Mississippi Today

Transcript: Gov. Tate Reeves delivers 2023 State of the State address

Published

3 years ago

January 31, 2023

Staff Editor

Transcript: Gov. Tate Reeves delivers 2023 State of the State address

by Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today
January 30, 2023

Gov. Tate Reeves, a first-term Republican, delivered his annual State of the State address on Jan. 30, 2023.

Below is the transcript of Reeves’ speech, which aired live on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

Editor’s note: This transcript was submitted by Reeves’ staff and has not been formatted to match Mississippi Today’s style.

WATCH: Gov. Tate Reeves’ full State of the State address.

Thank you, Lieutenant Governor Hosemann and Speaker Gunn.

To the members of the legislature and other elected officials here tonight, thank you. Thank you for your continued partnership and thank you for the tireless work you do on behalf of our great state and her people.

I also have to take a moment to thank my beautiful wife and Mississippi’s outstanding First Lady, Elee. She’s an incredible wife, an awesome mom, and a wonderful representative for our state. I’m amazed daily by your grace and your kindness, and I’m so thankful to have you in my life every single day.

Finally and most importantly, I have to thank the three million Mississippians who have helped our state usher in an unprecedented period of economic growth, educational achievement, and freedom.

2022 was perhaps the best year in Mississippi’s history. Because, here in Mississippi and unlike in Washington, D.C., we still have the incredible capacity to work together and accomplish great things for our constituents.

The sense that our state is one big, small town binds us and it furthers a sense of optimism that we can still work together here and deliver results on behalf of our people.

The people of Mississippi are our state’s strength. It is because of your hard work that our state is primed and ready to face the challenges of tomorrow.

It is because of your work ethic and your commitment to excellence that more and more companies are choosing to do business in Mississippi and that our state’s brightest days lie in front of us.

It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve as your governor over the last three years. I haven’t taken it for granted for one second, and I promise you that I never will. It is truly an honor to wake up each and every day and get to work on your behalf, and I look forward to making even bigger things happen in this great state.

Now, over these years some days have been more challenging than others. But no matter what’s thrown at Mississippi, I thank God each night that I have the chance to live, work, and serve alongside of you. There is no place I would have rather weathered tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, or a global pandemic than right here in Mississippi.

But Mississippi – and I think you’ll agree too – means more than simply a place to batten down the hatches during natural disasters.

Mississippi is all of our home. Our state is filled with natural beauty and friendly people. I, like so many of y’all today, am grateful to be raised in this loving community.

I’m proud to be a Mississippian, and I’m proud of the life lessons I’ve learned from the people I’ve met along the way.

One of those people, is my hero – my dad. Now, I don’t remember the first time I met him because I was only a few minutes old. But I do remember some of the lessons he taught me, especially when it comes to the value of hard work.

My father grew up in a two-room home with five brothers and five sisters in Bogue Chitto. He started a small business in the early 70’s and spent many, many nights sweeping the dirt floors and praying for his next clients.

Like entrepreneurs across Mississippi, he spent his life growing that business. Only in America could the son of that man stand here today as the governor of this great state. It is the American Dream, and the lessons I learned from him have inspired everything that I’ve done.

I’ve tried my best to take those lessons with me over the years and incorporate them into everything that I do. I’ve leaned on them when times were good, and I’ve leaned on them when times were bad.

They’ve helped to keep me grounded and to remember what’s really important in life. They’ve helped me govern, and they’ve helped me keep perspective.

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.

Our state is strong because our people and my administration are laser focused on the issues that matter to Mississippians.

As you’ve heard me say before, the way we measure success is in the wages of our workers, the success of our students, and winning the war on our values.

Mississippi is hitting the target on all three of these fronts.

First, wages. Since 2019, we’ve raised per capita personal income in Mississippi by approximately $7,000 or almost 18%. We are boosting the money that Mississippi families are bringing home – especially right now, as we combat rising inflation from wasteful spending in Washington, D.C.

This wasn’t by accident. We were able to accomplish this momentous feat because we never wavered from the tried and true economic and fiscally conservative principles that have set up states for growth for generations. And we were able to accomplish this despite the left’s best attempts to grow government.

Our conservative reforms and sound budget management have laid the foundation for this economic boom. It’s the policies of yesterday that have paved the pathway to today’s prosperity.

It’s led us to a $4 billion budget surplus. $4 billion!

It’s led to investing a historic amount in jobs training, and because of that we have the lowest unemployment rate in our state’s history.

It 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.

And it helped us finalize the largest economic development project in Mississippi history – a $2.5 billion capital investment that will create 1,000 new jobs with an average salary of almost $100,000 a year.

But we had more than just one major economic deal. That grand slam was great, but there were dozens and dozens of projects impacting every corner of our state over the last year. The fact is that thanks to our singles and our doubles, Mississippi is starting to run up the scoreboard.

Last year we announced a $2 million investment that will create 117 new upholstery jobs in New Albany.

We announced a $79 million investment that will create 21 new operations jobs in Pelahatchie.

We announced a $51 million investment that will create 41 new manufacturing jobs in Winona.

Canton, Philadelphia, Bay Springs, Columbus, Starkville, Southaven, Meridian, Calhoun, Waynesboro, Vicksburg, Olive Branch, and Corinth – just to name a few of the places that we announced investments this last year.

My friends, when it comes to setting up our people and state for more economic prosperity, we are, by every objective standard, getting the job done.

We are boosting salaries and we are expanding the tax base. And we are investing in the areas that will provide our state with the highest return – our people.

I want our state to go even further in supporting Mississippians. Our state is in the best fiscal shape we’ve ever been in, and our state is in the best financial shape in history and our residents deserve to get a bigger piece of the pie.

