GOP Sen. Billy Hudson breaks ranks, supports Medicaid expansion.

State Sen. Billy Hudson of Hattiesburg says he supports Medicaid expansion, making him the only state Republican to publicly buck Gov. Phil Bryant and the GOP legislative leadership on the issue.

But another Republican lawmaker from Hattiesburg says the issue “is not going away” and Medicaid expansion will have to be dealt with.

“I’m not leaning towards it — I’m going to vote for (expansion) if I have an opportunity to,” Hudson said Friday, after making similar comments to the Forrest County Board of Supervisors and the Hattiesburg American newspaper on Thursday.

Hudson said the Hattiesburg area has a vital medical industry that employs about 6,000 people, including Forrest General, one of the largest county-owned hospitals in the country. He said Mississippi refusing to accept federally funded expansion of Medicaid per the Affordable Care Act could result in the loss of uncompensated care reimbursement that would threaten the livelihood of state hospitals such as Forrest General.

Plus, he said, providing health care to about 300,000 of the state’s “working poor” who have no insurance coverage is the right thing to do.

“This is for people making in the $20,000 to $25,000 range, with a wife and kids, who can’t afford to buy insurance,” Hudson said. “This is a big thing for the county and the city of Hattiesburg, and that’s who I represent.”

But Bryant and other opponents of Medicaid expansion say the state’s share of expanding the already costly program will break the budget, resulting in tax increases or cuts to other programs. And Bryant says he doesn’t trust the federal government to provide all the billions of dollars in funding it promises for the expansion.

“I very seldom go against Gov. Bryant,” Hudson said. “But on this case, I respectfully disagree with him … 95 percent of the time I vote Republican, but I’ve got to vote my conscience and got to be able to look at myself in the mirror when I shave in the morning. I’ve given this a lot of thought and a lot of prayer.”

Hudson said he hopes Bryant calls lawmakers back in special session to end the current Medicaid standoff and hopes expansion of the program per the federal Affordable Care Act also comes up for a vote. If it does, Hudson said he suspects “there would be enough (Republicans) cross the line to pass it.”

“I don’t know that for sure, but I do think that,” Hudson said.

Republican State Rep. Toby Barker, also from Hattiesburg, on Friday said: “I think there should be a debate on Medicaid expansion. However, I do not think we should put the current program in jeopardy to force that debate at this moment.

“Eventually, we are going to have to deal with the expansion issue, up or down,” Barker said. “It’s not going away. For those of us with hospitals in our districts, this is a really important decision. The best things both sides can do right now is agree on a framework and a timeline in which to have that discussion, whether it’s now or seven months from now. No one wins if we incite fear and panic among the 600,000 enrollees and providers we have now.”

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Wicker: Obamacare Medicaid Expansion ‘Unsustainable’

U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) has joined an effort to prevent the federal government from committing excessive taxpayer money to expand state Medicaid programs by co-sponsoring the “Preventing an Unrealistic Future Medicaid Augmentation Plan (FMAP) Act.”

The bill cosponsored by Wicker, S. 963, allows states to expand their Medicaid program but repeals the provision in the “Affordable Care Act” obligating already scarce federal taxpayer dollars from being used for the expansion.

“For far too long, Washington has overpromised and underperformed,” Wicker said. “Our nation’s debt is nearing $17 trillion, and we continue to borrow more than 40 cents for every dollar we spend. Although I am committed to repealing Obamacare in its entirety, this bill focuses on the fact that the federal government simply does not have the resources to fulfill the promises contained in the health-care law.”

“Many Mississippians depend on Medicaid for their medical care. Unfortunately, the expansion of the program under Obamacare is unsustainable and could ultimately lead to the program’s demise. Throwing money at a broken system does nothing to fix the real problems facing Medicaid recipients. Congress should take steps to provide real reform of Medicaid for people who rely on it for their care.”

“This legislation would provide a more realistic rate at which the federal government could fund Medicaid expansion in participating states, while providing an accurate understanding of the federal government’s true ability to meet or break promises in Obamacare. The irresponsible spending in Washington must stop, and it is time for a national conversation about our priorities and actual ability to fund entitlement programs.”

The bill is sponsored by Senators Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

Wicker Press Release

How Mississippi Became Beer-Friendly

Oxford’s inaugural beer festival is a direct indication of the alcohol reformation taking place in Mississippi. Most of the beers provided at the festival this year were illegal in the state less than a year ago. The state had and still has some strict and odd regulations when it comes to alcohol. Yet, since being elected into office in 2011, Gov. Phil Bryant has signed two Senate bills that have dramatically loosened regulations. This legislation has earned Bryant the nickname “Budweiser Bryant” from the grateful Mississippi beer enthusiasts.

The credit does not lay solely with Bryant, though. A majority of the change in state regulation is due to the advocacy promoted by the grassroots, nonprofit organization Raise Your Pints. Formed In Jackson in 2007, this organization focused on bringing the highest quality beers in the world to Mississippi. In order to accomplish its mission, two decisive bills needed to be passed.

