Like a lot of folks, I’ve been keeping up with what’s going on in Jackson as the Mississippi Legislature flops around like a catfish on hot pavement.
The Legislature was always good for a laugh or two, or two dozen, depending on how frisky it is in its folly.
But it’s not funny anymore.
Every three months, like a reenactment of a particularly grim Groundhog Day, Gov. Phil Bryant emerges from his burrow to announce another cut to the budget as revenue continues to fall well short of projections. Faced with the undeniable fact that revenue isn’t what it is supposed to be, the Legislature responds by reducing revenue even further. If you want a hole dug, call the legislature. It has no peers in that department.
So let’s put the cards on the table, shall we?
The big problem with Mississippi, the real source of what ails our economy, is that we have too many free-loaders.
We’ve all thought it, right? We’ve just been too Mississippi polite to come out and say it.
Yet we realize these people are a drain on our resources. They are forever wanting something for nothing. They are takers not givers.
They are crippling out state economy and when you try to tell them there is no such thing as a free lunch – that somebody, somewhere has to pay for this stuff – they are offended.
So be it. Sooner or later, we will have to look these folks in the eyes and tell them, bluntly: No more.
Oh, they are going to howl, I realize. They’ll be belligerent and defiant, like a 2-year-old plopping down in the middle of the grocery store aisle and screaming his head off until mom buys him some gummy worms.
But we must not lose our resolve and if the Tea-Party Republicans who dominate our Legislature don’t like it, they can go ahead and hold their breath till they turn blue, for all we care. We are not going to be badgered. No more gummy worms for House Speaker Phillip Gunn or Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, whose tactics are pure Tea Party orthodoxy.
These are the people who say they want good roads and bridges, adequate and well-trained law enforcement officers, good schools for our children, decent, well-maintained state parks, clean air and water, well-stocked and modern libraries, programs for the arts, excellent health facilities and so many other things that are needed for a healthy and happy society.
But the disconnect between what they say they “want” and what they are willing to do to achieve it is obvious: They don’t want to provide the funds to pay for these things
Every real effort to increase revenue (the money required to pay for all this “stuff”) has been shot down on one side of the aisle or the other. Gunn and Reeves, whose political ambitions are awesome to behold, are locked in a mortal battle to determine who can be the most self-serving, obstinate person in state government.
At Gunn’s direction, the House passed a bill that would allow for the state to collect sales tax on purchases made through the Internet, which could add anywhere from $75 million to $125 million to the budget each year while leveling the playing field for our local retailers. Reeves responded by ordering the Senate hold the bill in committee, essentially killing the measure.
Not to be outdone, Reeves allowed a bill that would create a state lottery to move out of committee and onto the floor, where it passed by a comfortable margin. That measure would generate about $160 million annually for the state. Gunn ordered that the bill be strangled in committee. Touche’, Tater.
And so it goes.
Unless something dramatic happens in the remaining 33 days of the session, we’ll be right where the free-loaders who run our state insist we remain. They’ll demand stuff, but refuse to pay for it.
The something-for-nothing crowd will win yet again.
And as long as the people of Mississippi people put up with it, they will not have to have even held their breath to get their way.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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