Fitch: No learning curve for me

Since 2009, Fitch has served as the executive director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board, an agency responsible for directing more than 130 state agencies and overseeing 32,000 employees. Gov. Haley Barbour selected her for the job.

She said in the position she has cut spending, maximized assets, increased public and private partnerships, improved technology and brought more accountability and transparency to the agency.

The treasurer’s job would be run the same way if she were in charge, she said.

Fitch’s other career stops have each added to her experience on a path toward the treasurer’s post.

She served as deputy executive director of external affairs and support services at the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, where she helped people get into jobs across the state.

And because the treasurer also serves on the state Bond Commission, Fitch could put her experience as a bond lawyer to good use. “No learning curve there, either,” she said.

Fitch also served as counsel for the state House of Representative’s Ways and Means Committee.

She began her career 26 years ago as special assistant attorney general with the state Attorney General’s Office, representing the state Bond Commission, Department of Banking and Consumer Finance, Department of Economic and Community Development, Department of Finance and Administration and Office of the State Treasurer.

All of her experience has given her the ability to make hard, informed choices, she said.

“I don’t mind at all when it’s time to say no, be it as an agency head, be it as the treasurer, be it as a bond commission member,” she said

via Fitch: No learning curve for me – Elections – SunHerald.com.

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Fitch, Moran vie for treasurer post

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Mississippi Set to Go With $675M – The Bond Buyer Article

Mississippi will take a $675.2 million, multi-part general obligation bond issue to market next week that will finance state capital improvement projects, provide funding for economic development efforts, and refinance existing debt.

Mississippi Treasurer Tate Reeves said the four-series sale is set for the week of Oct. 3, but the pricing date for the refunding issue may be adjusted for market conditions during the week.

Reeves said the proceeds will support critical infrastructure needs for community colleges, state universities, and state agency facilities.

“The bonds will also maintain our highway bridge program and our most recent economic development projects,” he said.

Bond proceeds are used to finance a variety of economic development efforts in the state, Reeves noted.

“As a result, we will have created 2,000 direct jobs for Mississippians, and that speaks volumes for our ability to recruit businesses,” the treasurer said. “Our focus on matching economic development incentives to growth sectors of our economy has resulted in higher-paying jobs.”

The deal includes $29.6 million of tax-exempt refunding bonds, $30.6 million of taxable refunding bonds, $357.3 million of new-money tax-exempt GOs for capital improvement projects, and $261.3 million of taxable GOs to refinance several short-term notes and fund state and local economic development programs.

Mississippi’s outstanding debt  currently carries ratings of AA by Standard & Poor’s, Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-plus by Fitch.

The state had a total of $3.75 billion of outstanding GO bonds supported by general fund revenues on Sept. 1. It has no outstanding revenue debt.

Reeves said the sale will continue the tradition of a fall bond issue.

“Our legislative session runs from January to early April,” he said. “We begin planning in the summer based on legislation passed during the most recent session, and sell bonds in October or November each year.”

The underwriting team for the four series includes Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Morgan Keegan & Co., Stephens Inc., Duncan-Williams Inc., Crews & Associates Inc., Jefferies & Co., Kipling Jones & Co., Loop Capital Market, and Mesirow Financial Inc.

Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are lead managers on $353.7 million of Series A tax-exempt capital improvement GO bonds and the $261.3 million of Series C taxable economic development GOs.

Morgan Keegan and Stephens are co-senior managers of the Series B and D refunding and economic development series.

Co-bond counsel for the state are Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC and Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada PLLC.

Lindsey Carter, a vice president with Morgan Keegan, said Mississippi avoided unnecessary issuance costs by combining the four series into one sale. “There are significant economies of scale with doing all four concurrently,” she said.

The new-money offering is firm, but the size of the refunding remains fluid due to market fluctuations, according to Carter,.

“Those numbers could change up to the afternoon before the sale,” she said. “The amount being refunded will depend on the market.”

Gavin Murrey, managing director for Morgan Keegan, said the timing of the issuance should benefit the state. “We’re seeing some of the lowest rates in recorded history,” hesaid. “We’re hoping to catch the market at the right time.”

Mississippi’s strong financial outlook makes it an attractive credit in the current market, according to Murray.

“We expect a lot of investor interest, based on the strong interest in Mississippi’s debt shown in recent sales,” he said. “Mississippi is a strong credit.”

