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Senate kills Mississippi ballot initiative without a vote

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Senate kills Mississippi ballot initiative without a vote

The Senate on Thursday let a measure that would restore voters' right to sidestep the and put measures on a statewide ballot die without taking a vote.

“After yesterday, I spoke to my colleagues and the colleagues I spoke to did not show enough support to do this this year,” said Senate Accountability Efficiency and Transparency Chairman John Polk, R-Hattiesburg. “… We have a representative form of government that has worked for a long time, and I know of no senator who will not accept constituents' calls, emails or visits if they have an issue we need to deal with. I believe in our representative form of government, and voters every four years have the to change who represents them.”

Polk said there were too many differences between versions of the measure the Senate and House had passed to be ironed out in the final days of this year's legislative session. Thursday was a deadline day for senators to take up the measure, and inaction killed the legislation.

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Polk said that despite recent polling that shows strong voter support for reinstating the initiative process, he doesn't believe the right to ballot initiative is top of mind for most . He said he noticed this last when he talked with constituents at a veterinarian's office back home. They gave him a litany of issues they saw as important, Polk said.

“You know what was not on that list?” Polk said. “Ballot initiative.”

A similar measure died in the Legislature without a final vote last year, after the Supreme Court in 2021 shot down the ballot initiative right Mississippi voters had for three decades.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who oversees the Senate, initially declined comment after the Senate adjourned Thursday, indicating he was busy and “not right now.” Polk, speaking to , said that Hosemann had been “very vocal in wanting a ballot initiative” but lets his chairman make their own decisions.

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Hosemann later sent out a written statement: “I have consistently said I am in favor of an initiative process in Mississippi. I trust the voters of the state, both in who they elect to office and on policy matters. A number of Republicans in the Senate have a different opinion on the initiative issue. This is the legislative process and we will continue that process.”

But many political observers and supporters of restoring the initiative had questioned Hosemann's support for it, given he assigned the measure to Polk's committee again this year after Polk had publicly voiced misgivings about reinstating ballot initiative.

READ MORE:Is ballot initiative a ‘take your picture off the wall' issue for lawmakers?

Many Mississippians were angry when the state's high court stripped voters of this right in 2021. This was in a ruling on a initiative voters had overwhelmingly passed, taking matters in hand after lawmakers had dallied for years on the issue. Legislative leaders were quick at the time with vows they would restore this right to voters, fix the legal glitches that prompted the Supreme Court to rule it invalid. Many lawmakers said they support the right.

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Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, said she was stunned to hear the Senate let the measure die Thursday without inviting more debate with the House on a compromise version. She disagrees with Polk about it not being a big issue with voters.

“My constituents think it's necessary,” Summers said. “… People have issues they believe we are not addressing or listening to them on, like early voting, Medicaid expansion. Those are issues Mississippians are concerned about and when we don't bring them to the forefront because of , they need to have this right to address them. Now we have to wait another year to do this.”

READ MORE:Bill restoring ballot initiative remains alive, though some say it ‘stifles' Mississippi voters

The House and Senate versions of the measure, which would have required ratification by voters in November, differed. But both would have greatly restricted voters' right to ballot initiative to the process that had been in place since 1992. Many supporters of restoring the right have been angered about legislative leaders' proposals to date. In the House, most Democrats despite supporting restoration of the right voted “present” on the House version they found it so restrictive.

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The Senate position on the initiative would require the signatures of at least 240,000 registered voters to place an issue on a statewide ballot. The House version would require about 106,000, nearer the previous threshold required for the last 30 years.

Under both proposals, the Legislature by a simple majority vote could change or repeal an initiative approved by the electorate. Unlike the previous process voters had for decades, voters could only pass or change state laws, not the state constitution.

Polk said he “could not get close to” agreeing on the lower number of signatures in the House proposal, and doubted the House would agree to his higher threshold. He said the House also had made a change he found untenable that he just noticed in recent days: It removed a prohibition on using a ballot initiative to change Mississippi's position as a “right to work” state, which generally keeps labor unions weak in such states.

“That was disturbing to me,” Polk said.

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A recentMississippi Today/Siena College pollshows Mississippi voters across the spectrum want their right to put issues directly on a statewide ballot restored.