We can and should do more to put additional dollars into the pockets of Mississippians. We will do this, by eliminating our state’s income tax once and for all.

We can do this and we can do this without raising other taxes. You’ve heard me say this before, but I’m going to keep saying it because it’s that important: government doesn’t have anything that it doesn’t first take from somebody else.

I believe that Mississippians not politicians or the government know best how to spend their dollars. I also believe that those who have competitive advantages win.

We have a competitive advantage in our people. We need to add another competitive advantage with our tax code.

To build the best possible environment for entrepreneurs, to combat President Biden’s runaway inflation, to compete with the likes of Florida, Tennessee and Texas, to continue making it easier for Mississippians to support their families, we must eliminate Mississippi’s income tax.

That’s why last year I was so proud to sign into law the largest tax cut in Mississippi history, which returned over half a billion dollars to Mississippians.

That’s more dollars in your pocket, more dollars in your kids’ college funds, more dollars put toward buying a home or retirement, and more dollars for you to spend on your priorities. Not politicians’ pet projects.

I’m proud of what we accomplished. But I’m even more fired up to keep the tax cuts coming. You have my word that as long as I’m governor, I’m going to continue relentlessly fighting for permanent, long-term tax relief that lets you keep more of your own hard-earned money.

But Mississippi isn’t just witnessing historic achievements in our state’s economy. We’re also seeing it in classrooms across our state.

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.

And like our state’s economic growth, our education improvements didn’t happen by accident.

Our state’s stellar report card didn’t just appear out of thin air.

Mississippi insisted on getting kids back into school when other blue states stayed closed, and now we have the best education numbers in our state’s history!

The year Philip Gunn and I first presided over a State of the State in 2012, Mississippi was dead last in fourth grade math. Now, we’re above the national average at Number 23.

That means that over the last ten years since we passed education reform, Mississippi surpassed half the states in the nation.

We’ve gone from needs improvement to most improved.

We’ve led the nation in fourth grade reading and fourth grade math gains.

And students from all walks of life are finding more success in Mississippi. In 2003, Mississippi was among the worst performers when it came to test scores for Black students. Today we’re fifth in the entire nation when it comes to fourth grade reading test scores for Black students. Fifth in the entire nation!

So, when some people say, “Mississippi is last in education,” folks, they’re just not telling you the truth.

I want to personally thank all the legislators that played a role in helping to pass those education reforms. I also want to thank all the involved parents and dedicated teachers across Mississippi. We couldn’t have accomplished these goals without you.

Our state – unlike some others that have been in the news – recognizes that we have a duty to both. We should ensure that parents continue to play an active role in their kids’ education, and we should ensure that teachers are paid what they deserve.

It is my firm belief that Mississippi has some of the best teachers in the nation, and their salaries should reflect that.

That’s why I was proud to sign legislation giving Mississippi teachers the largest pay raise in state history. We elevated teacher salaries above not only the Southeastern average, but even above the national average!

Mississippi’s teachers earned those raises, and I was proud to sign them into law.

But regardless of the technology or textbooks we put in front of our kids, nothing is more influential to a child’s educational development than parents.

And when it comes to education, Mississippi should protect parents’ voices and their right to be involved in the classroom. Because at the end of the day, the state doesn’t run a child’s life – parents do. We need more transparency in schools in this country. We need more choice. We need more freedom. That will be the best way to protect our children.

I’ve been shocked to see how some states have embraced the misguided practice of pushing parents out of the classroom, pushing parents out of their children’s lives, and pushing parents out of the school board decision-making process.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, is more invested in the life and the future of a child than a parent. They shouldn’t be labeled as domestic terrorists for simply asking questions or for attending a school board meeting. They should be celebrated for being invested in their child’s education.

As a father myself, I want schools across Mississippi to complement the lessons parents are trying to teach at home, not reject them. That’s exactly why I am calling on the legislature to pass a Parents’ Bill of Rights this session.

Through the Parents’ Bill of Rights, we will reaffirm that in Mississippi, it is the state who answers to parents and not vice versa.

This Parents’ Bill of Rights would further cement that when it comes to the usage of names, pronouns, or health matters, schools will adhere to the will of parents. There is no room in our schools for policies that attempt to undercut parents and require the usage of pronouns or names that fail to correspond with reality.

I am proud to be governor, but the greatest pride in my life is being the dad of three wonderful girls. There are few things I love more than having the chance to cheer them on from the sidelines at their soccer or basketball games.

That’s why I’m especially proud to have signed legislation that ensured, that in Mississippi, we’re going to let boys play boys sports, and girls play girls sports. I didn’t do this just for my daughters, I did this for all of Mississippi’s daughters.

But we need to do even more to protect Mississippi’s children. We have a duty to keep pushing back against those that are taking advantage of children and using them to advance their sick and twisted ideologies.

There was a time in America when saying to kids ‘you can be whatever you want when you grow up’ meant that one day they could become a teacher, police officer, or fire fighter. A professional athlete, a doctor, or even a lawyer. That if you push yourself, there is nothing you can’t accomplish.

But today, there is a dangerous and radical movement that is now being pushed upon America’s kids. It threatens the very nature of truth. 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. And they’re telling them to pursue expensive, radical medical procedures to advance that lie.

These radical liberals are attempting to undermine objective, scientific truths. They’re trying to undermine how we view gender and even manipulate English words and grammar rules. From their illogical pronouns to their attempts at pushing the word Latinx onto the Hispanic community – they don’t care about the destruction they’re causing or whether they have the support of those they’re trying to group or label. Rather, they’re tyrannical in their approach to these issues and their unceasing attempts to have them adopted by society.