The first bill was Senate Bill 2878, a bill that would increase the amount of alcohol in beer so that it may contain up to 8 percent by weight. This bill was passed and became effective July 1, 2012. It allowed beer drinkers in Mississippi to access a much greater array of beers, like craft beers and high-gravity beers. Craft beers are beers that are distributed by small, independent breweries, while high-gravity beers are beers that contain a high percentage of alcohol. According to beeradvocate.com, the 5 percent alcohol by weight cap eliminated 80 percent of the top-rated beers in the world and about 33 percent of the world’s beer styles, like barley wine, doppelbock, imperial stout and many more. Before its passing in July, Mississippi was the only state to have a ban on high-gravity beer.

The second bill the Raise Your Pints collective sought to pass was S.B. 2183, which would legalize the act of home brewing. The bill was passed on March 18, 2013, though the illegality of home brewing in the state was not really preventing Mississippians from enjoying the hobby. The entire issue was more of a gray area of legal interpretation. This law change resulted in clarifying the legislation, to the delight of home brewers. The passage of S.B. 2183 left no question that home brewing is a legal hobby in Mississippi. Mississippi was the second to last state to legalize this act officially, leaving Alabama as the only state that has yet to do so.

Raise Your Pints President Craig Hendry said that the passage of S.B. 2878 was more difficult to accomplish than that of the homebrewing bill

“It was our top priority and we spent a lot more time educating and promoting it. Our efforts with that bill also made it easier to follow it with the home brew bill the next year.”

The hard work of accomplishing that task paid off for Hendry and beer enthusiasts in the state.

“After that law passed, we have seen a big influx of new beers and new breweries distributing to Mississippi,” Hendry said. “Also, less than 12 months later, we are on the verge of having five breweries open in Mississippi, compared to only one a year ago. So, the results are there for everyone to see.”

via How Mississippi Became Beer-Friendly – The Daily Mississippian – The Daily Mississippian.

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Dept. of Ed. plays more shenanigans with school rankings to implement Common Core.

The ranking Mississippi schools and districts receive this fall could stick for three years.

That’s because the state is switching to new more in-depth objectives for its classrooms to greater emphasize critical-thinking skills. By freezing its school rankings, the Mississippi Department of Education hopes schools can better prepare for those Common Core State Standards.

“We want to encourage the districts to move forward with full implementation of the Common Core, but our current assessment and the Common Core are not aligned,” said Paula Vanderford, education bureau manager for accreditation and accountability at the MDE.

Many schools have tried to begin teaching the new standards, which will be tested for the first time during the 2014-15 school year. However, they’ve also been accountable for state tests on Mississippi’s current frameworks, meaning they’ve had to juggle two different sets of standards.

Results on those state tests are used to determine a school’s and a district’s letter grade.

“Districts have a fear of moving into full implementation of Common Core because the assessments will be used in the accountability system,” Vanderford said. “We thought if we were able to not assign a performance classification over the next couple of years, that would release some of that fear, and districts would move toward full implementation of Common Core.”

Students still will take state tests under the old standards next school year and their test scores will be released to the public. But those results will have no impact on schools’ and districts’ letter-grade rankings, unless they improve.

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Rep. Bobby Moak on Medicaid expansion: “All Democrats want is a vote.”

Over 600,000 Mississippians on Medicaid are at risk of losing their health benefits if the

legislature does not reauthorize Medicaid by July 1st.

House Democratic leader Bobby Moak says Governor Bryant is threatening there will be no special called session to vote on Medicaid reauthorization or expansion. Moak says the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington confirms that federal health funds will be cut to states that don’t expand Medicaid.

“For the Governor to think the law of the land will not be enforced is a fallacy,” Moak says. “All Democrats want is a vote.”

Rep. Bobby Moak says, “Lets have a vote on expansion. Allow us the opportunity to express our vote to protect our hospitals throughout this state. Now, they like to say look you Democrats don’t have enough votes to pass the expansion measure. Well, to that I say ‘tell me what the vote number is.’ Look into your crystal ball because I don’t know what it is. Put it out there on the floor, lets have a vote, and if we lose we’ll vote to reauthorize Medicaid.”

Moak says he hopes Governor Bryant will step back from the issue, call a special session, and allow Medicaid expansion to be properly vetted.

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• Plunkett: DSH payments will never be cut. Dems should vote to reauthorize Medicaid now. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Bryant Says He Could Run Medicaid (wtok.com)
• Race-based study group attempts to sway states on Medicaid expansion with polling data. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)

Canton Democrat calls elderly woman “baboon’s ass” during vote counting, attempts to steal ballot boxes.

Editors Note: Yes, we only usually post stories with a statewide focus or appeal. But, I felt this one just had to be shared.

A member of the Canton Democratic Municipal Executive Committee was arrested late Tuesday night in the Madison County courthouse when a disagreement about vote counting led to an altercation.

Witnesses told Madison County deputies that 41-year-old Kimberly Readus was involved in an altercation with an elderly woman, when Readus and other committee members attempted to leave the courthouse with unsealed ballot boxes.

