Commissioner Chaney deserves credit

Commissioner Mike Chaney and the members of the health insurance exchange advisory board deserve credit for their work in establishing an online insurance marketplace for Mississippi families.  This exchange will serve an important function in helping Mississippians obtain insurance coverage where such coverage is not available through an employer, Medicare or Medicaid.
 

While Commissioner Chaney and I have not always seen eye to eye on the specific terms of an exchange, we agree that a plan drafted by Mississippians and tailored to the specific healthcare needs of Mississippians is far better than a one-size-fits-all federal plan.

I applaud the Commissioner for foresight and leadership in moving forward with a healthcare exchange and believe all Mississippians, Democrat and Republican alike, should work together to help create the best plan for our state. 

Respectfully,

Brandon Jones
Executive Director, Mississippi Democratic Trust

"Parent Trigger Law" an important part of education reform

In their push for a more expansive charter school law in Mississippi, charter proponents have attempted to repeal our existing charter school law.  Their explanation is that the law is too weak.  In fact, while it is not a comprehensive charter law, the Mississippi law is part of a nationwide movement to give parents of kids in failing schools an opportunity to take over control of their local schools and to give their kids a chance at educational success.

This provision was adopted in the 2010 legislative session by an overwhelming vote of members of both political parties and signed by Governor Barbour.  Known nationally as a “parent trigger law,” Mississippi’s law allows parents of children in chronically underperforming schools to take over governance of the school.  By a vote of parents of more than 50% of the kids in the school, the parents can elect a “local management board” for their school, remove some or all of the school’s teachers and administrators, develop their own curriculum and schedules and, in essence, convert the school to a charter school.  The school would remain a public school and would receive the same local, state and federal support it received before the conversion but would no longer be governed by the local school board.  Under federal law, the provisions of the “No Child Left Behind Act” would continue to apply, but administration of the school would be left up to the school’s duly elected local management board.  Day to day operations could be contracted out to a charter school operator such as KIPP, or the board could hire its own personnel.  The law applies to schools that are in the lowest three categories of performance for three consecutive years, and there is no limit on the number of schools that can convert.  The three year measurement period has now passed, so the current 2012-2013 school year is the first year that the conversion will be available.

Based on the most recent available data, dozens of Mississippi schools will be eligible to be converted to charter schools under the parent trigger law. Already, a number of parent groups have contacted the State Department of Education to inquire about the process.  Unfortunately, the uncertainty caused by the proposed repeal legislation has caused these groups and the State Department to slow down the application process.

Mississippi was the second state in the country to adopt a parent trigger law. Now, as of June 2012, more than 20 states have considered parent trigger legislation, and seven of them have enacted some version of the law.  Among the states with new parent trigger laws are Louisiana, Texas, Indiana and Ohio, all with Republican governors.  Obviously, we were at the forefront of this innovative wave of reform. 

I believe the Mississippi will adopt a new charter school law, and I support reasonable charter legislation. But the existing parent trigger law will not conflict with that legislation and should be preserved.  There is no reason to repeal this progressive legislation while other states across the country are adopting similar provisions.

Cecil Brown

House of Representatives
District 66
Jackson

Mississippi faces opportunity to improve healthcare model

Mississippi faces opportunity to improve healthcare model

July 5, 2012

Jackson, MS- Last year in Mississippi, uncompensated care, those costs incurred in treating uninsured patients, totaled $525.5 million.  Of that amount, $315 million was not covered by any federal reimbursement program and was, instead, passed on to Mississippi taxpayers.

House Democratic Caucus Leader Bobby Moak (D – Bogue Chitto) said, “Mississippi hospitals and taxpayers make up for uncompensated care through higher taxes and higher costs for healthcare.”

Under the Affordable Care Act, deemed constitutional by the United States Supreme Court last week, many states will take advantage of Medicaid options that drastically reduce the amount lost each year to uncompensated care.  According to estimates provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 330,000 Mississippians will be newly eligible for Medicaid under the plan. 

“If those thousands of Mississippians who are currently using our emergency rooms for ‘doctors visits’ are able to access health insurance, it will drive down the amount Mississippi spends on uncompensated care,” said Moak.

Under the plan, Mississippi would receive $1.6137 billion per year for three years from the federal government to cover the cost of new healthcare recipients. 

Brandon Jones, Executive Director of the Mississippi Democratic Trust, said, “This is a total of $4.8411 billion dollars in new healthcare funding that will not require tax increases at the local level or result in higher hospital bills for insured Mississippians.”

In the fourth year of the program, Mississippi would receive $6.29343 billion and would only be required to provide $161.37 million match. 