And let’s be honest, America stands essentially alone in the truly outrageous position that we’ve staked out on this issue. While some in our country push surgical mutilation onto 11 year olds even here in Mississippi, even liberal darlings like Finland, Denmark, and Sweden don’t allow these surgeries to be performed on kids who are under 18.

The fact is that we set age restrictions on driving a car and on getting a tattoo. We don’t let 11 year olds enter an R-rated movie alone, yet some would have us believe that we should push permanent body-altering surgeries on them at such a young age.

Mississippi must continue to do everything in our power to counter those who want to push their experiments on our kids. Time is of the essence, and we don’t have a second to waste. We must take every step to preserve the innocence of our children, especially against the cruel forces of modern progressivism which seek to use them as guinea pigs in their sick social experiments.

Let me be clear to those radical activists around the nation who want to do our kids harm.

Mississippi will not be trading compassion for compliance.

Our voices will not be silenced when it comes to science.

We will not be pressured into not asking questions.

And we will not give in to liberal intimidation when it comes to protecting our kids.

This is my promise to every Mississippian across our state.

There is also another way we are going to keep our kids safe, and it includes keeping their parents safe as well.

One of the most fundamental responsibilities of government is to ensure public safety and to uphold law and order.

I ran for governor to fix Mississippi’s problems, not to hide them. That’s why I’ve become increasingly concerned that, for three consecutive years now, homicides have numbered in the triple digits here in our capital city. We can and must do better.

The fact is, no matter how hard we try, there will always be evil in the world. There are those who lurk in the shadows seeking to hurt those around them. There are those who seek to inject drugs and crime into their communities, all so they can make a buck.

These actions undermine social cohesion and safety in our neighborhoods. They threaten the lives of our kids and the safety of our families.

To put it mildly, the crime situation in Jackson is unacceptable. Kids are getting killed in our streets and it’s time we put a stop to it.

Now, some have suggested that the response should be to undercut, defund, and dismantle the police. I couldn’t disagree more.

Many of us have family and friends who wear the badge. It’s worth constantly reminding ourselves that these individuals are the thin blue line which helps hold communities together.

In Mississippi we choose to fund the police. We choose to back the blue. We choose to celebrate the brave men and women who put on the badge every day and run towards danger. That’s exactly what Mississippi has done, and that’s exactly what Mississippi will continue to do.

Last year, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety conducted two major surges of law enforcement personnel – one in Jackson and one along our Gulf Coast. We flexed law enforcement in the areas and helped to shut down criminal elements in the regions. And while those surges proved to be successful, we still have more work to do.

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.

And let me say this as well, 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.

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 dollars.

Again, I ran for governor to fix Mississippi’s problems, not to hide them. Which brings me to my next area of focus – our state’s healthcare system.

Mississippi is not immune to the struggles facing healthcare systems across the country. Together, we should keep working to improve Mississippians’ access to quality healthcare, and together, we should keep working to ensure Mississippi’s healthcare system meets the needs of our people.

It starts with leveling the playing field. Most people do not know that it is illegal to open a new health care facility that competes with other institutions. We are all frustrated and worried by the threats that some hospitals may close. The first step should be allowing new ones to open! By reforming Mississippi’s Certificate of Need laws, we can root out anti-competitive behavior that blocks the formation of medical facilities and prevents the delivery of lifesaving healthcare to Mississippians.

We should continue to strengthen the pipeline of medical professionals by doubling and tripling down on our improved workforce development strategy, and we should pass legislation that levels the playing field for hospitals with expanded residency programs.

Because, at the end of the day, the real answers to our problems are not contained in the same old proposals that only serve to delay the inevitable at the expense of taxpayers. The real answer to our problems lies in innovation.

Technology is changing, and the way healthcare is delivered is changing. Our policies must adapt with the times and facilitate care that focuses not on institutions but on the patients we seek to support.

Throughout modern history we’ve witnessed innovation disrupt industries such as manufacturing, transportation, food, and entertainment. There was a time when people had to go to the theater to watch a movie. Today, they can watch them at home and on an airplane. On cable TV, Netflix, and every streaming service in between.

The fact of the matter is that technology and innovation lead to new opportunities. The same can be said of our healthcare system.

There was a time when if you needed medical services, you had to go to a large brick and mortar hospital – that was your only choice. But today, people are increasingly choosing new healthcare distribution channels over your traditional hospital. Today, people are accessing healthcare through telemedicine providers, micro-hospitals, urgent care facilities, and expanded care opportunities with nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and others.

This legislative session, I urge the legislature to think outside the box when it comes to improving Mississippi’s healthcare system. 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.

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.

For as dire as national politics sometimes seem, there’s still a tremendous amount of hope in Mississippi.

There really are incredible things happening here. And I’m talking about far more than our state winning its second college baseball national championship in a row, as incredible as that was.

Last year, Mississippi led the nation to overturn Roe v. Wade – the greatest accomplishment in the conservative movement in my lifetime.

Long story short, more innocent children will now have the chance to be born.

There are future doctors who now have the chance to be born. There are future teachers that now have the chance to be born. There are future nurses, future linemen, and future truckers. There are future fathers and future mothers, friends and family, brothers and sisters. They all now have the chance at life.

And there may very well even be a life that was saved who, a few years from now, will stand up here and give his or her update on the State of our State. What a wonderful blessing that would be.

But the fact is that being pro-life is about more than just being anti-abortion. We don’t just want to eliminate the taking of unborn children’s lives, we want to make it easier for parents to raise children and for mothers to give birth to happy and healthy kids.