The poll showed 72% favor reinstating ballot initiative, with 12% opposed and 16% either don't know or have no opinion. Restoring the right garnered a large majority among Democrats, Republicans, independents and across all demographic, geographic and income lines.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

Mississippi lawmakers look to other states’ Medicaid expansions. Is Georgia worth copying?

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mississippitoday.org – Sophia Paffenroth – 2024-03-28 10:58:47

As the Mississippi Republican-led Legislature considers expanding for the first time after a decade-long debate, Senate leaders have referenced other Southern states' expansion plans as alternatives to full expansion. 

On Wednesday, the Senate Medicaid Committee passed the House Republican expansion bill with a strike-all and replaced it with its own plan, which Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, called “expansion light.” The Senate is expected to take the bill up for a floor vote Thursday, with a plan that's nearly identical to Georgia's. 

Problems with “Georgia Pathways”

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Health care policy experts don't think Georgia's plan is worth emulating. The state's plan, called “Georgia Pathways,” misses out on the increased federal match of 90% that the law grants to newly expanded states, and it also doesn't qualify for the additional $690 million federal dollars that would make expansion to Mississippi for four years.

And the plan, touted as a conservative alternative to what critics call “Obamacare,” has cost state taxpayers $26 million so far, with more than 90% of that going toward administrative and consulting costs, according to KFF Health News. Implementing work requirements is costly and labor intensive because it involves hiring more staff and processing monthly paperwork to confirm enrollees are employed. 

“Georgia's plan has proven to be very profitable for large companies like Deloitte (the primary consultant for Georgia's project) but has provided health care to almost no one who needs it,” said Joan Alker, Medicaid expert and executive director of Georgetown 's Center for and Families. “It's been a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars so far.”

If the Senate plan were signed into law, Mississippi would fare the same – receiving its regular federal match of only 77% instead of 90% – and risk large administrative costs for enforcing a 120-hour-a-month work requirement and a provision that says recipients must be recertified four times a year.

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Work requirements ‘costly' to enforce

In theory, a work requirement isn't controversial. A majority of Mississippi lawmakers in both chambers want to reserve Medicaid coverage for those who are working or exempt, with legislation that incentivizes employment in the state with the lowest labor participation rate. The problem, experts say, is that in practice, it can do more harm than good. 

Policing and enforcing the work requirement costs more than it would cost to insure the small population of unemployed people who would become eligible for Medicaid under traditional expansion, explained Morgan Henderson, principal data scientist at the Hilltop Institute, a nonpartisan research group that conducted several studies detailing what Medicaid expansion would look like in Mississippi. 

“Medicaid work requirements are costly to implement,” Henderson said. “States have to develop new administrative which can cost millions, or tens of millions, of dollars. Additionally, employment requirements can be confusing and burdensome for individuals, so people who are legitimately employed and income-eligible for Medicaid may be denied coverage – thus, hurting the exact individuals who are supposed to qualify for Medicaid with work requirements.”

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In Georgia, only 3,500 people have signed up since the program began in July – despite the millions of dollars taxpayers have paid to the program and ' previous estimate that roughly 25,000 people would sign up in the first year and 52,000 by the fifth year. 

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in an interview in February that the Mississippi Senate plan likely wouldn't be as strict as Georgia's, calling their work requirement “onerous.” 

But the Senate plan is even stricter than Georgia's, calling for at least 120 hours of work a month instead of the 80 hours required in Georgia. 

In Arkansas, a work requirement was briefly implemented in 2018 before it was overturned.

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A study by the New England Journal of Medicine found Arkansas' work requirement to be unsuccessful at increasing employment. The main consequence of the state's work requirement was an increase in the number of uninsured persons compared to full expansion and “no significant changes” in employment associated with the policy, according to the study. 

In addition, “more than 95% of persons who were targeted by the policy already met the requirement or should have been exempt.”

What's next?

The only expansion bill still alive in the Mississippi Legislature is House Bill 1725, authored by Speaker Jason White, R-West, and Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, which is now before the Senate. The bill, as passed by the House, has a provisional work requirement, but would expand Medicaid to 138% of the federal poverty level – even if a work requirement is not approved by federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

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That's important because during the Biden administration, the federal   has rescinded work requirement waivers previously granted under the Trump administration and has not approved new ones. 

