounding the extent of the governor’s partial veto authority could be viewed as tedious or ho-hum, the case could be critical. If Reeves prevails, it could potentially increase the governor’s influence in the budgeting process.

Three cases decided by the Supreme Court — one in the 1890s, then in the 1990s and finally in the 2000s — are cited as defining that partial veto authority. They were discussed many times during oral arguments, but some of the justices had a surprising lack of knowledge about the cases even as they cited them to make their points. Most likely by the time they rule, their knowledge of the cases will be stronger, but in some noticeable instances, that was not the case during oral arguments last week.

For instance, Justices Josiah Coleman and James Maxwell both said that a key issue is that in the previous cases, the partial vetoes were issued after the Legislature adjourned for the year so legislators did not have an option to try to override them. Reeves’ partial veto in question occurred while legislators were in session, so they had the opportunity to override it without turning to the courts, Coleman and Maxwell said during oral arguments. By not trying to override, legislators waived their ability to file a lawsuit.

“This situation here is different… by the fact that the legislative session had not adjourned sine die at the time the governor executed his partial veto,” Maxwell said. “You see in those other three cases, the legislative session had adjourned. The governor had after the fact executed his veto, and the Legislature could not take this constitutional action (to override the veto).”

“That is a pretty serious distinction,” Maxwell said.

Andy Taggart, the attorney representing Gunn and White, pointed out that even if a veto is issued after the session ends, the Legislature has the option to override when the new session begins the following year.

But what Taggart did not point out is that Maxwell, and later Coleman, misstated facts. In one of the three pivotal cases, then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove issued a partial veto of the budget bill for the Department of Corrections in an attempt to block funding to private prisons.

When Musgrove issued the veto, the Legislature was in session just as it was when Reeves filed his partial veto this year. In 2002, legislators got an official opinion from then-Attorney General Mike Moore saying the veto was void because it was unconstitutional.

Legislators never addressed the Musgrove veto because they said it was void, just as current members did not take up the Reeves veto. On the legislative website, it shows the 2002 partial veto was “void, per AG’s opinion.”

Later, a private prison company filed a lawsuit against Musgrove. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the company years after Musgrove had left office.

Chief Justice Michael Randolph also misstated some facts. He said in the three cases, parties that would be impacted by the partial vetoes filed the lawsuit, such as the private prisons. But in the 1990s, when Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice partially vetoed 27 appropriations bills, it was solely legislators, including current Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who filed the lawsuit, not the entities impacted by the veto.

In addition, Randolph claimed the bills Fordice partially vetoed were bills authorizing the sale of bonds to raise money for the state to pay for projects. Two were bond or revenue bills, while 27 were appropriations bills. This is important because the state Constitution does not give the governor partial veto authority of bond bills.

As stated, the Constitution does give the governor partial veto of the appropriations bills, though based on more than 120 years of court rulings, that authority is limited.

Perhaps the current court will expand that authority. It surely has that right. But it should do so based on the facts.

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