This month, the people who run the state — Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Phillip Gunn — announced their intentions to “reform” the state’s tax structure as a means of a reviving a state economy that appears to be poised on the edge of the abyss.
I have already seen that movie — “O Brother, Where Art Thou.”
In a memorable scene, the 1920s-era governor of Mississippi, Pappy O’Daniel, is disturbed by what appears to be his struggling campaign against opponent Homer Stokes.
“We need a shot in the arm,” he says. “You hear me boys?”
“Well, he’s the reform candidate, Daddy,” observes Junior, the governor’s son. “A lot of people like that reform. Maybe we should get us some.”
“I’ll reform you, you soft-headed sumbitch. How we gonna run reform where we’re the damn incumbent?…Reform? Weepin’ Jesus on the cross…”
For the past five years, the Republicans have held control of all three branches of state government, including a supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature for the past year.
The results: After approving $760-million in tax cuts through 40 separate measures over those five years, the state finds itself in dire straits. Imagine that, right?
It took a $100-million raid of the state’s “rainy day” fund to balance the books for 2016 and, so far, revenue projections for 2017 suggest it may be even worse by the time the fiscal year ends in June.
Already, across-the-board cuts to state agencies, some as much as 10 percent, are in place.
If that weren’t bad enough, the state has been sued by the federal government to provide proper funding for the state’s foster care program (It will cost $22 million to achieve that, says attorney general Jim Hood). Just last month, Mississippi joined a handful of other states being sued by Justice Department for its failure to provide adequate mental health care under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Hood couldn’t put a price tag on what it will cost the state to meet those requirements, but he said Georgia, with a much better mental health system than Mississippi, has already spent $200 million to come into compliance.
Meanwhile, a $415 million tax cut approved by the Legislature in April, most of it directed toward big corporations, will start being phased in in 2018, even as the state’s roads and bridges continue to crumble (the state’s chamber of commerce says $375 million will be needed to adequately address the problem) and our educational system continues to founder.
You know it’s bad when the people who made the mess are themselves crying for reform.
Gov. Pappy O’Bryant and his “brain trust” have assembled 14 legislative panels — all of them cosmetically bi-partisan — to find and eliminate waste in state government.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with that, but I’m pretty sure that state agencies have taken those steps before they began laying off employees.
So, for the next four months or so, these panels will be looking under the sofa cushions for any loose change they can find.
Their mission, they say, is “to create tax policy that encourages long-term economic growth and job creation.”
That is code for slashing taxes, especially corporate taxes – Trickle Down Economics 101.
Our state doesn’t have a revenue problem: It has a spending problem, they say.
We’ll soon be the judge of that, and when our government fails to provide the essential services we rely on, then maybe we will see some real reform.
Until then, it’s only going to get worse, folks.
Weepin’ Jesus on the cross, indeed.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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