By Kevin Williamson
The Jones County Chamber of Commerce sponsored a legislative breakfast at the Laurel Country Club on Thursday, April 25, and the menu included not only eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and the trimmings but also a hearty portion of south Mississippi politics. Rebekah Staples, a Jones County native and owner of Free State Strategies, was the moderator. She was recently named as one of the most influential leaders in the state by Mississippi Top 50.
The breakfast panel of District 34 State Senator Juan Barnett, Representative Donnie Scoggin (District 89) and Representative Gary Staples (District 88) gave the audience a recap of the 2019 legislative session and peered ahead to some issues they will likely tackle in the next legislative session. All three men are running for reelection, although Scoggin has no opponent this election cycle.
One issue the three legislators addressed immediately was the late-breaking news on Wednesday evening from the Mississippi Department of Education that a number of teaching and teaching assistant positions from across the state was not included in the pay raises passed by the Legislature. The MDE issued a statement that read in part as follows:
“The MDE calculated the number of positions based on the code in the Mississippi Student Information System (MSIS) that referenced MAEP-only funded teachers and teacher assistants. Upon further review, it was determined there were additional teachers who were eligible for the raise who were not coded in MSIS as MAEP-funded positions.
The MDE appreciates districts bringing this issue to our attention, and we will work swiftly with each district to verify the number of MAEP-funded teachers and teacher assistants. We will provide this information to lawmakers and work with them to obtain the additional funding for the pay raise.”
The Jones County delegation said they were surprised by the MDE report and, like the rest of the state’s senators and representatives, will collect more information and then seek a solution.
Rep. Staples, who along with his two colleagues supported the recent teacher pay raise, added that he believed that compensation for starting teachers needs to be elevated to mitigate the loss of “bountiful talent” early in the careers of educators, maybe even to a salary range that takes new teachers five to ten years to attain under the current pay structure.
Other topics addressed by the delegation were rural broadband access, county and state infrastructure needs, tourism, fixing broken agencies, and criminal justice reform. Below is a sampling of their comments as related to a few of those topics.
Broadband Bill
Rep. Scoggin: “I think it’s going to be a huge success. Each of the electric power companies gets to go in and do a feasibility study and see what it involves and see how much money it will cost them and if they will make a profit.
“Some companies say they are barely making a profit and are not interested; others are and have already started investigating this. I believe it’s going to make a huge impact on Jones County. I didn’t realize that some schools in Mississippi didn’t have internet access. Down the road some schools make look at internet teaching (mentions chemistry and physics as areas where online instructors could prove beneficial to some rural schools).
“One thing Realtors tell me is that when people come in and are looking to buy, they want to know if they will have internet access. From a realty point of view, homeowner point of view and from an education point of view, I think this is huge not only for Jones County but also for the state of Mississippi, because it’s going to be a huge economic and growth factor for us.”
Senator Barnett: “I saw some eyebrows being raised when Rep. Scoggin said some Mississippi schools did not have internet access. Jones County should not have that worry, because y’all have the latest and greatest there is. I know because I installed it,” he said to huge laughter from the audience. He also works as a digital technician for AT&T.
“The Laurel and Jones County school districts have always been about two years ahead of most other school districts for the technology you have in place to make sure the students, teachers and parents have access to what y’all do at school. I commend y’all for always looking ahead and making sure that your school districts have the technology as it comes available.”
Barnett also noted that rural broadband can provide “life saving measures,” such as when a doctor can read medical test reports while away from the hospital and provide instructions to his staff while en route to the hospital.
Oil and Gas (Specifically HB740)
Rep. Staples: “Three years ago the Senate sent us a bill that would sweep all special fund agencies into the general fund and among those was the Oil & Gas Board, which operated solely by fees from the oil companies they regulated. That was not taxpayer dollars; that was private industry dollars. It took three years to get HB 740 passed.
“I think it will provide the industry with more stability in a time where we need it in Jones County and the rest of the state. We’re always going to support our oil and gas industry and that’s what that bill did.”
