Each year, there are several studies designed to identify the level of corruption in each state. Generally, Mississippi ranks among what is determined as most corrupt. But some things are hard to reduce to data points and sometimes the statistics don’t paint an accurate picture.

Corruption statistics can be notoriously misleading. One of the main reasons is that governments are largely responsible for passing their own anti-corruption laws—and corrupt officials are less likely to do so.

As a result, states with lower levels of corruption often have a higher number of corruption convictions because they take corruption more seriously while states that are actually more corrupt have weak corruption laws that allow all manner of slimy behavior to pass without consequences.

According to one of these studies, Data Pandas, Mississippi ranked as the second most corrupt state (behind Louisiana) with 1.89 corruption convictions per 10,000 residents.

So, is that high prosecution rate a sign that the state is vigilant in prosecuting corruption? Or should we take those numbers at face value? Also, who is being prosecuted? Is it confined to low level county or city officials skimming off local funds or does vigorous prosecution reach into the dark corners of the most powerful and politically-connected people in our state?

There is perhaps no greater indictment of just how corrupt Mississippi is than the sordid tale of the theft of an estimated $77 million in federal dollars (perhaps more) designated to help the poorest people in the poorest state in the union.

Mississippi State auditor Shad White first revealed the theft from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds in 2020 and he’s been making political hay out of it ever since. White’s initial investigation only went so far and his conduct in the matter is not beyond suspicion. Instead of immediately turning over his findings to the U.S. Attorney’s office, he instead delivered it to the local district attorney. From what we know of court filings in numerous criminal and civil cases related to the scandal, some prominent people, including former Governor Phil Bryant, were strangely left out of the probe. That Bryant was White’s mentor, appointing the inexperienced White to auditor in 2018, is a bit curious.

Meanwhile, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has ignored the scandal altogether, which has a peculiar odor as well.

But the most obvious indicator of just how little curiosity our state leaders have in getting to the bottom of the worst public scandal in Mississippi history is that the first official hearing on TANF reform came on Tuesday, almost five years since the theft began, not before the Mississippi Legislature in Jackson, but almost 1,000 miles away in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Tuesday’s hearing, which was not focused solely on Mississippi, included testimony from two people from the state. Former NFL star Brett Favre, who is under investigation for accepting $1.1 million in TANF dollars for speeches he never made, soliciting $5 million in TANF funds to build a volleyball facility at his alma mater, Southern Mississippi, and securing TANF funds for a company he was partnering with, used his appearance to paint himself as an unwitting victim.

The other Mississippian to testify was Jarvis Dortch, a former state representative who is now the director of the Mississippi ACLU.

Dortch’s testimony focused on three main points.

First, state officials in charge of administering TANF funds took advantage of serious loopholes to deprive thousands of Mississippians of the assistance the program was founded to help.

Second, the Mississippi legislature has ignored the scandal and taken no steps to improve the program on behalf of poor Mississippians.

Third, that Mississippi seems determined to help as few poor Mississippians as possible by throwing up red tape, unnecessary eligibility requirements and accountability measures that make it virtually impossible for most poor Mississippians to have access to these funds.

Meanwhile, well-connected greedy people collected millions, no questions asked.

According to the latest data, 564,192 Mississippians live below the federal poverty level yet fewer than 200 adults are actually approved for TANF funds each year. Even then, those funds amount to next to nothing, a maximum of  $170 per month. The state rejects 92.1% of applications while providing those meager funds to 0.06% of impoverished families. The state is sitting on $145 million in federal TANF funds that are desperately needed for our poor citizens.

As bad as the theft was – money for volleyball courts, rent payments on a ranch, money to a fishy start-up company, scholarship money for children of middle-income students, rehab accommodations at a posh California recovery center and God only knows what other obscenities the investigation has yet to reveal, there are, in my mind, two even greater crimes.

First, that there are millions of dollars that could lift untold numbers of Mississippians out of poverty going unspent for no other reason than spite and prejudice.

And that the Mississippi legislature doesn’t give a damn.

Forget the data, in this single, awful situation Mississippi has proven itself the most ethically, morally, legislative corrupt state in the union.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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