Moak said, “Mississippi would pay no matching costs for three years and the matching costs in the fourth year would only represent a fraction of what we already pay annually for uncompensated care.”

Jones added, “Refusing healthcare funding under these circumstances would be a classic example of cutting off our nose to spite our face.”

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PRESS NOTES:

1.  To learn more about the Kaiser Family Foundation and to read the Foundation’s reports on the impact of the ACA on state Medicaid programs, visit www.kff.org.

2.  Using the latest U. S. data, a Mississippi family of four with an income of $30,656.50 would be eligible for the program.  Each additional person in the household would add $3,960 to that base amount.

3.  Each year, Mississippi spends approximately $4,890 in healthcare costs per Medicaid recipient.

Democratic Trust and Young Democrats call for extension of student loan interest rates

(via Cottonmouth blog) In a letter issued earlier this month, Brandon Jones, Executive Director of the Mississippi Democratic Trust, and Tyrone Hendrix, President of the Young Democrats of Mississippi, have called on Congress to extend the 3.4% interest rate on federal college student loans. This rate is set to double to 6.8% if Congress doesn't take action this month. The call to action was picked up by the Mississippi Press and other news outlets across the state.  The letter may be read in its entirety here. 

In an e-mail to Trust supporters, Jones also announced a Fall college campus tour intended to energize college Dems.

Rep. Cecil Brown: Mississippi students deserve better education funding

April 2, 2012

As we approach the final weeks of the legislative session, House and Senate budget chairmen have begun to allocate funds among the various needs.  The largest budget item is spending for K-12 public education. This budget, which was more than $2 billion last year, is funded through the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) formula.  MAEP was adopted by the legislature in 1997 to insure that every school district has the resources to provide every student with the opportunity to achieve an “adequate” education. In addition, the formula is designed to provide a fair distribution of state funding among property rich and property poor districts. As a result of the declining revenues, for the last several years this budget has been funded between $230million and $250 million per year below what MAEP requires.

To make up for the cuts in state funding, in some districts local ad valorem taxes were increased.  However, in districts with low property tax valuations, local tax increases could not make up for the cuts from the state. As a result, last year alone more than 2,000 school employees lost their jobs, including 800 teachers. In addition, many districts furloughed staff, effectively cutting their pay by 3%.

After initially talking about additional  cuts to the education budget, Senate and House Republicans and the Governor are currently proposing to “level fund” next year’s MAEP budget.   What they do not say is that this “level funding” is at a level that is still $250 million short of full funding.   House and Senate Democrats have proposed a different plan, a gradual increase for MAEP with a goal of returning to full funding when revenues allow it. 

Democrats do not argue for immediate full funding of MAEP. The state cannot afford to do that.  But continuing to underfund the MAEP formula will result in additional layoffs of instructional personnel, fewer opportunities for advanced placement and other advanced courses, reductions in extra-curricular activities and continued increased local property taxes. In addition, because the MAEP formula is designed to help the poorer districts achieve equitable funding, any shortfalls in funding have a negatively disproportionate effect on those districts with the greatest needs.

Just two weeks ago, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee voted to increase the estimate of available tax revenues by $100 million this year and an additional $125 million next year.  Allocating $25-$50 million of these funds to the MAEP budget this year is a logical step in moving back toward full funding.  The money will be of immense help to our local schools and can easily be absorbed by the recently increased revenue projection.

Economic experts agree that the key to increasing both personal wealth and the economy in general is increasing workers’ levels of education.  The job market continues to demand higher skill levels, and those skills must be taught.  We should demand that our schools be efficient, but we must also realize that we cannot continue to fund our public schools $250 million below an “adequate” level and expect better than adequate results.

Cecil Brown

House of Representatives
District 66
Jackson, MS
601-362-8383 (h)
601-709-4393 (o)

Senate Democrats oppose "spoils system" bill

March 22, 2012

No “Spoils System” in Mississippi

On March 15, the State Senate passed a bill to return Mississippi to the “spoils system,” where political officeholders can give government jobs to friends as political favors and to entrench themselves in power.  These taxpayer jobs are handed out based on WHO a person knows, not WHAT he or she knows.  As Democratic members of the Senate, we oppose this proposal and want to tell you why.

Mississippi fought battles against the spoils system thirty years ago.  The State Supreme Court ruled that the state had no justifiable system to guard against discrimination claims and salary abuses.  Following scandals under Gov. Cliff Finch, the Legislature created the State Personnel Board to ensure that “state service” government jobs were based on merit and objective criteria.  Among its other duties, the Board does three things: sets basic qualifications for certain jobs, sets consistent salary ranges to prevent favoritism, and ensures that a person cannot be hired or fired for political reasons (such as involvement in political campaigns).

