Jackson Jambalaya

Of course it does. Our legislature can’t do simple math. None of them. Neither can the state-wide office holders. Math is a foreign language to them all. This should disqualify all of them from any future elected offices.

I don't get it. Don't the parents invest money for eventual college tuition payment for their kids in this program? Why does the state have to kick anything in?

Thank Tate Reeves for this mess.

Lynn Fitch is going around the state preaching financial literacy. Can you say irony.

Here is how it works.....parent throws in some money. Our state guarantees that money will grow faster than college tuition inflation. If it doesn’t, the state makes up the difference.

So the taxpayers are on the hook if the state can’t make colleges reign in the growth of college costs beyond what the state can earn from its investment managers.

No moron would take that bet except elected officials with no skin in the game. They get to make that bet on our behalf. And then go preach about financial conservatism and financial literacy?

Same people that approved this also approved SLRP. They also killed the bridge funding program. They also passed tax breaks for wealthy business owners. They also mis-project budget estimates EVERY year. Why is any of this a surprise?

Good thing PERS is on solid financial footings

@7:13 that's MACS, this is MPACT. If only there was a website explaining the program...

Same people that approved this also approved SLRP.

Nope. As with SLRP, all established when the legislature was under the iron fisted majority control of Donkeycrats.

But that ruins your narrative, doesn't it?

Why does the state have to kick anything in?

Just like PERS the model assumed unrealistic growth rates for the underlying investments.

Nice try 726, but wrong. Thank Marshall Bennett for this fiasco, and his compatriot, Ronnie Musgrove.

Fitch should have 'noticed' this need before now, and for that she should answer. But the ridiculous concept was part of those 90's dot.Com bubble stock market craze that promised everybody everything. SLURP, PERS so called cola, all to be paid out of 'wonder money'.

Lynn is the current chair of PERS Board......I missed her press release on this issue

Nothing but politics, which she doesn’t do very well.

@9:19 then why can’t we “repeal and replace” now that we have “the party of fiscal responsibility” running things?

Republicans have had plenty of opportunities to do something about SLRP but have taken a pass.

Simple. College costs have risen 5x the inflation rate over the last 15or20 years. Got to keep those admin and prof salaries 5x that of non-college affiliated working people.

Sorry 9:52, Bennett kicked off the program but Reeves had 8 long years to make the moves necessary (that Fitch HAS done) to place MPACT on more stable footing when it was obvious it was not working. Instead he spent all those years using the CollegeSavings Mississippi advertising budget to establish free name recognition in advance of his run for Lite Guv. Fitch DID notice this before now, took action and is still working to resolve the problems. Catch up before commenting further.

If Tate Reeves has no responsibility in this tell me why Lynn caught as treasurer her first year, but Tate did not correct the issue for the 8 years he was Treasurer prior to Lynn? Looks like Tate was not doing his job to me.

Everything Fitch touches goes in the crapper. Sometimes she didn't do it, but she could have stopped it. Look at history.

9:19 every year the legislature does not kill SLRP they are complicit. Party affiliation has no bearing.

I remember when Fitch hosted the 529 1-mile fun run early on in her term at the Renaissance. They gave every top finisher in his/her age group a $529 investment in the MACS program. My daughter was around 4 or 5 at the time. There were so few people registered for this run that you basically only had to finish it to win $529. They don't give out as many of these "scholarships" now, but this was easy money. Thanks taxpayers!

7:59 how many letters or emails or phone calls have you written or placed to your Senator and House reps demanding that they end SLRP?

If Lynn had just left MPACT open and continued to accept contracts AND payments, MPACT would not be in this shape - Just ask the State Auditor. Fitch is separating the two funds which should be one fund, which would have the money to make the payments due. MPACT, like any other college savings fund have their money invested in the stock market, which goes up and down. Ask Lynn about her missed bond payment on the state's bond debt. She lied and it took the Governor and AG to call her on the carpet before she got the state
in real trouble. Both bond rating companie have launched an investigation into this matter. Keep watching and wait for the FEDS to come to town!

Fitch has fixed and continues to fix MPACT. The Legacy program was closed to new participants and then replaced by the structurally responsible Horizon offering. Fitch did stop it when it comes to MPACT. Look at history.

Someone could look at California or New York or Iowa and find out why their college tuition plans work well and ours does not.

"Fitch should have 'noticed' this need before now, "

Read it again. It seems this is the fifth year she had made this request, and the legislature has ignored it each time.

FWIW, my kids have their college money in 529 plans in another state without any guaranteed payout. If there is some guaranteed payout it's no wonder the state is hosed.

"Yes, sir, Mr. 8:17 AM, I agree with you 1,000 percent. I'll file a bill today killing that program. And thank you for calling. You betcha."

I've dealt with her enough not to like nor respect Lynn Fitch, but this is mostly on Tate not her. She inherited the mess that is MPACT (thankfully, it is a relatively small mess) from Tate. She tried to stop the gushing bleeding and has asked the Legislature to make up the shortfall quite a few times. Because it would draw light to his poor job as Treasurer, as Lt. Governor Tate won't agree to appropriate the money to shore up the shortfall.
That said, if Lynn were really courageous or conservative, she'd have ended new enrollments in the program instead of changing the rules for new enrollments. MS is now one of only 3 or 4 states with an MPACT type program. PERS is enough of a liability over the taxpayers' heads; we don't need MPACT too. Also, MACS is the one of the worst performing market-based college programs in the country. It needs to be overhauled.

Hey, 8:03am, you really should not speak of things you know nothing about. The awards in that race were paid for by sponsorships and race entries and other proceeds FROM THE RACE. NOT BY TAXPAYERS.

One more of many reasons to vote for ANYBODY BUT TATER!

The MACS plan does not have a clawback provision dealing with recovery of income taxes for which contributions were tax exempt. I rolled my kids’ money to a Vanguard 529 plan years ago because I couldn’t track returns in MACS and the TIAA-CREF fees were outrageous. No accountholder is bound to leave their money their with such poor returns and options.