Mississippi Today
Gov. Reeves claims ‘best year in state history.’ His 2023 challenger says he’s moved state in ‘wrong direction’
Gov. Reeves claims ‘best year in state history.' His 2023 challenger says he's moved state in ‘wrong direction'
The opening salvos of the 2023 governor's race were fired on Monday as Gov. Tate Reeves delivered his annual State of the State address and his opponent Brandon Presley offered the Democratic Party's response.
“2022 was perhaps the best year in Mississippi history,” Reeves declared on the south steps of the Mississippi State Capitol on Monday evening. “… Today, it's a cold-hard-fact that really, really good things are happening in Mississippi. And it's my honor to stand before you today and announce that the state of our state is stronger than ever.”
Reeves, the first-term Republican governor, focused much of his speech on economic development and touted state government's nearly $4 billion budget surplus as an example of good times under his watch.
“Our conservative reforms and sound budget management have laid the foundation for this economic boom,” Reeves said. “It's the policies of yesterday that have paved the pathway to today's prosperity.”
READ MORE: Transcript: Gov. Tate Reeves delivers 2023 State of the State address
Presley, a Democratic public service commissioner who announced a 2023 challenge of Reeves earlier this month, delivered a response to the State of the State. He blasted the governor's leadership over the past four years, saying the state is “moving in the wrong direction” under Reeves' leadership.
“While he brags about a budget surplus, family budgets are running out,” Presley said. “And while you're careful with your money, he's throwing your tax dollars away. He's been caught in the middle of the largest public corruption scandal in our state's history. $77 million dollars of taxpayer money that should have gone to working families that are struggling instead went to help build a volleyball court… a volleyball court! … Some was even given to Tate Reeves' own personal trainer. And you should tune in because we are only just now learning how bad and possibly illegal all of this activity was.”
Standing for a recorded video in an abandoned hospital in Newton County, Presley also panned Reeves for refusing to address the state's hospital crisis.
“We have a solution. By extending Medicaid to the working people of our state, we can keep hospitals across Mississippi from experiencing the same fate as this one,” Presley said. “All Tate Reeves has to do is lift his hand, take an ink pen, and sign on a line. Instead, he lacks the backbone and he will sit on his hands while people lose their jobs, some lose their lives and our hospitals suffer. When Tate Reeves finally wakes up and asks why hospitals are closing, he should look in the mirror.”
READ MORE: Transcript: Brandon Presley offers Democratic response to 2023 State of the State address
Reeves, though, said in his speech that his plan to solve the state's health care crisis and pending hospital closures is to encourage competition in health care, innovation and technology. He urged lawmakers to “think outside the box” on improving health care and to not expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor.
“Don't simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare, and socialized medicine,” Reeves said. “Instead, seek innovative free market solutions that disrupt traditional healthcare delivery models, increase competition, and lead to better health outcomes for Mississippians. Do not settle for something that won't solve the problem because it could potentially and only temporarily remove the liberal media's target on your back. You have my word that if you stand up to the left's push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”
The candidates' contrast in outlook on state of the state sets up what is expected to be among the most expensive and bitter governor's races in state history. Reeves will continue boasting what he says are accomplishments and gains the state has made under his leadership, while Presley will continue critiquing the governor's positions on major issues facing the state.
In a 45-minute speech on Monday, Reeves laid out the accomplishments he said had been achieved.
He said the state set a record economic pace during his governorship, including a $2.5 billion aluminum plant announced near Columbus, for which lawmakers at Reeves' behest pledged $247 million in incentives.
The favorable economic conditions, Reeves said, “led to investing a historic amount in jobs training, and … resulted in a record $6 billion in new capital investment in 2022, which is more than seven times the previous average of approximately $900 million a year before I became governor.”
Reeves said that wages in Mississippi are rising, by more than $7,000 or 18% per capita since 2019 and the state is seeing “the lowest unemployment rate in our state's history.”
