If there was anything Gov. Tate Reeves wishes to communicate to Mississippians, it’s that “conservative leadership works.”
Mississippi’s 65th Governor gave his take on the last three years to about 100 attendees during the Lowndes County Republican Women luncheon Tuesday at Lion Hills Center.
Reeves said over the last three years his administration has honed in on bringing more jobs and investment here. He has also worked to keep the state “open for business” through the COVID-19 pandemic and worked to maintain certain cultural values on issues such as transgender procedures and athletics.
Reeves said he has brought in $6 billion in capital investment in 2022 alone from companies moving their business in Mississippi.
“We’ve had some pretty big economic development successes over the last three years,” Reeves said. “If you think about it, in the 10 years before I became governor, we averaged about $900 million a year in new capital investments in our state. In 2022, we had over $6 billion. That’s a billion with a B.”
In October, Reeves called a special session of the state legislature to vote on a $246 million incentive package for a $2.5 billion Aluminum Dynamics mill and a biocarbon facility in Lowndes County.
That project made history as the largest-ever capital investment in the state.
Reeves has also worked to bring other area businesses to Lowndes County by assisting in providing state funding to Altex Tube and Terberg-Taylor Americas, which both began building plants near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in 2022.
“You’ve got a great economic development team here. You got good leadership, but you also have a workforce that shows up to go to work,” he said. “The Golden Triangle has done phenomenally well with new capital investment in our state, and we have been proud to play a role in supporting that effort.”
Reeves said because of some of those efforts to increase business, the state saw its lowest recorded unemployment rate of 3.1% in May.
Since then, it has crept back up to 4%, according to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. The national average as of July is 3.5%.
Transgender issues, Medicaid expansion
During his speech, Reeves noted he signed legislation to keep transgender athletes from competing on opposite-sex competitions and banning sex-change operations for minors, which he sees as keeping the state’s cultural values intact.
“We are maintaining Mississippi’s values and Mississippi’s way of life,” Reeves said. “You see, there’s been a national movement to change the way people look at some things. What we’ve said in Mississippi is that we’re going to let boys play boys’ sports, and we’re going to let girls play girls’ sports. We also made it illegal for experimental sex changes procedures on our Mississippi’s kids.”
Reeves also said he has been working closely to improve the medical care system in the state and is working with hospital administrators to find more funding for medical services. He will not support an expansion of Medicaid because he believes insurance companies will suffer as a result.
“In my opinion it would come from individuals who currently have private insurance,” Reeves told The Dispatch. “Those individuals that currently have private insurance that would be moved to the Medicaid rolls, (and) the reimbursement rates for providers would actually be less than what they currently are. I don’t see it as the financial panacea that some individuals do, and I don’t think adding 300,000 more people to welfare rolls is a good approach.”
According to the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, Medicaid expansion would allow 300,000 additional low income adults making less than $20,120 per year to have health insurance through state-run Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act allows the federal government to cover up to 90% of the cost to expand Medicaid in Mississippi.
After the meeting, Reeves also addressed the state’s massive civil lawsuit that began in 2019 to try and clawback millions in misspent welfare funds.
In 2022, Reeves fired the welfare scandal attorney Brad Pigott after he attempted to bring the University of Southern Mississippi into the lawsuit following $5 million funneled to the university for a volleyball stadium.
Reeves said the lawsuit is still underway and the state is going after the “right people.”
“The challenges with the Department of Human Services occurred before I became governor,” Reeves said. “We’ve worked diligently to make sure that we found the truth when it came to that particular case. We are currently suing a large number of those individuals to recover the funds that are owed back to the state of Mississippi and will continue to lead that effort.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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