Mississippi casino revenue continues downward spiral

Mississippi has just announced its casino gambling figures for November revealing a nearly 8% fall in revenue to $165.8 million, down from $179.6 million for the same month last year.

November’s revenue was the one of the worst recorded in almost 11 years. With the exception of Indian tribal casinos which are legally exempt from public scrutiny, the State’s gross revenue is currently down 7% to $2.05 billion for 2011.

http://www.onlinepoker.net/poker-news/casino-news/mississippi-casinos-8-1658m-november-2011/13519

Barbour to release final budget recommendations as Governor today.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Tuesday is releasing his state spending plan for the coming budget year.

The Republican leaves office when his second term ends Jan. 10, nearly six months before fiscal 2013 begins on July 1. He will make recommendations that new Phil Bryant can use as they decide how to spend the state’s money.

Barbour is expected to urge officials to be cautious and to leave several million dollars in reserve, as he has in years past.

http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=16358799&config=H264

Barbour urges frugality for state

New Mississippi legislators who rode into office on the promise of restrained government spending will get a chance to prove it based on the latest state revenue collections.

November revenue collections fell $4.9 million short of projections as the state nears the halfway point of its 2012 fiscal year that ends June 30.

The numbers come after a surprisingly good October, in which total revenues were 5 percent, or $20.2 million, more than anticipated.

So far this year, revenue collections are about 2.5 percent above estimates.

The state economist warned budget-writing legislators in September to expect extremely slow economic growth in the coming year — 1.7 percent on top of just 0.7 percent for calendar year 2011.

Gaming revenues sustained the largest drop in revenue categories, 26.7 percent in November and 8.6 percent so far this fiscal year.

“Our national economy continues to be sluggish. The state’s economy is no different,” Gov. Haley Barbour said Thursday in a statement.

Barbour noted that individual income tax receipts dropped 7.2 percent below projections, “which is of particular concern.”

“We need to be prudent in spending state revenues and reserves until economic conditions improve, especially when we will have $200 million less in federal funds next year,” he said.

Before leaving the Capitol last spring, legislators adopted a $5.5 billion spending plan for 2012, about a 2.7 percent increase over the 2011 state budget.

This time around, the state must deal with $200 million less in federal money.

via Barbour urges frugality for state » The Commercial Appeal.

Mississippi now owns the public portion of Deer Island

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann came to south Mississippi today with a $9.7 million tidelands check in his hand.

We’re told the first million dollars of that check will allow the state to payoff what it owes on Deer Island.  Once that payment is made, the public portion of the island will be controlled by Mississippi.

The remaining eight million dollars will be used for boat launches and piers along south Mississippi’s waterfront.  The Mississippi legislature and the Department of Marine Resources will determine how that money is spent.

via Mississippi now owns the public portion of Deer Island – WLOX-TV and WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi.

Let the dollar-mining begin Part 2–Mississippi chief justice: State’s judges to seek higher salaries in 2012 | The Republic

Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. used a Gulf Coast forum to press the issue of higher salaries for judges.

The Sun Herald reports (http://bit.ly/v3YgXA) that Waller and Justices Randy Pierce and Michael Randolph told members of the Gulf Coast Business Council that a judicial pay bill will be presented to the 2012 Legislature.

Randolph says the last time Supreme Court justices got a pay raise gasoline was $1.89 a gallon. That was 2003.

The Sun Herald reports that Waller and Justices Randy Pierce and Michael Randolph told members of the Gulf Coast Business Council that a judicial pay bill will be presented to the 2012 Legislature.

Waller says the pay package will propose a four-year, step pay increase for appellate judges and those in the circuit, chancery and county courts. It also will feature higher civil filing and appellate court fees to fund the increases.

via Mississippi chief justice: State’s judges to seek higher salaries in 2012 | The Republic.

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USM seeks $10M from Legislature for building | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com

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For the second year in a row, University of Southern Mississippi officials are hoping for a big funding boost from the Legislature for a new School of Nursing building.

And while legislators denied last year’s $15 million request, College of Health Dean Michael Forster said he believes this year’s $10 million request is more feasible now that the College of Business has received its needed funds.

“Last year, we would have loved to get $15 million for the nursing building, but our (the university’s) top funding priority was a final round of funding for the business building, not nursing,” said Forster. “This round, however, the nursing project is indeed the university’s top priority.”

Estimated to cost just under $30 million overall, the nursing project is also in the silent phase of a private fund-raising campaign designed to raise $8 million.

Forster said the campaign expects to go public in January with more than $4 million in private funds raised by that time.

School officials hope that the three-story, 75,000-square-foot structure will ease the space issues confronting the current 40,000-square-foot building on the Hattiesburg campus.

Within the last 10 years, the school has seen its enrollment double from admitting 80 new students annually to around 180.

via USM seeks $10M from Legislature for building | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com.

Mississippi Department of Education Accountability Status Ratings Map

WHAT THIS MAP SHOWS:
This maps shows the new MS Dept. of Education Accountability Status ratings for each school district that were released Sept.16,2011.

View this document on Scribd

Desoto Times Tribune–Parks tax passes

SOUTHAVEN – Southaven residents voted in favor of a 1-percent tax on restaurants that will go toward developing and maintaining the city’s parks system.