Senate Bill No. 2380 removes all state employees from policies set by the Personnel Board.  This bill is bad policy and ought to be rejected.  Mississippi and 47 other states have basic civil service protections to keep politics out of who is hired and fired in state government.  This bill would allow an agency head to fire an employee for no reason and to hire cronies without any competitive process.

Today, there are approximately 36,500 state jobs (both filled and vacant) from mental health workers to game wardens to accountants.  About 28,500 are state service positions and 8,000 are non-state service positions.  Non-state service positions (sometimes called “will and pleasure” jobs) are filled by appointment when new leaders are elected or appointed.  They are not subject to most Personnel Board rules.  For example, a new Governor gets to name his staff and leaders at many state agencies.  This is appropriate so that people elected to office can implement their agenda.  State service employees, usually at the lower end of the pay scale, provide continuity under different administrations.

In this way, government is fundamentally different from business: we have regular elections and need to retain qualified professional staff.  We shouldn’t throw everyone out every four years.

This practice is basic to modern government.  The bipartisan Mississippi legislative PEER committee wrote in 2008:  “All executive branch employees, except agency directors and employees who work under the direct confidential control of agency directors, should be subject to the authority of the State Personnel Board.”

The Personnel Board is composed of five members appointed by the Governor.  Today, all five members of the board were appointed by former Gov. Haley Barbour.  They set the rules.  According to PEER, the Board and former Executive Director Lynn Fitch (now State Treasurer) have “implemented changes … to make the agency less bureaucratic and more service-oriented.”  If there the current rules are cumbersome “red tape” then Gov. Barbour’s appointees ought to change them.

Since 2010, the Personnel Board has worked with agency heads to cut almost 600 positions.  The average time it took to approve these cuts?  Twelve days.  This is proof that current Personnel Board policies can work efficiently to reduce the size of government when needed.

One of the primary reasons for establishing the Personnel Board was get control of salaries. Without oversight, we will see outrageous salaries handed out to political friends and campaign workers.  In addition, basic qualification standards (such as academic credentials, experience) to hold any job can be easily circumvented.

Forty-eight states have basic civil protections for a reason.  Mississippi does not need to return to the days of political cronyism to fill the public payroll.  We ought to protect and improve the Personnel Board, not abolish it.

SIGNED:

Senator Bill Stone – District 2

Senator Hob Bryan – District 7
Senator Russell Jolly – District 8
Senator Steve Hale – District 10
Senator Robert Jackson – District 11
Senator Derrick Simmons – District 12
Senator Bennie Turner – District 16
Senator Kenny Wayne Jones – District 21
Senator David Jordan – District 24
Senator John Horhn – District 26
Senator Hillman Frazier – District 27
Senator David Blount – District 29
Senator Sampson Jackson – District 32
Senator Albert Butler – District 36
Senator Kelvin Butler – District 38
Senator Deborah Dawkins – District 48

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The Mississippi Democratic Trust seeks to help elect Democratic candidates who will provide sensible and responsible leadership for Mississippi. The Trust supports effective policies to address legitimate economic, education, healthcare, and public safety issues in our State. 

Democrats oppose cuts to education

Democrats oppose cuts to education

Mississippi Democratic Trust Press

Contact:          Brandon Jones, (228) 326-7649, director@msdemocratictrust.com

March 16, 2012

Jackson, MS – With the passing of another general bill deadline in the Mississippi legislature, Democrats in the House and Senate are returning their attention to the state budget and are again vowing to oppose the Republican plan to cut education by more than $100 million below last year’s appropriations.

Despite years of budget cuts to education, the Republican budget proposed by Governor Phil Bryant on January 31, 2012 would cut elementary education by nearly $73 million, community colleges by over $12 million, and Mississippi’s Institutions of Higher Learning by over $18 million.

"With the improving economy and improving tax collections, we have enough money to at least maintain last year's level of education funding," said Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory.  "It's hard to believe that Gov. Bryant would propose even deeper cuts to education when they simply aren't necessary.  I don't remember the Republicans promising to cut education during the campaign."

Even at last year’s level of appropriations, the state is short-changing public schools by $200 million, and they are trying to get by with hundreds of fewer teachers than before.

Rep. Cecil Brown (D-Jackson) said, “At a time when we should be preparing Mississippi students for success in an increasingly competitive job market, Republicans are proposing that we cut education by more than $100 million.  This proposal is out of touch with our current needs.” 

  

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The Mississippi Democratic Trust seeks to help elect Democratic candidates who will provide sensible and responsible leadership for Mississippi. The Trust supports effective policies to address legitimate economic, education, healthcare, and public safety issues in our State.