Reeves said the state has a history of conservative fiscal management.

“We pay our debt on time, we have healthy reserves in our working cash stabilization reserve fund, and our proactive approach to fiscal management has allowed us to maintain financial stability through subsequent revenue declines,” the treasurer said. “All of these are reasons why I believe Mississippi is well-positioned to have a successful bond sale this year.”

via Mississippi Set to Go With $675M – The Bond Buyer Article.

State Treasurer Profile: Connie Moran talks economic development – The Dispatch

Ocean Springs Mayor and Democratic State Treasurer candidate Connie Moran hopes her message to voters helps fend off Republican opponent Lynn Fitch in the general election in November. Moran was unopposed in the August primaries.

The election has landmark potential to change the landscape of Mississippi politics, as Republicans make a push to gain majority in the Mississippi House of Representatives, as well as win the Governor and Attorney General races. The GOP hasn’t controlled the Mississippi house in more than 120 years.

The treasurer sits on 12 different boards and commissions that approve bond funding and infrastructure spending in the state. Being outnumbered by Republicans would hinder Moran’s ideas from ever getting off the ground.

She knows what she’s up against, as close to 20 elected Democrats in the state have switched to Republican since 2008.

“I would like for people to judge me, not by party label but by the programs and projects I’ve been able to get going in Ocean Springs,” Moran said Sept. 20 on a campaign visit to Starkville. “Look at my background, educational experience and my values.”

As she sipped coffee in a cafe in downtown Starkville, Moran referenced similarities between her push to pass a bond referendum for a municipal complex in Ocean Springs and Starkville’s upcoming justice complex referendum. Moran was able to get a 2-percent levy on restaurants and lounges, which helped fund a new police station, jail, court room and sportsplex in 2007. Moran reduced costs by acquiring a grant for the land and avoided using bonds.

via State Treasurer Profile: Connie Moran talks economic development – The Dispatch.

State Treasurer Profile: Lynn Fitch touts legislative connections – The Dispatch

Lynn Fitch

If being state treasurer were like being a investigative reporter, Lynn Fitch would be a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Fitch has worked in the state capitol in various capacities for close to 25 years. She’s built relationships with senators and state representatives, many of whom are still in office.

So she has the sources — or connections — and knows the ropes of Jackson.

Fitch was tapped by Gov. Haley Barbour in 2009 to serve as executive director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board, where she is responsible for directing more than 32,000 state employees.

As counsel for the state Legislature and special assistant attorney general, she’s developed a dearth of knowledge of the legislative process.

To Fitch, Republican candidate for state treasurer, the transition would be seamless.

“Being the director of an agency, you’re very engaged with the legislature and the legislative budget office,” Fitch said. “People in legislature know my work ethic.”

Fitch said her relationships in Jackson will help make an immediate impact in attracting businesses to the state and growing current Mississippi-based businesses. Continuity in state government gives prospective companies confidence to locate to the state.

“When you have a full team that’s ready to help, understands legislative processes and understands what’s at hand, that’s going to be very attractive to companies,” Fitch said. “When that team understands growth factors, investments and education, then you have confidence and a trust level that makes you willing to locate here. I’m prepared to go in with the governor and others involved and do that.”

The treasurer serves on 20 different boards and commissions that approve bond funding and infrastructure spending in the state.

Fitch, who holds a law degree from the University of Mississippi, has spent much of her career as a bond attorney, both in the private sector and for the state. As a bond attorney, she’s focused on general and municipal bonds and corporate financing, as well as working for the Mississippi Business Finance Corporation and Mississippi Department of Economic Development.

via State Treasurer Profile: Lynn Fitch touts legislative connections – The Dispatch.

Budget–Performance still the goal

| The Clarion-Ledger | www.clarionledger.com: www.clarionledger.com/article/20110909/OPINION01/1…ome|s

The unusual turnover in key leadership positions of state government has raised questions about how the budget process should proceed. Officials working on the budget now will be turning over that responsibility to a new crop of budget-writers in January.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant is the current chairman of the 14-member Joint Legislative Budget Committee, but he won’t be lieutenant governor. He is the Republican nominee for governor, facing Democrat Johnny DuPree, independent Will Oatis and possibly a Reform Party candidate in the Nov. 8 election.