But despite Reeves' rosy portrait of the state's economy, he omitted several key statistics about the state's economy. Mississippi had the lowest per capita income for 2021 at $45,881, according to the St. Louis office of the Federal Reserve. The average of Mississippi's four contiguous states, was $52,780.
And, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the third quarter of 2022, Mississippi's personal income increased by 3.8%. Eight states saw their personal income increase less than Mississippi's during the period.
And, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Mississippi added only 500 net jobs between December 2021 and 2022, meaning its job growth for the year was essentially flat, or statistically 0%. All other states had jobs growth of at least 1%, with some exceeding 6%.
Presley, in his response, highlighted some other economic problems the state has faced.
“Mississippi is at the bottom of the nation for economic growth,” Presley said. “We're one of only three states that lost population, and the numbers recently released by the bureau of labor statistics show zero job growth in Mississippi. We are one of only seven states that taxes groceries.”
Reeves reiterated his vow to eliminate the state's personal income tax — a proposal lawmakers debated at length last year but defeated, although they did pass the largest income tax cut in state history, which is still being implemented. He did not mention eliminating the grocery tax.
Reeves also said the state has seen historic improvement in education in recent years. He said reforms he helped pass as lieutenant governor about a decade ago have brought much success in public education.
“A little over a week ago we announced – for the third time since I've been governor – that Mississippi's high school graduation rate hit an all-time high and continues to be better than the national average,” Reeves said.
The governor also focused heavily on red-meat conservative issues — in response to what Reeves called “the radical left's war on our values.”
Reeves reiterated his support for a “Parents Bill of Rights,” similar to legislation being passed or debated in many other GOP-led states that would force public school teachers to share lesson plans and administrators to adhere to the will of parents on things like names, pronouns and other health matters.
Reeves also lamented “a dangerous and radical movement that is now being pushed upon America's kids” regarding treatment of transgender people and vowed to fight such movements. Legislation is pending this year in Mississippi and other states to ban gender affirming procedures and drugs for anyone 18 or under.
“Across the country, activists are advancing untested experiments and persuading kids that they can live as a girl if they're a boy, and that they can live as a boy if they're a girl,” Reeves said. “And they're telling them to pursue expensive, radical medical procedures to advance that lie.”
To deal with an expected increase in child deliveries from the overturning of Roe v. Wade abortion rights, Reeves said the state should cut red tape and make adoption easier, create child care tax credits and allow parents to write off child care supplies on tax returns and increase support for pregnancy resource centers. He said the state should strengthen its child support laws and force more fathers to support children.
Reeves vowed to help fight crime in the capital city of Jackson and statewide. He also vowed to go after government corruption, such as the state's massive welfare scandal.”
“That's why this session, I'm calling on the legislature to make further investment into our Capitol Police by giving them the 150 officers and equipment they need to continue fulfilling their mission and continue pushing back on lawlessness in Jackson,” Reeves said.
And in a statement that directly addresses one of Presley's points about Reeves involvement in the welfare scandal, the governor vowed that “my administration will go after all crime within our jurisdiction.”
“Regardless of the crime committed, regardless of who did it, regardless if it happened on the street or in an office building, my administration is and will continue to hold criminals accountable,” Reeves said. “That's why my administration remains committed to delivering justice and recouping every dollar possible from those who stole from Mississippians through the theft of TANF (welfare) dollars.”
Throughout both speeches, the contrast in perspectives between Reeves and Presley were on full display.
“Mississippi is winning, and our state is on the rise,” Reeves said. “I urge all of you here today to stand with me and call out the lies when they are thrown at all of us. We can never give into the cynics who seek to tear down our great state. We can never give into Joe Biden and the national Democrats who seek to force feed us an unhealthy dose of progressivism because they view Mississippians as neanderthals. And we can never give into those who want us to live in a perpetual state of self-condemnation.”
Presley, though critical of Reeves and his leadership, did present a positive outlook on the state's future.