Voters favored the Penny For Your Parks tax 624 votes to 214 votes.

The tax received more than two-thirds support from voters when it was voted on in a referendum last October but the Mississippi Legislature, in a bill this spring, required a second vote.

Tuesday’s vote garnered 74.5 percent support from voters, more than the two-thirds support in last year’s vote.

The Mississippi Legislature passed a bill allowing the tax if the city received 60 percent support in the second vote.

Mayor Greg Davis said the city should be able to begin collections on the tax as soon as Dec. 1.

“The voters of Southaven have taken a huge step forward in solidifying our commitment to our way of life by not only continuing to fund our parks program but securing additional funding for all departments within the general fund,” Davis said.

The new tax is expected to generate $1 million per year if passed and city officials estimate 60 percent of that revenue will come from people who live outside of DeSoto County.

Davis said the city will now appeal to the Mississippi Legislature to remove the Penny For Your Parks bill’s repealer clause that allows the bill to be repealed in 2014.

One the repealer is removed, the city will be able to issue bonds and begin work on a $35 million parks improvement plan that includes new baseball, softball and soccer fields, indoor tennis courts, a skate park and a dog park.

via Desoto Times Tribune > News > Parks tax passes.

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State agencies are big casino customers – Local – SunHerald.com

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Mississippi government agencies spend millions of dollars in casinos, from the Coast to Las Vegas.

Just how much they spend is hard to determine. It’s spread across individual agencies’ budgets and listed under many labels. Much of the spending is reimbursed to individuals for hotel rooms or meals and hard to track. But a look at just the direct billing from casinos to agencies — mainly for conferences, luncheons and dinners — would indicate state government has not curtailed its spending to the extent private industry has.

For instance, the Mississippi Department of Transportation has paid casinos an average of about $137,500 a year over the last eight fiscal years. The Mississippi Development Authority spent an average $45,000 a year — although records would indicate that figure is far higher. The Department of Education spent about $105,000 a year on casino meetings and luncheons. The attorney general’s office averaged $74,800 a year to casinos, but records indicate that number is probably much higher. The list goes on, and most state agencies appear to have dropped a few dimes with casinos in recent years.

A look at other MDA spending — such as a payment to boxing promoter Don King Productions Inc. for $10,000 listed as “promotional expense” — would indicate its spending on casino events goes well beyond what direct billing shows. An MDA official said the Don King expenditure could have been boxing tickets for clients, likely “key consultants who bring projects to the state.”

MDA spent more than $7.8 million from fiscal ’04 to ’11 on “promotional expenses,” some of which appear to be casino-related events. Over the last two full fiscal years, MDA paid the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas more than $48,000.

Several state officials said holding meetings and training seminars at casinos makes sense — they have more meeting and convention space and hotel rooms than most other facilities across the state, and they often get good government rates on the rooms and food. They said gambling and swankiness is not the draw.

“We have a lot of ours at (Pearl River Resort) because it’s centrally located for all our districts,” said Butch McMillan, head of the state Department of Rehab Services. His department has paid an average $31,00 a fiscal year to casinos from ’04 to ’11.

“The main reason for casinos more than anywhere else is they have the meeting space,” McMillan said. “Plus, most of the time, casino room rates are lower than other hotels, and they give us a state rate, we negotiate it …. As far as the gambling aspect, if I spend $10 they’re lucky. I won’t say all my employees are so frugal.”

via State agencies are big casino customers – Local – SunHerald.com.

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Dining on your dime: Government eats well | The Natchez Democrat

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The state Department of Education has been one of the biggest spenders on meals, averaging more than $612,000 a year on food for meetings. But it’s also one of few that appears to have greatly curtailed such spending to date.

Department spokesman Pete Smith said education officials, including Superintendent Tom Burnham, who took office last year, have realized such spending on meals for meetings is “completely unacceptable.” For fiscal ‘11, the agency spent $387,000, compared with $772,000 for fiscal ‘04. For fiscal ‘12, Smith said, the figure should be even lower.

Smith said the agency has cut out some of its conferences, looked for free or cheap public facilities for gatherings and is trying to use video conferencing, teleconferencing and other technology for meetings.

Smith said training required by federal programs is still being done.

“It didn’t hinder the mission,” Smith said. “… It was a leadership decision.”

Other officials appeared to take umbrage at questions about their food or meeting spending.

Although he declined to be interviewed about the average $103,500 a year his agency has spent on food, Attorney General Jim Hood’s office issued a statement saying such expenditures are for meals during the training he is required to provide law enforcement, judicial employees and prosecutors. It said the spending is from federal money, fines or other special funds, not direct state tax dollars.

“Mississippi is a safer place because of this training and we plan to continue,” the statement said.

Several agency officials noted that the bulk of their spending on meals and conferences comes from federal or other funds.

Forest Thigpen, president of the watchdog group Mississippi Center for Public Policy, bristles at this.

“I am sick and tired of politicians and bureaucrats who treat federal money as if it’s Monopoly money,” Thigpen said. “It’s still taxpayer money.”

via Dining on your dime: Government eats well | The Natchez Democrat.