But the Senate version is entirely contingent on the work requirement, calling for a minimum of 120 work hours a month and quarterly recertification. Eligibility also only goes up to 100% of the federal poverty level. 

If the Senate were to stand firm on the work requirement, expansion might not go into effect until well into 2025. That is, if a new administration takes office. 

A provision in North Carolina's recent expansion bill could prove useful as Mississippi lawmakers debate the details of expanding Medicaid.

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A North Carolina expansion bill passed in 2023 is a mostly-traditional expansion plan with a unique work requirement provision. Expansion originally passed without a work requirement, but included a provision that says if or when a federal administration that favors the concept takes office, the state will change Medicaid eligibility rules and adopt the work requirement. 

If Mississippi were to include this kind of language in its own bill, it could expand Medicaid in 2024 or at the start of 2025, instead of waiting well into a new presidential term.

In theory, work requirements make sense, Henderson said. But they haven't produced the desired outcome of increasing the labor force participation rate in other states. That fact, coupled with the costly administrative burden of enforcing them and the unfortunate consequence of eligible enrollees losing coverage make the work requirement an unworthy pursuit, Henderson and Alker conclude. 

“In theory, it's true that, under Medicaid expansion, individuals earning slightly more than 138% of the federal poverty level could have an incentive to reduce their earnings in order to qualify for Medicaid,” said Henderson. “However, there are reasons to believe that this will be rare.”

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The three reasons Henderson gives are: “First, not all workers know their exact income as a fraction of the current federal poverty limit, which changes every year and is a function of household size. Second, not all workers can control their hours. Third, individuals earning just above 138% of the federal poverty level have access to generous subsidies through the insurance marketplace, which could reduce the incentive to reduce income to qualify for Medicaid.”

And in practice, Henderson said, “no studies I'm aware of have found evidence of Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions adverse effects on employment outcomes.”

The Senate is expected to vote on House Bill 1725 on Thursday. While the bill only needs a three-fifths vote to pass the floor, it realistically needs a two-thirds majority from both chambers to show it has the potential to override a threatened veto from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

J.Z. George’s descendant advocates for removing the statue of the Confederate icon from the nation’s Capitol

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-03-28 09:17:10

The great-great-great grandson of icon J.Z. George wants to see his ancestor's statue moved from the U.S. Capitol back to Mississippi.

Each day, hundreds visit the Capitol's Statuary Hall to glimpse the two statues from each . Mississippi is the only state represented strictly by Confederate leaders. They are George and Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy.

In recent decades, states such as Alabama and Florida have replaced statues of those who fought in the Civil War or supported secession with notable leaders or trailblazers. States pay for the statues, which represent deceased citizens “illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military services such as each State may deem to be worthy of this national commemoration.”

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Beyond Confederate figures, Ohio replaced a slave-supporting governor with inventor Thomas Edison. California replaced a little-known minister with former President Ronald Reagan. North Carolina replaced a white supremacist politician with evangelist Billy Graham.

Mississippi, however, has stood pat.

It is time that changed, said George's ancestor, Charles Sims of New Braunfels, , a combat veteran, graduate and founder of The Dream 2020. “Racial hatred or racism shouldn't be honored.”

He would love to see Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran buried in Arlington National Cemetery, take the place of George, a Civil War veteran, he said. “I'd like to replace a soldier with a soldier.”

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Charles Sims tells Mississippi 's Jerry Mitchell he would like to see the statue of his great-great-great grandfather J.Z. George replaced.

Medgar Evers fought in Normandy and later became part of the Red Ball Express, a convoy system that used Army trucks to haul food, gasoline, ammunition and other supplies to U.S. forces as they raced across France.

When Evers returned home, he and his brother and other Black soldiers tried to vote, only to be turned away by white with guns. After that, he began battling in the civil rights movement and became the first field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP.

Sims knows all about fighting. He spent more than eight years in the Army, much of it in combat in Iraq.

Many of those in his lineage, like George, were slave owners. Three of his ancestors signed the Mississippi Articles of Secession, which called for the state to secede from the nation: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of —the greatest material interest of the world.”

