Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann gave a 45-minute talk to the Stennis Institute Capitol Press Forum at Hal & Mal’s in downtown Jackson.
He started off on an extremely positive note saying, “First of all, as y’all know well, we’ve had four of the best years in the history of Mississippi, except for the Covid experience that I experienced and all of you experienced.”
Recalling the progress of the last four years, Hoseman pointed to two teacher pay raises, one $1,000 and the next $5,000. “We devoted about two and a half billion to roads and bridges. We put in a tax cut of about 500 million dollars . . . We cut the state’s debt about 500 million dollars, twelver percent of the state’s debt. And we’re going to pay off another four hundred million this year. We haven’t borrowed any money in two years. We’re not going to borrow any money this year. You can compare that to California which is 68 billion short on their budget. We’ve got over a billion dollars in the bank. So we are managing the way we’re going to manage the next four years.”
Hosemann continued, “We are managing the way we’re going to manage the next four years: conservative, businesslike manner, caring about the people who live here and ensuring we keep our culture.”
Here are some highlights:
— Hosemann is very concerned about Mississippi’s labor participation rate which at 54 percent is about nine percent below the national average. He feels that if that rate drops another four percent there will be more people taking money than working which “is not going to make it for our state or the nation.” In addition, people who have jobs have a more positive attitude, are healthier, buy houses and get involved in their community. “Working is a good thing.” Hosemann said having career coaches in schools has been a great thing and will be expanded.
— Hosemann supports “last dollar tuition at community colleges” .The program, which already is offered in some other states, requires people entering community college to apply for any available grants and scholarships. The amount of the tuition not paid for by the grants and scholarships is then paid for by the state. Hoseman thinks this will improve Mississippi’ labor participation rate. “When they did this in Tennessee they got 40 percent greater enrollment. That’s how we beat back this decline in our labor participation rate.”
— “We effectively are fully employed with 2.6 to 3 percent unemployment. Anybody in Mississippi that wants a job can get a job . . . The governor is just announcing these new aluminum mills and all this other stuff that’s coming to Mississippi. Where are they getting their employees? We’re basically plagiarizing each other. We’re taking jobs from you (pointing to one side of the room) and putting them with you (pointing to the other side of the room.) Why are we doing that? We’re just shuffling the deck. Underlying small businesses in Mississippi, which employ half the people here are losing employees. Until we expand the pool (labor participation rate) we’re not going to be successful. So this labor participation rate is a guiding principle for me.”
— “We have a super majority.Members of the Republican Party control both the House and the Senate. That in itself allows for the legislation to pass but it doesn’t allow for us to have that feeling that we’re all going forward together. And we all need to go forward together. It’s not just a Republican thing, this labor participation rate, it’s a Mississippi thing.”
— Regarding health care reform: “We passed in the legislature this year that community hospitals could merge together. You’re seeing the start of that in Laurel, Covington, Magee. They’re getting together under a commonality of management.” Hosemann indicated that Medicaid expansion (by some other name) is on the table now that the House has a new speaker.
— Regarding mental health: “We are facing significant mental health issues in this state. When I’m in these schools out here talking to teachers of the third and fourth grade, they’re talking about kids who are assaulting them. Physically! That issue didn’t come with that child. It came from the home. We have to make sure the needs of these children are met by the state in their public education.”
— Regarding school choice, Hosemann said he didn’t think private schools wanted the “strings attached” with vouchers. However, he is committed to not forcing children to be trapped in “F: rated school districts.