Bystanders added that Readus and the other committee members were attempting to leave the courthouse before completing the vote count.

Readus reportedly called the woman a “baboon’s ass” during the altercation. She was subsequently charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and providing false information to law enforcement.

via WLBT.

Chairman on DMR: ‘Nobody really knows how much money the agency really has’

The Department of Marine Resources has $117,250 in its budget for the rest of the fiscal year, according to a report by its director of administrative services Tuesday at the Commission on Marine Resources meeting.

It took Tom Doster less than a minute to deliver that economic news.

CMR Chairman Vernon Asper obviously wanted to hear more about the budget.

“As a member of the public, I’m sure there are a lot of people who have a lot of questions about this,” Asper said. “I want to make just a few comments. First of all, the numbers Tom is showing are not the total funding to the agency. The total funding to the agency would include federal grants as well as state funds. The other thing is we’re undergoing an audit at this time. We’re halfway through it.

“We hope by next month we are going to have a more complete report on exactly how much money the agency really has, where it is, how it’s been used how it’s been allocated — where we stand financially.”

Asper promised the public would get a more detailed picture in the near future.

Until then, he said, “nobody really knows how much money the agency really has.”

Read More

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May 22–On this day in Mississippi history . . .

in 2012 Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 211, the Sunshine Act.

“Transparency in government is critical to its integrity,” Bryant said after signing the bill into law. “I have long supported and believed in the need for Mississippi to more clearly define its relationships with outside counsel. Our goal with the Sunshine Act is to make these relationships more open and transparent, and House Bill 211 is a strong example of government being held accountable.”

The bill set new guidelines for the hiring of outside counsel by state agencies and for the hiring of outside counsel on a contingency fee basis.

Under the legislation, state agencies can retain outside counsel in cases where the attorney general declines to represent them or in cases where a state agency feels the attorney general cannot adequately represent its legal interests because of a significant disagreement over legal strategy.

The bill also defines when an outside attorney may be hired on a contingency fee basis.

Before making such an agreement, the attorney general or state official retaining the counsel must provide a written determination that the fee to be paid is both cost-effective and in the public interest.

Other provisions included in the bill:

• Requires outside counsel to keep detailed time records
• Places limitations on percentage of a recovery that can be paid as a contingency fee. It also provides that “[a] contingency fee shall not be based on penalties or civil fines awarded or any amounts attributable to penalties or civil fines”
• Fees paid to outside counsel “shall not exceed recognized bar rates for similar services”
• Fee limitations can be waived by majority vote of the Outside Counsel Oversight Commission, which is comprised of the governor, the lieutenant governor and the secretary of state
• Requires the attorney general to give an agency seven days’ notice before taking any legal action on the agency’s behalf, unless delay would cause the state “irreparable injury”

Race-based study group attempts to sway states on Medicaid expansion with polling data.

Editors Note: The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, founded in 1970, is a non-profit institution that conducts research on political, economic, and social policy issues of concern to African Americans.

A poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, released Tuesday, says a majority of people — 62 percent — across five Southern states including Mississippi support Medicaid expansion as called for in the Affordable Care Act, despite opposition from Southern states’ governors to expansion.

In the poll, support for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi was lower than that in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina, pollsters said, but still at 59 percent.

“I hope the leaders of these states will hear the will of the people,” Ralph B. Everett, president of the Joint Center, said during a teleconference from Washington on Tuesday. The center is a Washington-based public policy organization that deals primarily with minority issues.

Mississippi PEP’s Conservative State of the State survey results from January of 2013 shows conservative Mississippians reject Medicaid expansion in large numbers.

Bryant spokesman Mick Bullock said, “Last year, Mississippi spent more than $1.4 billion in state dollars on the existing Medicaid program — more than one quarter of our total state support budget. I’m sure the survey results would have been different had taxpayers been asked if they wanted to foot the bill for a drastic increase to this already enormous cost. Mississippi cannot afford it, and as Gov. Bryant has said many times, any expansion of Medicaid would result in tax increases for Mississippians or cuts to critical spending in areas like education, public safety and economic development.”

The poll showed a large difference in support between races — with African American support at 85 percent to 53 percent for whites — economic classes and political parties. Only 38 percent of Republicans supported expansion, compared to 87 percent of Democrats.

Recently, a poll sponsored by the Mississippi Republican Party, requested by Bryant, showed 76 percent of registered Republicans opposed expansion. Some questioned the validity of that poll, as well, noting the chief Medicaid expansion question included the term “Obamacare” and that 13 percent were unsure.

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2013 Boys State to begin May 26 at MSU.

Gov. Phil Bryant and Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker lead a list of speakers for the American Legion’s Boys State on the campus of Mississippi State University this month.

Bryant and Wicker are scheduled to speak on May 29, the fourth day of the annual event that teaches rising seniors about state and local government and the electoral process.

Boys State will meet May 26-June 1 on the Starkville campus.

Other speakers during the week are Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman; U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss.; State Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg; Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith; State Treasurer Lynn Fitch; U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss.; Attorney General Jim Hood; Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann; State Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg; and Lt. John Poulos of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

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