“Together, we can build a Mississippi that focuses on the future, not the past,” Presley said. “We can build an economy that works for everybody… We should fund the police, increase healthcare, and invest in education. Together, we are going to end the insane grocery tax. We're going to make sure folks from Walnut on the Tennessee line to Waveland on the Gulf Coast can walk with pride because they have a job and hope for their children's future.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1959
April 18, 1959
About 26,000 students took part in the Youth March for Integrated Schools in Washington, D.C. They heard speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., A. Phillip Randolph and NAACP leader Roy Wilkins.
In advance of the march, false accusations were made that Communists had infiltrated the group. In response, the civil rights leaders put out a statement: “The sponsors of the March have not invited Communists or communist organizations. Nor have they invited members of the Ku Klux Klan or the White Citizens' Council. We do not want the participation of these groups, nor of individuals or other organizations holding similar views.”
After the march, a delegation of students went to present their demands to President Eisenhower, only to be told by his deputy assistant that “the president is just as anxious as they are to see an America where discrimination does not exist, where equality of opportunity is available to all.”
King praised the students, saying, “In your great movement to organize a march for integrated schools, you have awakened on hundreds of campuses throughout the land a new spirit of social inquiry to the benefit of all Americans.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Bill would limit how long those convicted could seek relief, even if wrongfully convicted
Legislation being debated in a conference committee would restrict how “Goon Squad” victims and others can get relief if they have been wrongfully convicted.
House Bill 1253 would impose a one-year limitation on newly discovered evidence.
The bill passed the House. The Senate passed an amended version. The House invited conference. Conferees are Kevin Horan, Lance Varner and Celeste in the House and Joey Fillingane, Daniel Sparks and Derrick Simmons in the Senate.
“It would impact the constitutional right to access the courts in Mississippi by any inmate — innocent persons and Goon Squad victims included,” Krissy Nobile, director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, said of HB 1253. “It is terrible legislation that is detached from how the legal system actually works.”
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office, which has been pushing for the passage, defends the bill.
“HB 1253 streamlines the pathway to justice and closure for victims of crime and families of homicide victims, restoring some balance to the post-conviction appellate process,” said Fitch's chief of staff, Michelle Williams. “It would be a wonderful way to mark Crime Victims' Rights Week next week with passage of this important legislation.”
The bill is being touted as a way to streamline appeals of those who have been convicted, but defense lawyers worry that this change may erode constitutional rights.
In January 2023, five deputies for the Rankin County Sheriff's Department and a Richland police officer, who were part of a “Goon Squad” operation, broke into a house without a warrant, tortured two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, threatened to use a sex toy on them and shoved a gun in Jenkins' mouth and shot him. To conceal their crimes, they destroyed surveillance footage, planted false evidence and lied to investigators.
Last month, a federal judge sentenced those officers to between 18 and 40 years in prison. They received similar sentences in state court.
But an investigation by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times uncovered allegations that torture, coerced statements and false incident reports involving, not only these six officers, but more than a dozen others with cases that may stretch back two decades. Some of those interviewed alleged that deputies also planted evidence and filed false charges against them.
Rankin County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett has said his office is examining pending cases involving these six officers. In any cases where their testimony was essential or the integrity of the investigation may have been compromised, those cases are being dismissed, he said.
But Bramlett has declined to explain how far back his office will look, and questions remain about how many of those arrested by the Rankin County Sheriff's Department on drug charges have been either wrongfully charged or convicted.
State Public Defender Andre de Gruy sees problems with this legislation for cases involving claims of wrongful convictions.
“For this [Goon Squad] scandal, it would be one year from passage,” said State Public Defender Andre de Gruy. “Future scandals might be harder to predict, and a lawyer miscalculating and not filing on time would not be an excuse.”
Nobile said a one-year window is hardly enough time to develop new evidence and file a petition. “The discovery of new evidence and the development in forensic sciences sometimes takes years to develop,” she said.
For instance, the last five people exonerated from Mississippi's death row were wrongfully imprisoned for 22 years on average, she said.
If this new bill had been the law, she said these five people might have been executed, only for them to be exonerated after their deaths.