Now some have said that too many children will be added to Mississippi’s population. I say what a wonderful problem to have. On this point I agree with Mother Teresa when she said, ‘How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.’

But I also recognize we are called to do more and to support these new moms and new babies.

And I want every element of our laws to reflect and facilitate this critical mission.

That’s why I’m also calling on the legislature to establish a New Pro-Life Agenda that helps make Mississippi the easiest place in the nation to raise a family.

Together, we can prove the country wrong just like we did in education. Just like we led the nation in overturning Roe, we can lead the nation in supporting mothers and babies.

This session, Mississippi should establish a childcare tax credit and allow Mississippi families to write off childcare supplies on state tax returns.

We should increase our support for pregnancy resource centers and thus help to care for expectant and new mothers, especially those who are struggling with poverty or isolation.

We should expand childcare opportunities by cutting red tape. There’s no reason that we should let government get in the way of parents accessing care for their children.

We should expand safe haven laws, so parents have every available opportunity to choose life.

We should reduce the existing adoption backlogs and make it easier and less expensive for parents to adopt kids into a loving forever home.

And we should update our child support laws so that fathers must support their children from the moment their life begins – at conception.

This is our New Pro-Life Agenda. As I’ve said before, it will not be easy, and it will not be free. But I know that together, we are going to get the job done and deliver the support Mississippi mothers and babies deserve.

My fellow Mississippians, it’s been quite the year for our state. We’ve had moments of triumph and moments of anguish. But through it all, we’ve emerged stronger, together.

We know where Mississippi has been, and we know where Mississippi is going. Regardless of the unfair stereotypes placed upon our state and her people, we know good things are happening here.

Is our state perfect? Of course not. But besides heaven, no place is.

We know what’s happening on the ground here. We know it because we are seeing it. Whether it’s the record investment or all-time low unemployment, the all-time high graduation rate or standing up to the radical left’s war on our values – Mississippi is winning, and our state is on the rise.

That’s why 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.

My friends, I am proud to serve as Mississippi’s 65^th governor but I’m even prouder to call myself a Mississippian.

The eyes of our state are turned to the future, and that’s why I will continue to reject those who would seek to divide and separate us. Instead, on behalf of all Mississippi, I am proud to pronounce once more that we are all Mississippians, committed to improving this home that we love.

We are blessed to live in a wonderful state. We are blessed to have wonderful neighbors. We are blessed by one common God who smiles down upon Mississippi.

I have no doubt that our future is brighter than ever before and that, together, we will continue to build this great state upwards.

God bless all of you. And may God continue to bless this great state that we all love, Mississippi.

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

Up Next

Gov. Reeves claims ‘best year in state history.’ His 2023 challenger says he’s moved state in ‘wrong direction’

Don't Miss

Transcript: Brandon Presley offers Democratic response to 2023 State of the State address

Mississippi Today

After 30 years in prison, Mississippi woman dies from cancer she says was preventable

Published

6 hours ago

August 4, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – mississippitoday.org – 2025-08-04 17:37:00

by Mina Corpuz and Michael Goldberg, Mississippi Today
August 4, 2025

Behind Bars, Beyond Care:

A Mississippi Today investigation into suffering, secrecy and the business of prison health care

Susie Balfour, diagnosed with terminal breast cancer two weeks before her release from prison, has died from the disease she alleged past and present prison health care providers failed to catch until it was too late.

The 64-year-old left the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in December 2021 after more than 30 years of incarceration. She died on Friday, a representative for her family confirmed.

Balfour is survived by family members and friends. News of her passing has led to an outpouring of condolences of support shared online from community members, including some she met in prison.

Instead of getting the chance to rebuild her life, Balfour was released with a death sentence, said Pauline Rogers, executive director of the RECH Foundation.

“Susie didn’t just survive prison, she came out fighting,” Rogers said in a statement. “She spent her final years demanding justice, not just for herself, but for the women still inside. She knew her time was limited, but her courage was limitless.”

Last year, Balfour filed a federal lawsuit against three private medical contractors for the prison system, alleging medical neglect. The lawsuit highlighted how she and other incarcerated women came into contact with raw industrial chemicals during cleaning duty. Some of the chemicals have been linked to an increased risk of cancer in some studies.

The companies contracted to provide health care to prisoners at the facility over the course of Balfour’s sentence — Wexford Health Sources, Centurion Health and VitalCore, the current medical provider — delayed or failed to schedule follow-up cancer screenings for Balfour even though they had been recommended by prison physicians, the lawsuit says.

“I just want everybody to be held accountable,” Balfour said of her lawsuit. “ … and I just want justice for myself and other ladies and men in there who are dealing with the same situation I am dealing with.”

Rep. Becky Currie, who chairs the House Corrections Committee, spoke to Balfour last week, just days before her death. Until the very end, Balfour was focused on ensuring her story would outlive her, that it would drive reforms protecting others from suffering the same fate, Currie said.

“She wanted to talk to me on her deathbed. She could hardly speak, but she wanted to make sure nobody goes through what she went through,” Currie said. “I told her she would be in a better place soon, and I told her I would do my best to make sure nobody else goes through this.”

During Mississippi’s 2025 legislative session, Balfour’s story inspired Rep. Justis Gibbs, a Democrat from Jackson, to introduce legislation requiring state prisons to provide inmates on work assignments with protective gear.

Gibbs said over 10 other Mississippi inmates have come down with cancer or become seriously ill after they were exposed to chemicals while on work assignments. In a statement on Monday, Gibbs said the bill was a critical step toward showing that Mississippi does not tolerate human rights abuses.