Economic Development:
Rebekah Staples posed this question to the delegation to solicit their comments on economic development, specifically as it relates to infrastructure:
Rebekah: “In August of 2018 the Legislature was called into a special session and passed a series of infrastructure funding mechanisms. Democrats were generally wanting to roll back tax cuts (franchise tax cuts, income tax cuts and tax deductions for individuals), whereas Republicans were not wanting to roll back tax cuts, in general, and were not looking to raise the gas tax but were looking for other ways to dedicate new streams of funding for Mississippi. And so, talk about what the Legislature did, was it enough, and what impact does it have on Jones County, because there have been projects funded through that passage? Also, what’s next in term of infrastructure funding?”
Rep. Staples: “There was a lot that happened, and one thing I remember more than anything was that the cities and counties were going to get relief through the Use Tax. We put $50 million out of that Use Tax into an account for cities to receive from and $50 million for counties to receive from. Based on a unique formula, all the cities in the state would get 3% of that money, then the rest would be divided on population and sales tax diversification.
“All the counties would get 3% and theirs would be based on road miles and population,” he continued. “Jones County probably has more road miles than any other county in the state, and I think Beat 3 has more bad bridges than any other county in the state.
“Along with that bill we passed the lottery. Eighty million of those dollars go into roads and bridges (infrastructure). It (lottery) should come online in the fourth quarter of this year.
“The Use Tax will provide a lot of help to county and city budgets. Nine hundred thousand is coming to Jones County and $700,000 to Laurel. In this day and time with these cities and counties struggling, that’s a whole lot of money.”
Rep. Scoggin: “The money has been made available for the counties now (of the $50 million allocated for counties). Just off the top of my head, I think we brought back home to Jones County about $4 million between the special session and the regular session for roads and bridges.”
Representative Scoggin then explained that the money the delegation secured included funds for the Ellisville Tuckers Crossing Road bridge, a half million dollars for road construction and repaving in Ellisville, a bridge on Lower Myrick Road, and monies for the flood prone areas in Queensboro (in Laurel).
“One of the infrastructure issues is that because of all the bridges needing to be replaced, costs have gone up, simply because of supply and demand,” he stated. “A bridge that once cost $200,000 to repair is now costing $350,000 or $400,000. Because of that, it’s costing the counties a little more money to fix those bridges.
“Where it was costing us $300 to $400 to get a bridge inspected, it’s now costing us three to four thousand to get inspectors in. We’ve got to be able to get these bridges inspected, and if they’re done right, get them passed so that we can open them back up.”
Senator Barnett: “I’m glad that they were able to pass a bill in the special session that allows us to address many of our infrastructure needs. There is $650,000 going directly into Queensboro to help those residents when it floods. But it also helps to maintain roads because when the water begins to cross the roads, it causes road problems. That’s money the city will be able to use.
“There is another $100,000 that’s going to help with the road project on 5th Ave. In Jasper County I was able to help bring home about $4 million that will help with four bridges we have there. This bill has been extremely good for Jasper, Jones and Forrest counties.
“When you talk about $250 million allocated in the special session and you have 82 counties and all the municipalities competing for those dollars, and you get $4 million in Jasper plus $5 million of that money in Jones County, it says a lot about your delegation that we can bring home those kind of dollars. It was a good bill.”
Tourism
Rebekak Question: “In the 2019 session a bill passed that created a sustainability revenue source for tourism to promote individual towns and communities. With increased tourism to Jones County, what kind of impact will that have on your districts and what growth opportunities will that bring to Jones County?”
Rep. Scoggin: “Hometown has made a huge impact for Laurel and Jones County. It has brought a lot of people in from across the country. Downtown has grown tremendously; the Lauren Rogers Museum has benefited from this; we took a bus tour that evening (evening that the final episode of the most recent season of Hometown was shown downtown) of the houses that were renovated and to see how the neighborhoods and downtown has begun to grow. I think this is a huge positive impact. Other downtown areas across the state are beginning to crumble. We are one of few towns where downtown is beginning to grow.”
Senator Barnett: “When you think about tourism, you think about people coming to pay you to see what you have to offer; that’s free money to the state of Mississippi. I’m excited about people paying us to come visit our great state.”
Rebekah Staples then told the attendees that the Legislature had reenacted a $5 million economic development incentive for the film industry that allows for the production of more film and TV shows in the state. “I’m told there is a movie being filmed in Natchez right now as a result of that, so hopefully they will come to Jones County.”