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Two years after the Civil War ended, Reconstruction began, and so did a reign of terror against Black Mississippians and those who supported them.

George became known as the “Great Redeemer” for his role in returning white supremacy to power after Reconstruction ended. That work culminated in the 1890 Constitution, designed to disenfranchise Black Mississippians through poll taxes and constitutional .

“There is no use to equivocate or lie about the matter,” future Gov, and U.S. Sen. James K. Vardaman declared, “Mississippi's constitutional convention of 1890 was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the n—– from politics.”

The changes worked. Within a decade, the number of Black registered voters fell from more than 130,000 to less than 1,300. 

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Other Southern states followed Mississippi's lead, barring Black voters in every way they could. Grandfather clauses. White primaries. Violence. Voter intimidation.

“We cannot erase the past, but neither should we be a prisoner of it, either,” Sims said. “J.Z. George was the architect of the Jim Crow laws. I am not proud of this. … I think the statue should be from the Capitol because we cannot honor racial hatred.”

He said members may not agree on whether the statue should be removed from Statuary Hall, but all agree that if that happens, the statue should come home to the Cotesworth Plantation in Mississippi.

Leslie McLemore, who helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, said he would vote for civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer to take George's place at Statuary Hall.

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After 44 years as a sharecropper, she joined the movement and eventually captivated a nation with her story and her songs, he said. “She inspired a generation of people to get involved in the movement. To honor somebody like that is special.”

Sims said he once heard civil rights pioneer James Meredith, the first known Black American to attend the University of Mississippi, remark, “Mississippi is at the center of the universe, the center of the racial issue, the center of the poverty issue.”

Those words struck a chord with Sims. “I thought, ‘Wow, Mississippi could be the center of something.'”

Despite these days of division, Sims feels the winds of change.

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“I feel it is important to change the narrative about Mississippi and show that we have the ability to reach across party and racial lines in search of conflict resolution,” he said. “This is to highlight that we have the power to sit down and talk to people about the things that divide us.”

The past can be overcome, he said, “once people stop shouting at each other and begin listening to each other.”

Some people believe there's been so much hatred for so long that they can't reach out to a Black family because “they're not going to accept my hand in reconciliation,” he said. “Well, that's how I've done it, and I'm not close to done.”

He has met with the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake, all victims of police violence. He also met with the niece of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her bus seat and sparked the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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Charles Sims, the great-great-great-grandson of Confederate icon J.Z. George, has met with Rosa Parks' niece,Shelia Keys. They are pictured here in front of Parks' statue in the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Courtesy of Charles Sims

“It's been truly amazing,” Sims said. “If I could do this as the great grandson of Jim Crow, what is anybody else's excuse?”

The truth is that people aren't willing to do what it takes to move the nation forward, he said. “If we value reconciliation, we have to be willing to put the hard work in to achieve it. If we value the dream, we have to be willing to live it and pray about it fully, not just talk about it fully.”

In his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered to those gathered at the 1963 March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

When Sims heard those words, he said he felt they were aimed at him. “I think Dr. King sent me an invitation through history.”

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This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1968

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-03-28 07:00:00

March 28, 1968

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, right, and Bishop Julian Smith, left, flank Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during a march in Memphis, Tenn., March 28, 1968. Credit: AP /Jack Thornell

Martin Luther King Jr. made his last march. Joined by Ralph Abernathy and James Lawson, King led a march of sanitation workers in Memphis. 

More than 1,300 workers had gone on strike after the deaths of two workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, who took shelter in the back of the truck to avoid the frigid February rain. The white driver had refused to allow the two into the cab of the truck. Cole and Walker wound up getting crushed. 

“The two men's deaths left their wives and destitute,” Michael K. Honey wrote in “Going Down Jericho Road.” “A funeral home held the men's bodies until the families found a way to pay for their caskets.” 

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On strike, workers, who qualified for food stamps, demanded better pay and better conditions. The refused to recognize their union and, in response, hired strikebreakers. 

King spoke to them and others gathered: “You are reminding, not only Memphis, but you are reminding the nation that it is a for people to in this rich nation and starvation wages.” 

King wound up halting the march when some broke windows and looted. He halted the march and vowed to have a nonviolent protest on April 5. He didn't live to see that day.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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