“It is sad to hear of multiple incarcerated individuals passing away this summer due to continued exposure of harsh chemicals,” Gibbs said. “We worked very hard last session to get this bill past the finish line. I am appreciative of Speaker Jason White and the House Corrections Committee for understanding how vital this bill is and passing it out of committee. Every one of my house colleagues voted yes. We cannot allow politics between chambers on unrelated matters to stop the passage of good common-sense legislation.”

The bill passed the House in a bipartisan vote before dying in the Senate. Currie told Mississippi Today on Monday that she plans on marshalling the bill through the House again next session.

Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, said Balfour’s case shows that prison medical contractors don’t have strong enough incentives to offer preventive care or treat illnesses like cancer.

In response to an ongoing Mississippi Today investigation into prison health care and in comments on the House floor, Currie has said prisoners are sometimes denied life saving treatments. A high-ranking former corrections official also came forward and told the news outlet that Mississippi’s prison system is rife with medical neglect and mismanagement.

Mississippi Today also obtained text messages between current and former corrections department officials showing that the same year the state agreed to pay VitalCore $100 million in taxpayer funds to provide healthcare to people incarcerated in Mississippi prisons, a top official at the Department remarked that the company “sucks.”

Balfour was first convicted of murdering a police officer during a robbery in north Mississippi, and she was sentenced to death. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the conviction in 1992, finding that her constitutional rights were violated in trial. She reached a plea agreement for a lesser charge, her attorney said.

As of Monday, the lawsuit remains active, according to court records. Late last year Balfour’s attorneys asked for her to be able to give a deposition with the intent of preserving her testimony. She was scheduled to give one in Southaven in March.

Rogers said Balfour’s death is a tragic reminder of systemic failures in the prison system where routine medical care is denied, their labor is exploited and too many who are released die from conditions that went untreated while they were in state custody.

Her legacy is one RECH Foundation will honor by continuing to fight for justice, dignity and systemic reform, said Rogers, who was formerly incarcerated herself.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post After 30 years in prison, Mississippi woman dies from cancer she says was preventable appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a critical view of the Mississippi prison health care system, highlighting systemic failures and medical neglect that led to the death of a formerly incarcerated woman. The tone and framing focus on social justice issues, prisoner rights, and the need for government accountability and reform, which align with Center-Left values emphasizing government responsibility for vulnerable populations. While the article is largely investigative and fact-based, its emphasis on advocacy for reform, criticism of privatized prison health contractors, and highlighting bipartisan legislative efforts suggest a Center-Left leaning perspective rather than neutral reporting.

Mississippi Today

FBI concocted a bribery scheme that wasn’t, ex-interim Hinds sheriff says in appeal

Published

10 hours ago

August 4, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-08-04 13:16:00

by Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
August 4, 2025

Former interim Hinds County sheriff Marshand Crisler is appealing bribery and ammunition charges stemming from his 2021 campaign, arguing that the federal government played on his relationship with a former supporter to entrap him.

Crisler had asked Tonarri Moore, who donated to past campaigns, for a financial contribution for the sheriff’s race. Moore said he would donate if Crisler helped with several requests. Without the previous relationship, Crisler would not have acted, his attorney argues, and Crisler had no reason to believe he was being bribed.

“The government, having concocted a bribery scheme to entrap Crisler, then had to contrive a corresponding quid pro quo to support the scenario with which to entrap him,” attorney John Holliman wrote in a Saturday appellant brief.

Crisler is asking the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse his conviction and render its own rulings on both counts.

He was convicted in federal court in November after a three-day trial and sentenced earlier this year to 2 ½ years in prison. Crisler is serving time in FCI Beckley in West Virginia.

The day before Crisler reached out to Moore to ask for support for his campaign for sheriff, Drug and Enforcement Administration agents raided Moore’s home and found guns and drugs. An FBI agent called to the scene looked through Moore’s phone and saw Crisler had called.

According to the appellant brief, the agent asked Moore what Crisler would do if offered money, and if Moore was bribing him. Moore said he wasn’t bribing Crisler, and the agent asked if Moore would do it.

At that time, there weren’t reasonable grounds to start a bribery investigation into Crisler, his attorney argues, nor was there reason to believe he was seeking a bribe.

Moore agreed to become an informant for the FBI, in exchange for the government not prosecuting him for the guns and drugs.

The FBI fitted him with a wire to record Crisler during meetings, which began that day. The meetings included one inside Moore’s night club and a cigarette lounge in Jackson. Agents provided Moore with the $9,500 he gave to Crisler between September and November 2021.

Crisler’s 2023 indictment came as he campaigned again for sheriff and months before the primary election. He remained in the race and lost to the incumbent who he faced in 2021.

At trial, the government argued the exchange of money were attempts to bribe because Moore made several requests of Crisler: to move his cousin to a different part of the Hinds County Detention Center, to get him a job in the sheriff’s office and for Crisler to let Moore know if law enforcement was looking into his activities.

In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kirkham pointed to examples of quid pro quo in recordings, including one where Moore said to Crisler, “You scratch my back, I scratch yours” and Crisler replied “Hello!” in a tone that the government saw as agreement.

The appellant’s brief argues that without Moore’s requests, the government lacked a way to show quid pro quo, a requirement of bribery charge: that Crisler committed or agreed to commit an official act in exchange for funds.

Moore also asked Crisler to give him bullets despite being a convicted felon, which is prohibited under federal law. The brief notes how the government directed Moore to come up with a story for needing the bullets and to ask Crisler to give them to him.

In response, Crisler told Moore he could buy bullets at several sporting goods stores. Moore said they ran out, and eventually Crisler gave him bullets.