State Treasurer Tate Reeves is headed for the lieutenant governor’s office, facing only nominal opposition, and will choose key budget-writers in the Senate.

House Speaker Bill McCoy, D-Rienzi, is retiring, and the speaker’s race will hinge on the makeup of the House after the Nov. 8 elections. Whoever is the next speaker will appoint key fiscal leaders from that body.

Bryant had proposed canceling this year’s budget hearings and limiting the process. That would not have been the right approach. Had the hearings been postponed, it could have placed a hardship on incoming legislators who would be playing catch-up with new committee assignments, a new governor and new speaker. They would be lacking budget specifics.

So, it’s best that the committee announced Wednesday that it will hold public hearings Sept. 19-22 at the Woolfolk State Office Building, near the Capitol in Jackson.

Bryant is on the right track, however, when it comes to his proposals for more performance-based budgeting. It’s not a new idea and, admittedly, the record on such accountability isn’t very good. But, it has not been given much of a chance.

#Mississippi #budget #Phil #Bryant #Tate #Reeves #Billy #McCoy #Legislature #Johnny #Dupree #Lt. #Governor #Governor #Treasurer

Reeves touts MPACT

- WLBT 3 – Jackson, MS:: www.wlbt.com/story/15414467/reeves-touts-mpact

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) -
Governor Haley Barbour has declared September "College Savings Month".

Wednesday, State Treasurer Tate Reeves marked the occasion by kicking off the enrollment period for the Mississippi Prepaid Affordable College tuition program or MPACT.

Reeves was surrounded by hundreds of Madison Station Elementary School students to announce that September 1st through December 31st, Mississippi families can lock-in today’s tuition rates for tomorrow’s college students.

Reeves said, "It’s a factor that tuition has risen in our state and virtually every other state over the last 10 to 20 years and so affordability and accessibility of a college degree is becoming an issue for many of these kids and their parents and their grandparents, so what we try to do is stress to them the importance of education, but also the importance of starting to save early."

MPACT earnings are tax exempt and contributions are fully deductible from state income tax. It is guaranteed by the state to cover the cost of college tuition and mandatory fees at Mississippi’s public colleges. The benefits can also be used for private or out-of-state schools.

#Mississippi #Tate #Reeves #Treasurer #Education #Higher #Learning #tuition #MPACT #Haley #Barbour

Minor–History making DuPree win faces a grim Miss. reality

| The Clarion-Ledger | www.clarionledger.com: www.clarionledger.com/article/20110826/OPINION/108…ion|p

here’s no question DuPree’s win was good for black pride, but in the real world of politics in present-day Mississippi, black pride is not enough to take you past the winner’s finish-line. While difficult for black Mississippians to accept this reality: No African-American can be elected to statewide office in Mississippi, particularly the governorship.

A prime example of that reality came in 2003: Gary Anderson who had years of experience as a governmental affairs and financial counselor, and had been director of the state Department of Finance and Administration, won the Democratic nomination for state treasurer. His Republican opponent was a 29-year-old Jackson bank employee named Tate Reeves.

Anderson is black; Reeves is white. Reeves was elected.

Thereby was sprouted a highly ambitious young ideologue with his eyes set on climbing the GOP electoral ladder. Using his treasurer’s slot to milk campaign contributions, Reeves on Aug. 2 won the GOP nomination for the vacant lieutenant governor’s job in a slashing campaign against mild-mannered state Sen. Billy Hewes of Gulfport.

Reeves will waltz right into the state’s No. 2 job because Democrats put up no candidate. Therein lies a behind-the-scenes story of the Democratic gubernatorial race.

Democratic elder statesman William Winter urged DuPree to run for lieutenant governor, to give the Democrats a strong one-two ticket. As it turned out, Reeves alienated many Coast Republican s in his race against Hewes, providing a pool of voters who could easily switch to DuPree, also a South Mississippian.

Luckett aimed his campaign at beating Phil Bryant, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, on grounds Bryant as lieutenant governor, trivialized the need for a state pre-K education program as well as fully funding MAEP, both Luckett issues.

In the general election, Bryant can far outspend DuPree, especially if Barbour turns on the campaign money spigot of the Republican Governors’ Association and sends a gusher of cash. Plus, he can count on a fine-tuned state Republican political machine built by Barbour.

