PEP Talk Podcast: Sen. Melanie Sojourner discusses the Medicaid crisis in Mississippi.

Senator Melanie Sojourner represents District 37 in the Mississippi Senate and is a member of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. She joins Managing Editor Keith Plunkett at the State Capitol to discuss the Medicaid crisis in Mississippi

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DMR officials working with State Auditor’s office to implement 60-day evaluation of agency.

The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources announced Wednesday that it has begun a 60-day comprehensive evaluation to identify and recommend a plan of action to correct any fiscal and programmatic deficiencies, and to ensure more transparency, efficiency and accountability in the future.

“The challenges we have at MDMR cannot be fixed overnight, but this week we have taken a big step toward meeting those challenges head-on by beginning a process that will shine a light on the agency’s weaknesses and restore hope in its future,” said Jamie Miller, DMR Executive Director.

“The solution begins and ends with being transparent and accountable to the public, and in order to get there, we’ve got to find out what’s been done wrong, what’s been done right, and how we can do things better.”

In Miller’s testimony to the Mississippi Senate during his confirmation hearing, he proposed to implement the 60-day agency evaluation and assessment. With a joint meeting with the State Auditor’s office yesterday, the DMR started the 60-day evaluation which marks the beginning of the process. To assist the DMR and the State Auditor’s office with this analysis, two CPA firms, Horne, LLP and Nicholson and Company, PLLC, were hired to provide the following services:

1. Financial examination, auditing, compliance and assessment activities.

2. Organizational review, including but not limited to, structure, staffing, classification, work flow analysis, job description and compensation analysis.

3. Recommendations to improve efficiency, maximize agency effectiveness, strengthen public transparency, and assure operational integrity.

4. Preparation of internal and external communication strategy to include public outreach

5. Other related financial, organizational, and operational assessment and review as assigned by the Executive Director.

“This objective evaluation of the DMR is the necessary and prudent approach to ensuring that the agency is operating efficiently and effectively,” said Mississippi State Auditor Stacey Pickering. “Our office will work closely with the DMR to assist in this process.”

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JSU to rename Community Service Program in honor of late Senator Alice Harden.

Jackson State Tigers athletic logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jackson State University is paying tribute to the late state Sen. Alice Harden by naming its community service program after her.

A ceremony will be held April 17 dedicate the Alice Varnado Harden Center for Service and Community Engaged Learning.

Harden was a Jackson Democrat and JSU graduate. She became the first black woman to serve in the Mississippi Senate when she was elected in 1987. She served 24 years, until her death on Dec. 6 at age 64.

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Jamie Miller recommended for DMR top spot by Senate Committee

A Mississippi Senate committee has voted unanimously to recommend the confirmation of Jamie Miller of Gulfport as director of the state Department of Marine Resources.

The full Senate will consider the nomination soon, possibly as early as Wednesday. Confirmation takes a majority of the 52 senators.

Committee members spent about an hour Wednesday morning quizzing Miller about how he’ll manage the agency that has had financial problems in recent months.

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Senate Approves Economic Expansion Measure to Create Jobs at Nissan.

Mississippi State Capitol building in Jackson.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Mississippi Senate today passed a bill that will enable the creation of hundreds of new jobs at the Nissan plant in Madison County. The bill would allow the issuance of up to $100 million in “revenue-only” bonds to support expansion at and around the plant. The revenue from the bonds will come from lease payments that Nissan will guarantee, and only the bondholders will be liable for the debt. There is no recourse to Mississippi or Madison County taxpayers.

The bill’s principal author, Sen. Will Longwitz (R-Madison) said the bill will help create jobs and will also protect taxpayers. “This a big win for Mississippi. Taxpayers are not liable for any of this debt, but it will create the right conditions for economic expansion and job creation at this facility. This is going to benefit people in Madison County and all over the state.”

The bonds would be sold to private financial institutions, and are not backed by any state or local government. The new buildings will house suppliers that will work on the new lines of vehicles at the Canton plant.

“I appreciate my Senate colleagues’ openness to this major economic development bill, and I’m grateful for Lt. Gov. Reeves’ support,” said Longwitz. “Mississippi is leading the way in job creation and economic growth. I know the House will review this opportunity carefully, and I hope the House will see fit to endorse this huge win for Mississippians.”

Revenue-only bonds are often used to facilitate industrial development projects like this. They have been used in Mississippi before, and this is the first project to operate on this scale. With this expansion of facilities at Nissan, it is believed that even more suppliers and businesses will be attracted to the area and to the state.

SB 2920 now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration in committee.

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Bill to block concealed weapon info advances.

The Mississippi Senate has advanced a bill that would block information about concealed-carry weapons permits from public records, unless a judge orders the release of such information.

House Bill 485 passed Wednesday with no debate. The only “no” vote came from Democratic Sen. Derrick Simmons of Greenville, who said the names and addresses of state-issued permit holders should remain available to the public.

A Senate committee added the provision about a court order. The bill returns to the House, which can either accept the change and send it to the governor, or seek negotiations on a final version.