Crisler also argues that the government prosecuted routine political behavior. Specifically, accepting campaign donations is not illegal, and can not constitute bribery unless there is an explicit promise to perform or not perform an official act in exchange for money.

“Our political system relies on interactions between citizens and politicians with requests being made for this or that which is within the power of the elected official to do,” the brief states. “This does not constitute a bribery scheme. It is the normal working of our political system.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post FBI concocted a bribery scheme that wasn’t, ex-interim Hinds sheriff says in appeal appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The article presents the legal appeal of former interim Hinds County sheriff Marshand Crisler with a focus on his argument that the FBI orchestrated an entrapment scheme. The language is largely factual and centers on the defense’s claims and legal standards for bribery, emphasizing normal political behavior versus illegal conduct. While the article reports on the government’s position, it gives significant space to Crisler’s defense and critiques of federal prosecution tactics. This framing, highlighting skepticism toward federal law enforcement and emphasizing the defense perspective, suggests a slight center-right leaning, reflecting a cautious stance on government overreach without overt ideological language.

Mississippi Today

They own the house. Why won’t they cut the grass?

Published

4 days ago

July 31, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @mintamolly – 2025-07-31 15:36:00

by Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
July 31, 2025

Just four doors down from the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in west Jackson, a tangled mass of bushes, trees and vines obscure a house with a caved-in roof at 2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive.

Inside the only room left standing, pieces of plaster and foam insulation cover the sunken floor. A radio, an ornate console table and floor-length drapes, still hanging behind steel-frame windows, are the sole indications that someone once cared for this place.

In August, the storied home will go up for auction for the 7th year in a row because of unpaid taxes – joining thousands of properties across Jackson stuck in a complicated loop and for which no one claims responsibility.

Nearly 30 years ago, the home’s original owner, a fashionable woman named Arthurine Wansley, impressed her neighbors with the upgrades she’d made to the ranch-style home, recalled Lee Davis, a retired hospital environmental service technician who lives next door. Ceiling fans, wood-paneled walls and a cheerful lime green facade.

“Anybody would want to have a house like that,” Davis, 69, said.

But ever since Wansley developed dementia and her relatives moved her to California in the early 2000s, Davis bore witness as the home fell into dereliction. Wansley, who is still listed as the property’s owner in county records, died nearly 20 years ago. When the waist-high grass started to encroach on his lawn, Davis called the city of Jackson for help.

Lee Davis poses for a portrait outside the blighted property next to his home on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.

Then one day a few months ago, Davis noticed a for-sale sign outside the house. It was red, white and blue and said “Best Properties.” So Davis dialed the number on the sign to ask if they were going to cut the grass.

No, the woman who answered said – though the investment company she represented, also known as Viking Investments, is indeed selling the property for $2,500.

“They said they don’t do that, it’s the city’s responsibility,” Davis said.

2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive had been sold for unpaid taxes. But that doesn’t mean the government can force the investor to clean it up.

When a property owner doesn’t pay taxes, Mississippi counties hold an auction called a tax sale. The goal is to collect much-needed local revenue.

A home for sale sits in front of a blighted property on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.

But in Jackson, where thousands of parcels go to auction each year, properties stuck in a tax sale loop year after year perpetuate blight. The bidders are often not prospective homeowners but investors who seek to profit from collecting interest on the unpaid taxes.

The scope of the problem is hard to quantify. To complicate matters, when investors come to own the properties they’ve bid on, there is no legal obligation for them to secure the property in their name. The outdated recordkeeping keeps the city of Jackson from knowing who owns these properties, impeding code enforcement efforts.

Investors also don’t have to pay the taxes, punting the property back to a tax sale.

“We’re a lien investment company. We’re not really wanting to acquire property,” said Nick Miller, the owner of Viking, which is based in downtown Jackson. “That’s a byproduct of investing in the tax liens.”

Viking has not paid taxes on 2300 since it acquired the property. So unless someone bids on it during this year’s tax sale in August, it will fall to the state.

The government, then, will be responsible for cleaning it up. To work on a property, the city must send notices to whoever is listed as the owner on the Hinds County landroll.

For two years after Jackson opened a code enforcement case on 2300, Jackson sent repeated notices to Wansley’s last known address in California — even though she was not living and lost the home at the 2021 tax sale.

“You just found the perfect storm,” said Bill Chaney, an assistant secretary of state who oversees tax-forfeited properties that do not sell at auction. “This is an indication of all the cracks in the system.”

Outdated records leave properties dangling

2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive went up for auction in the fall of 2019 after someone in Wansley’s family failed to pay the initial $1,764 tax bill, according to Hinds County records. Despite repeated attempts, Mississippi Today could not reach any of Wansley’s relatives in California.

Over the next several years, a series of investment companies – some local, some not – bid on the unpaid taxes: GSRAN-Z LLC, Quicksilver Tax Funding LLC, College Investment Co., and FIG 20 LLC. None of these companies responded to Mississippi Today’s inquiries.

In what’s called the “redemption period,” Wansley’s family had two years to pay the overdue taxes. When that didn’t happen, her property became leverage. The winning bidders gained an opportunity to take her home through a document called a tax deed, which according to state law is “a perfect title with the immediate right of possession to the land sold for taxes.”

But none of the companies filed the tax deed with the Hinds County Chancery Clerk, likely because they could not find anyone to buy it and they did not want to become responsible for the condition of Wansley’s home.

A screenshot from the Hinds County Landroll for 2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Dr.