Meantime, there’s no sign Mississippi’s Democratic Party has shed the image Will Rogers defined 75 years ago, that he was not a member of an organized political party – he was a Democrat.

#Mississippi #Johnny #Dupree #Governor #Bill #Luckett #Phil #Bryant #Lt. #Governor #Tate #Reeves #Billy #Hewes #Treasurer #Gary #Anderson #Race #campaigns #Politics #elections #Democrats #Republicans

Nash–Runoff Predictions

redblue | The Clarion-Ledger | www.clarionledger.com: www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Catego…=Blog:36489e38-8ae6-4b2e-8841-0017ffb2c4ddPost:fc13a99e-406f-4a5c-89d6-0bf047ae3ef4&sid=sitelife.clarionledger.com

We’ll see today if the rule of thumb holds for election predictions — the candidate who raises or spends the most is usually the winner. In the case of the top three Republican runoffs on the ballot today, that would mean victories for Charles Barbour ($110,532 to $81,030 for Longwitz), Knox Ross ($200,149 to $106,218 for Harkins), and Lynn Fitch ($535,726 to $344,073 for Yancey). In the case of the Longwitz, Harkins and Yancey, they each have an advantage that might overcome the money: Longwitz has geography, Harkins has an extensive network of grassroots contacts in Rankin County, and Yancey has a network of church and conservative activist contacts across the state. Very hard to call these.

#Jere #Nash #Mississippi #politics #campaigns #elections #runoff #Charles #Barbour #Will #Longwitz #Knox #Ross #Josh #Harkins #Lynn #Fitch #Lee #Yancey #Treasurer #SD25 #SD20 #Republicans #finance #grassroots

Mississippi municipalities won’t get money from Development Infrastructure Grant Program

Ocean Springs’ major drainage projects on hold | www.gulflive.com: blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2011/08/o….html

OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi — Drainage project plans have been placed on hold after city leaders learned Monday they will not receive a $2 million bond that was allocated last legislative session.

"Essentially the projects we had planned with that money are dead," said Ocean Springs Public Works Director André Kaufman.

Kaufman said his budget mainly consists of maintenance funds and he does not have $2 million for the 6 drainage projects that include work on Washington Avenue, Stark Bayou, Fort Bayou, Shearwater Marsh, Heron Bayou and Old Fort Bayou areas.

"We might have to look at borrowing the money, now," Kaufman said.

Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, introduced the statute in April, known then as Senate Bill 3100.

Kirby said lawmakers added millions of dollars for their areas in section eight of the statute. That section allowed cities to garner money through the Development Infrastructure Grant Program that Mississippi Development Authority distributes for publicly owned infrastructure projects.

Sen. Tommy Moffatt, R-Gautier, was one of those senators and said he added an amendment on the Senate floor to allocate $2 million for the Ocean Springs projects.

"Some of that made it out of committee and some of it did not," Kirby said. "It appears several of those amendments were removed in the House, and Ocean Springs was one of them."

Kirby said even if the money had remained in the statute, Ocean Springs would still receive nothing.

"The bond commission, which consists of the governor, state treasurer and attorney general, have not authorized those bonds," Kirby said. "Without authorization, bonds can’t be sold. There are, effectively, no bonds."

Jackson, Meridian and Holly Springs and other cities in the Delta were also affected, Kirby said.

"We’re not picking on Ocean Springs," Kirby said. "No one got any money."

Kirby then dispelled rumors that Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant requested that the bond committee redirect Ocean Springs’ money to Meridian or any other city.

"Some of the money was already committed to Meridian, but they are not going to get any money either," Kirby said. "Lt. Gov. Phil Byrant has not redirected any money from a city to another and really can’t even do that. He doesn’t have that kind of power. That would be the governor or the Mississippi Development Authority."

#Mississippi #infrastructure #spending #state #bonds #Phil #Bryant #Dean #Kirby #Bond #Commission #Treasurer #Tate #Reeves #Governor #Haley #Barbour #Lt. #Governor #Attorney #General #Jim #Hood #Ocean #Springs #Jackson #Meridian #Holly #Springs #Mississippi #Development #Authority #MDA #Finance #Committee #Legislature #Senate #House #municipalities #SB #3100 #Tommy #Moffatt