College Board changes state aid funding formula for Mississippi universities.

Higher Education Commissioner Hank Bounds said the new formula is meant to more fairly distribute state aid among the schools. In recent years, individual university shares of state funding have remained frozen, even as enrollments have shrunk at some schools and grown at others.

For the budget year starting July 1, the plan would boost funding for some universities, but wouldn’t cut money to any school.

The formula would give money to cover overhead costs, with smaller schools getting larger shares. Then it would distribute most remaining money to schools based on courses completed by students, with graduate and technical courses worth more than basic undergraduate courses. Finally, some money would be given to universities that meet board goals, such as graduating students with low test scores, getting students out of remedial courses and into college-level work, or increasing outside research money.

“While no model will ever be perfect, and while it is likely that no university will agree with all aspects of the model, we believe that this model produces an overall result that is fair and equitable to all,” trustee Alan Perry, who chairs the board’s Finance Committee, said. His statement added that the model, because it is based on completed courses and not just enrollment, gives incentive to each university to become more effective.

State money allocated from a pot of $340 million would rise the most — 6.6 percent or $904,000 — at MUW. Other gainers would include Alcorn, where aid would go up 5.7 percent or $1 million; Ole Miss, where aid would go up 5.5 percent or $3.9 million, and MSU, where aid would go up $623,000 or 0.7 percent.

Bounds said the boosts would cut the inequities measured by the formula between universities by roughly half. The University of Southern Mississippi, Delta State University and Mississippi Valley State University would remain overfunded according to the model, but their shares of the overall pie will drop. State aid makes up about 35 percent of universities overall funding

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Mississippi governor ‘concerned’ over possibility of union activity at Toyota plant

Gov. Phil Bryant said Monday he is concerned that labor unions will try to organize workers at the recently opened Blue Springs Toyota plant, but he expects plant workers and anti-union groups to defeat labor organizing efforts.

“That’s very concerning to me,” Bryant said of the prospect of more organized labor recruiting efforts in Mississippi.

Bryant told a gathering of business leaders at the Center for Manufacturing Excellence at the University of Mississippi that he doesn’t plan on leading the anti-union charge, but he expects others to successfully resist organizing in the right-to-work state.

“I’m not at the point of saying I will personally organize an effort to stop unions,” he said afterward. “I think the workers themselves are going to help us do that. There are many organizations in this state that would be involved in the process if we keep pushing.”

via Mississippi governor ‘concerned’ over possibility of union activity at Toyota plant » The Commercial Appeal.

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Mississippi’s Political Change to Highlight Spring Season at the Overby Center

With the Republican Party controlling the Legislature and holding nearly all statewide offices for the first time since Reconstruction, the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics is hosting two programs dealing with partisan developments during its spring season.

The season kicks off at 11 a.m. Thursday (Feb. 16), when the founding fathers of the modern GOP in Mississippi, Clarke Reed and Wirt Yerger, join two early state party chairs, Ebbie Spivey and Mike Retzer, to discuss how their organization grew over a 50-year period from a distinct minority into a major force. The program, “Present at the Creation,” will be moderated by Overby fellow Bill Rose.

On March 7, House Democratic leader Bobby Moak and colleague Rep. Bryant Clark will appear with Brandon Presley, a Democrat who serves as public service commissioner for northern Mississippi, to discuss the difficulties of operating in a political minority. Charlie Mitchell, a syndicated political columnist and assistant dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi, will lead the 11 a.m. session.

“We believe we have an outstanding lineup of programs this spring that range from politics to literature and other areas,” said Curtis Wilkie, another Overby Fellow who worked with Rose to develop the schedule.

All programs are in the Overby Center Auditorium and are free and open to the public.

Mississippi Republicans challenge powers of attorney general

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As Mississippi’s attorney general, Jim Hood rarely shies away from litigation, especially when victory could put millions of dollars into the state treasury. During more than eight years in office, Hood has reinforced Mississippi’s reputation as one of the nation’s fiercest litigants, especially on the securities front. In the name of the state’s pension system, he’s taken on around two dozen corporations, including Bank of America and Boston Scientific. All together, he’s netted the state more than $500 million in penalties and settlements.

But some Mississippi lawmakers say that too much of the money ends up going to the private lawyers Hood hires for extra help. Private attorneys representing Mississippi can receive up to a quarter of corporate payouts, which often means millions of dollars.