The practice is common. There is no legal requirement to file the tax deed, nor is there a financial incentive. These companies often operate on slim margins, and the tax deed costs money. Plus, they may not want to end up like Wansley – listed as the owner of properties they aren’t responsible for.

“Are we going to be on that landroll record for the next 15 years until they update the record?” Miller said.

Chancery clerks need a deed to update a county’s landrolls, according to Lakeysia Liddell, the manager of Hinds County land division. So when companies don’t file a tax deed, the number of blighted properties in Jackson owned by tax investors remains unknown. People who lost their homes because of unpaid taxes continue to receive notices.

“They come in trying to pay those taxes thinking they can keep their property even though the redemption period has expired,” Liddell said.

Jackson’s code enforcement officers also rely on the landroll to send notices to property owners in violation. Robert Brunson, Jackson’s code enforcement manager, said that ideally, the city would take these companies to environmental court, where a judge can levy fines and even criminal penalties for dilapidated properties like 2300.

That accountability can’t happen if the city doesn’t know who the owner is. Brunson said Viking will come to environmental court if they have an interest in the property, because the city can use county records to find out if that is the case. But that doesn’t always happen: Viking is not listed as an one of the “interested parties” on the code violation notice for 2300.

“This is a business deal to them, to make money off the city of Jackson, off of Hinds County, really,” Brunson said. “We need more teeth, to be honest with you.”

To keep the chain of title clear, the companies will file the tax deed if they find a buyer for the property. But they may just let the property fall back to the tax sale to be dealt with by someone else.

Viking, which also hasn’t filed a tax deed for 2300, acquired the home in 2024 after the last bidder – the Jacksonville, Florida-based FIG 20 LLC – transferred its interest in the property to a Viking affiliate called SDG 20, according to a quitclaim deed filed in Hinds County.

Miller declined to say how much SDG paid FIG for the properties, but all told, he estimates he has sunk about $2,000 into the property on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive. If he sells it, he will make a couple hundred dollars.

The tax sale gamble

Miller, a Jackson resident, views his job as something of a public service, because his bids on Mississippians’ unpaid taxes help fund county services like libraries or police.

Spread across hundreds of parcels a year in Hinds County – thousands across the state – Miller can make a profit. His goal is not to get property, but to make money off the financial penalties owed by the original owner, including 1.5% monthly interest on the unpaid taxes.

When that doesn’t happen, and Miller becomes the owner, it’s as if he lost the bet. Acquiring blighted property is just a risk of the game; the gamble then becomes whether Viking can sell it.

Nick Miller, president of Viking Investments, sits in his office in downtown Jackson, Miss., on Thursday, July 31, 2025.

“You’re looking at just returning your investment with interest,” said Andy Hammond, a Young, Wells, Williams attorney who Miller occasionally consults. “You can’t expect to actually get property. That just ends up happening.”

The seemingly accidental way Miller comes to own property in Jackson is why he’s frustrated when Viking is blamed for the city’s blight, which existed before he bid on unpaid taxes.

“How are we the problem if we’re willing to take a risk and invest $2 million in Hinds County a year?” Miller said.

Of course, when Miller acquires a property, he does not usually pay the next year’s taxes, so any property purchase from Viking would also likely come with a hefty tax bill.

If the city wants to hold tax sale investors more accountable for the condition of the properties they own, Mississippi’s tax sale laws need to be changed, according to Miller, Hammond and Sam Martin, a lobbyist who is helping them form a tax lien investor association.

“That gets you to the pickle that all of this has created,” Hammond said. “You have a city that wants certain things done but a law that disincentivizes the tax sale purchaser from doing anything.”

Hammond and his associates said they don’t know yet what the solution is, but one possible idea is to make it easier for the investor to clear title to his or her tax-forfeited properties.

A deteriorating home on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.

Original owners who’ve lost their homes through tax sales can often get their property back if they can hire an attorney and go to court, especially if they didn’t receive a warning they could lose their property.

The tax sale buyer will lose the money they’ve put into improving the property, Hammond said. That risk means Viking will not work on its properties without going through a court process called a title confirmation suit.

“Let’s say we go in there without confirming the title first and we fix it up and we clean it up,” Miller said. “What do you think is going to happen? That homeowner is going to have a renewed interest in that property.”

But some in government say these investors should be made to take more responsibility for their properties. Last year, the Legislature considered but did not pass a bill that would have required people who gain properties through the tax sale to file the tax deed within 90 days or else cede their interest to the state.

Chaney, from the Secretary of State’s office, said Viking’s defense that it hasn’t confirmed the titles to its properties is tantamount to “legalese for ‘I don’t want to clean it up.’ ‘We own it, but we don’t really own it.’ Well, trust me, they’ll sell it in a heartbeat.”

That’s if they can find a buyer. Most of the time, the properties that Miller’s companies come to own are as blighted as 2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive.

2300 over time:

2014

2019

2022

“This property right here is a prime example of what mostly matures to us,” Miller said. “People walk away from it because they don’t want to deal with it.”

Neither does Miller. But he said cleaning it up could be worth it to someone, if they can afford it.

“The neighbor could buy it for $2,500 if he wanted to tear it down and clean it up,” Miller said.

Blight on historic block

If someone wanted to buy 2300 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive, they might look through public records to determine who owns the home – a common process for people who dabble in tax-forfeited parcels called a “title search.”

That search would end at a piece of paper 435 pages into a thick, leather-bound book on the second floor of the Hinds County Chancery Clerk’s Office. This is the proof of ownership that Arthurine Wansley and her husband, Louis Wade Wansley, received when they bought the home in 1956, on a block known back then as Guynes Street.