Nobile said the Mississippi Supreme Court has recently decided that it has no power to recognize constitutional rights after someone is convicted, even if those rights are violated.
“My concern about the core constitutional rights is that they deserve to be protected because they are, by their very nature, in the state and-or federal constitution,” she said. “When a person's criminal case is infected with constitutional defects, especially when a verdict is made unsafe as a result, finality is not a legitimate interest. In that event, finality is a fiction, and all that exists is an interest in expediency.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
‘If you can’t vote, you’re nobody:’ Lawmakers hear from rehabilitated felons who still can’t exercise right
Kenneth Almons has not received so much as a speeding ticket since he was released from the Mississippi State Penitentiary nearly three decades ago, but a punitive state policy still forces him to carry a sense of shame each day.
At 51, he's run his own business, currently works for the city of Jackson, has raised three children and has, by most standards, been a picture-perfect example for what state officials would consider being rehabilitated and re-entering society.
But because he was convicted of armed robbery and aggravated assault at 17 years old, he still cannot cast a vote in a Mississippi election.
“We all make mistakes,” Almons told a group of state lawmakers on Wednesday. “Some are just greater than others.”
Almons is one of thousands of Mississippians who have lost their right to vote for life because of a Jim Crow-era provision in the state constitution that imposes a permanent voting ban on people who have been convicted of certain felony offenses.
The white supremacist drafters of Mississippi's 1890 Constitution first established a list of disenfranchising crimes they believed at the time were more likely to be committed by Black people.
Under the Mississippi Constitution, people convicted of any of 10 felonies — including perjury, arson and bigamy — lose their voting rights for life. Opinions from the Mississippi Attorney General's Office since expanded the list of disenfranchising felonies to 23, including armed robbery.
About 55,000 names are on the Secretary of State's voter disenfranchisement list as of March 19. The list, provided to Mississippi Today through a public records request, goes back to 1992 for felony convictions in state court.
Lawmakers who attended the hearing asked Almons, who served five years in state prison, what it would mean if the state restored his voting rights.
“It would mean I'm no longer a nobody,” Almons responded. “And if you can't vote, you're nobody. And in the public's eye, I'm a nobody.”
The GOP-majority House overwhelmingly passed legislation earlier this session along bipartisan lines that would have automatically restored voting rights to people who served their sentences for nonviolent felonies. But Senate Constitution Chairman Angela Burks Hill, a Republican from Picayune, killed the measure by not bringing it up for a vote in committee.
The House measure likely would not have restored Almons' suffrage because armed robbery is considered a violent crime, but it would have created a pathway for thousands of other Mississippians to regain their voting rights.
Democratic Rep. Kabir Karriem of Columbus criticized Hill's decision to kill the House measure but said her inaction should galvanize lawmakers and other advocates to double down on their efforts to advance suffrage legislation.
“Restoring voting rights is not merely a political matter,” Karriem said. “It is a fundamental human rights issue. The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy.”
Hill did not respond to a request for comment, but she previously told Mississippi Today she decided not to take the felony suffrage measure up because the “Constitution speaks for itself.”
Though the House's major suffrage bill is dead, lawmakers can still introduce individual bills to restore voting rights on behalf of citizens, but the process is burdensome. It requires two-thirds of lawmakers in both legislative chambers to vote in favor of restoring suffrage in individual cases.
“We have a process in the Legislature that helps to restore individuals' voting rights, but it is a terrible process,” Democratic Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson said. “And it's a cumbersome process. And there really is no easy way to navigate it.”
The Legislature last year did not pass any suffrage restoration bills. A person can also seek a gubernatorial pardon, though no executive pardon has been handed down since Gov. Haley Barbour's final days in office in 2011.
Lawmakers in both chambers of the Capitol have filed around 50 individual suffrage bills so far this session. The speaker of the House and the lieutenant governor have referred those bills to the respective Judiciary B committees for consideration.
Neither committee is currently scheduled to conduct a meeting on the suffrage bills, but lawmakers can consider those measures until the last remaining days of the 2024 session.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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