That money comes through contingency fee contracts, arrangements in which private attorneys — if victorious — receive a healthy slice of a court award or settlement. If the state loses, it pays no fees. Attorneys are usually willing to accept this arrangement instead of charging an hourly rate. In fact, Mississippi leads the nation in contingency fee contracts. For the state, it’s a no-lose deal, supporters say. The contracts draw the attention of high-quality lawyers for big cases.

“There are certainly pros to the arrangement,” says Ben Cooper, a professor of law at the University of Mississippi. “We’re talking about cases that are big and expensive to litigate.” The attorney general alone doesn’t always have the resources to take on other high-priced legal teams, Cooper says.

Transparent goals

Mississippi’s biggest payout came before Hood’s time in office. In 1997, the state received $4.1 billion as part of a national settlement between states and tobacco companies, recouping health care costs associated with smoking. Of Mississippi’s share in that settlement, private attorneys were paid $1.45 billion.

Many state lawmakers — mostly Republicans — are hoping to change the system. Within a week, Republicans plan to introduce legislation likely to include caps on private-firm contingency fees and provide for open bidding on the contracts. That’s partly because the fees are too high, the legislators say, but also because of the close personal and political relationships between the attorney general and the attorneys he hires.

via Mississippi Republicans challenge powers of attorney general.

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January 21–On This Day in Mississippi History . . .

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In 1987, B.B. King donated his record collection, including more than 7,000 rare blues discs, to the University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture.

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Former Gov. Winter delivers keynote address at King Unity Breakfast

Seconds into William F. Winter‘s speech Monday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity Breakfast, the former governor asked the hundreds in attendance an obvious but sometimes obscure question.

“We’re celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., (but) why is that important to us?” Winter asked. “Why is this important to us white folks, as well as black folks?”

Winter, the keynote speaker for the 18th edition of the breakfast, reminded the crowd gathered in the Mississippi State University Colvard Student Union ballroom that King’s efforts for equality helped liberate people of every race, sex and creed.

Winter shared a story of a luncheon hosted at the governor’s mansion, when he met Myrlie Evers, then widow of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers.

“I said to her, ‘We white folks owe as much to your husband as black folks do. He freed us,’” Winter said. “We were all prisoners of the system. We were not able to move freely or speak freely or do a lot of things we’d like to have done, because of an oppressive society and fanatical segregation.”

Winter, Mississippi‘s governor from 1980-84, helped establish the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. Inspired by the work of King, who was assassinated in 1968, Winter dedicated much of his service to education reform and equality.

“All of us, black and white alike, owe Dr. King a great debt of gratitude for helping lift that cloud of segregation that kept us all behind,” he said.

via Former Gov. Winter delivers keynote address at King Unity Breakfast – The Dispatch.

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MS Press Letters to the Editor: Bad information on PERS commission

I am writing in regard to the numerous and, I think, erroneous statements being made by letter writers about the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi.

My wife, Kathryn, and I are both state retirees. We receive “13th checks” and rely on our state retirement as a source of income.

To read the letters to the editor, the PERS Study Commission — appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour and headed by Gulfport Mayor George Schloegel — is intent on dismantling PERS. I find that ludicrous.

We have no concerns that our benefits will be cut after the fact, although it is obvious — and has been to me — that the system is unsustainable as it currently exists. Changes need to be made in order to sustain the system for those involved now.

The parallel to Social Security is obvious.

In the mid-1980s, a business professor from the University of Southern Mississippi spoke to the Faculty Senate at Ole Miss (on which I served at the time) about the future of PERS. At that time, an employee had to be at least 55 years old with 25 years of service for retirement.

The problem has been the Legislature giving benefits packages the system could not sustain — something the USM professor alluded to then. The requirement has since been reduced to 25 years of service without regard to age.

Legislators, I am sure, realize that people are living longer and drawing more benefits beyond what the system can tolerate.

I wish the news media would research what is really happening and likely to happen. To my knowledge, the Study Commission has not decided what it will propose, and even then will only make recommendations to the Legislature — the very body that put us in the dilemma we now face.

Perhaps our esteemed legislators will rectify past indiscretions (called “making decisions that are actuarially indefensible”) and reform a system that can maintain a sustainable program for retirement benefits going forward.

F.J. EICKE

Ocean Springs

via Bad information on PERS commission; Soros is dangerous (letters) | gulflive.com.

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