With three bedrooms, a carport, and central air and heat, it’s likely the house was built just for them. The Lanier High School graduates had joined a special community, the first-of-its-kind in Mississippi: A subdivision built by Black entrepreneurs for Black middle class families.

At that time, the housing options for Black Jacksonians were subpar and relegated to undesirable parts of the city.

“That community, that stability, that landownership, that power would have been really important,” said Robby Luckett, director of Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center.

A teacher in Jackson Public Schools, Arthurine Wansley played bridge with Margaret Walker Alexander, the acclaimed writer after whom the street is now named. She helped run neighborhood Spade and Fork Garden club with Myrlie Evers, the wife of civil rights icon Medgar Evers.

Arthurine Wansley and her husband Louis Wade Wansley hold their grandnephew Michael Wade Wansley at their home on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive.

The families on the block were known for looking after each other’s kids and trading cucumbers and tomatoes they’d grown in their backyards. Wansley’s grandnephew, Michael Wade Wansley, grew up visiting 2300 for parties or holiday celebrations, when residents competed for the best Christmas decorations.

“We didn’t even think about it being a historic block when I was growing up,” he said. “We just knew that Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander lived on that block. George Harmon lived on that block. He owned Harmon’s Drug Store on Farish Street. So it was, I mean, everybody over there was either involved in politics or educated.”

But the tight-knit community ended on the corner of Ridgeway Street, where a working-class white neighborhood began, said Keena Graham, the superintendent of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument.

“You’re having a great time on this street, but you don’t go over too much, too far afield,” Graham said. “Two streets over, that’s dangerous.”

Much of that history is recounted in a 2013 application to include the Medgar Evers Historic District — which encompasses Margaret Walker Alexander Drive — on the National Register of Historic Places.

As an original home to the block, 2300 is covered by that designation. But that didn’t stop the home from falling into the tax sale loop.

“I knew it all of my life as a middle-class-type neighborhood,” said Frank Figgers, a member of Shady Grove M.B. Church just around the corner from 2300. “When that’s where your teachers lived, where your pharmacist lived, I just don’t think I’ll ever see it as blight.”

In search of a responsible party

Some family members of the original residents of Margaret Walker Alexander Drive still live in their homes. But the block today is mostly retirees like Davis, renter, and empty houses, surrounded by overgrown land, that are falling apart.

In neighborhoods like this, nonprofits, such one run by Jackson-area state Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr, have used the tax sale to buy homes and rehabilitate them.

“I always tell people it’s good to have a good attorney on hand to do those title searches for you,” Crudup said.

More often, though, the tax sale loop creates a cycle of frustration.

Lee Davis stands in his backyard on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. From his yard, the deteriorating condition of the neighboring blighted home is visible.

When private individuals can’t or won’t fix up a property, the government must step in. The state owns more than 1,800 tax-forfeited properties in Jackson, according to data from the secretary of state — plots that no one wanted to buy at the tax sale auction.

“We got it in even worse condition than it was when it was in a bad condition,” Chaney said.

Brunson feels similarly. He has a handful of code enforcement officers for the entire city, but some Jacksonians complain his team is nowhere to be found.

“They won’t cut the grass, but they’ll sell it,” Brunson said of tax sale investors. “There should be a law against that, taking these people’s money, saying, ‘Oh well, you didn’t do your title search, thank you for $3,000 down.’”

But if the city started fining tax sale investors for the blight, Miller said some of them may stop bidding.

“People are going to drop out of the system,” Miller said. “If nobody is there to bid on these liens, what’s going to happen to the $19 million deficiency every year – struck to the state?”

It doesn’t seem likely anyone from Wansley’s family will save the property. Michael Wade Wansley, the grandnephew, is retired and lives in Pennsylvania. He said he doesn’t think he has any relatives left in Jackson. He wondered why Davis and his neighbors let the home deteriorate.

“I would think if people were still living over there they wouldn’t have let it go down to that level of poverty,” he said.

Barbara Walker, a retired teacher who lives directly across from 2300, used to go half and half with another neighbor to pay someone to cut the grass.

“To me, it was worth the investment,” she said. “I didn’t want the place looking as bad as it’s looking.”

When her neighbor moved away, Walker couldn’t afford the landscaping on her own. That’s when Davis started calling the city, hoping they’d cut the grass.

Informed that Miller said he could buy the property, Davis seemed puzzled.

“Who, me?” he said.

Every now and then, Davis will ask his lawn guy to mow a patch of grass by Viking’s for-sale sign. But until the overgrowth is addressed, Davis won’t let his 6-year-old granddaughter play outside when she comes to visit. He’s killed too many snakes in his yard.

In November, the city council declared the home a public nuisance, the first step to tear it down. Jackson will have to hire a company to do the demolition, which requires attaching a lien, or a debt that must be repaid, on the property. Whoever buys it next will have to repay that lien.

On a recent Tuesday, Davis looked at the pink and yellow notices – orders condemning the home – that Brunson pinned inside the decaying carport. When he opened the carport closet, he realized the water heater had been stolen. The only items left were glass Coca-Cola bottles, silver tinsel and a Santa Hat.

Walker said she hopes 2300 can become a park once the house is demolished: “It’s already tearing itself down.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post They own the house. Why won’t they cut the grass? appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article presents a detailed examination of systemic issues related to tax-forfeited properties and blight in Jackson, Mississippi, with a focus on the human and community impact. The tone is sympathetic toward residents affected by neglect and highlights failures in local and state policies. While it reports on investors and government actions, the language and framing emphasize social justice concerns and the need for reform. This aligns with a center-left perspective that prioritizes community well-being, accountability, and government responsibility, without overt partisan rhetoric or ideological extremes.