Gov. Phil Bryant’s office says the Department of Public Safety has received two recent requests for concealed-carry information, one from a newspaper and another from a blogger.

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Senator Videt Carmichael delivers legislative news at Meridian meeting.

Carmichael said he would like to see the end of inventory taxes, but that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

“Right now we have a lot of our cities and our counties and other entities who depend upon those dollars so we can’t just all of a sudden do without it unless we have a funding source,” Carmichael said.

The senator also touted changes to the Mississippi Worker’s Compensation laws, saying that the Legislature essentially tweaked it, making changes to the pre-existing conditions portions of the law, clarification of payments to attorneys, better definitions and restrictions of employees’ choices of physicians, stronger measures against workforce drug and alcohol use, and a slight increase in benefits.

During a question and answer session with Kiwanians, Carmichael said he didn’t know what the state was going to do with regard to Medicaid as it relates to the Affordable Health Care Act. He said Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney has taken some heat for his health care exchange program.

“I think what he’s doing is trying to be ready in case we have to do it because if we keep on with Obamacare as we know it,” Carmichael said, “each state will have to have a health care exchange and if you don’t do it as a state, the feds will come in and do it for you. I don’t think we want them controlling our health care exchange, if we have to have one.”

When asked about the possibility of an Internet sales tax, Carmichael said it has been considered, but no one has come up with a solution yet.

What was a contentious debate during the last legislative session, the issue of charter schools, also prompted questions from the audience.

Carmichael said the Mississippi Senate has passed charter school legislation for five consecutive years, but has not been able to hammer out a compromise with the House of Representatives.

“I think there’s a place for charter schools,” Carmichael said. “Anything that we can do to give parents an opportunity to help to better their children if they’re in a situation in a school that’s not working, to give them another choice.”

via Senator delivers budget news » Local News » Meridian Star.

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Mississippi PEP readers top 5 articles for the week of July 16-22.

First, we want to thank all the readers of Mississippi PEP. Our traffic has increased by leaps and bounds over the course of the past month. We’ll take that as a sign that your liking a lot of the new ways we get information to you. If you haven’t yet signed up for Mississippi PEP’s Newsletter, you should do that now. Not only will you receive the newsletter to catch up on the month. You’ll get a preview of the month to come, and codes to access exclusive content. There is a link below, and a link at the top of this page.

Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the discussion, and finally, don’t forget to call and give us your 3 minute comment for possible inclusion in an upcoming podcast at 662.205.6737.

Here is this weeks top 5 stories as decided by you:

1. Group urging McDaniel to run for U.S. Senate goes viral, reaches 1000 members in 5 days.  News of a growing effort to recruit State Senator Chris McDaniel to run against long time incumbent U.S. Senator Thad Cochran has been the top story.
2. Sen. Watson on Education in Mississippi: Why Parental Choice?. Senator Michael Watson makes his debut as a contributor to Mississippi PEP with the first in a series of articles on Parental Choice in Public Education.
3. ObamaCare Regulations of State Health Insurance Exchanges: Commissioner Mike Chaney decides to deal with the devil. Managing Editor Keith Plunkett breaks down Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney’s assault on state’s rights and the free market by agreeing to go along with ObamaCare’s state exchange rules.
4. One News Now refers to Reeves as “Rogue Lt. Gov.” over Illegal Immigration in MFIRE article. Lt. Governor Tate Reeves continues to catch flack for killing Immigration Reform in Mississippi’s State Senate. This story has been picked up by other conservative blogs across the country and is gaining steam ahead of a legislative hearing on August 23rd.
5. State Board of Education already at work trying to game the system under new school rankings. The ink has barely dried on the new A-F government school grading system, but the Mississippi Department of Education is already at work trying to boost failing school’s numbers by doing away with drop out rates as an indication of their lack of success.

Sign up for the Mississippi PEP Newsletter and get links to exclusive content you may have missed. And codes to those pages only Mississippi PEP Subscribers get access to.

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Governor Bryant sets special election for Desoto County Senate seat

Gov. Phil Bryant has set a special election to fill the Senate seat once held by retired Sen. Merle Flowers.

“The Senate District 19 election will be held Nov. 6 so voters may have a timely opportunity to elect a new senator without bearing the cost of a special election,” Bryant said in a release.

The qualifying deadline for candidates in the DeSoto County district is Oct. 8.

via Mississippi governor sets special election for District 19 state Senate seat | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

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Immigration Reform in Mississippi-An Interview with MFIRE’s Dr. Rodney Hunt

BY: B. Keith Plunkett

Mississippians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement (MFIRE) was begun by Dr. Rodney Hunt in 2005 following a very personal moment that convinced him to become involved. Since that time, he has met with public officials across Mississippi and the U.S. to convince them of the need for reform.

In this interview, Dr. Hunt discusses the recent executive order by President Obama, the unexpected fight in the Mississippi Senate brought on by Lt. Governor Tate Reeves unfavorable committee assignment, and lessons Mississippi can learn from Alabama.

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