Governor Tate Reeves issued the following statement on Facebook.
Warning: this is a long read. But I want to keep you up to date on what is happening in your state government and be transparent about my thought process. I vetoed several bills tonight, and I want to tell you why. There’s important news on efforts in the legislature to cut teacher pay and let violent criminals out of prison early.
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The first veto is the bulk of the education budget. That may surprise people, but I will tell you why. The legislature voted to cut a teacher pay program by $26 million. It would cut teacher pay by $26 million. 23,157 Mississippi teachers would get money that they’ve earned taken out of their pockets.
It was done quietly, without much or any conversation. Pretty much nobody in the legislature or education community knew about it until we discovered it in our bill review process this week and raised the alarm. We have to veto this so that they can come back and fix it—otherwise 23,157 teachers will get a pay cut.
This is a program that has been instrumental in improving our state’s education system. It gives additional pay to teachers in schools that are highly rated or improve a letter grade. Thousands of Mississippi teachers rely on it—from Barack Obama Elementary in Jackson to Harper McCaughan Elementary in Long Beach. They’ve already earned it. This is for grades they’ve already achieved.
I want to be clear: The legislature did not cut this teacher pay program by $26 million to save money. They moved it into a different fund that gives administrators control over it. That fund increased by $40 million. The philosophy is: it should be re-distributed throughout so that everybody gets a small piece, rather than rewarding success.
They’ve pushed this change for years. It’s always a debate. This time, they got it done behind the scenes. People from both parties support and oppose the program. Yesterday, a liberal Democrat Senator bragged on Twitter that “GOP legislative leadership ended this failed program.” Many other legislators have said they had no idea they were voting to cut this pay. I think it’s probably a mix. It definitely never got a real debate.
After I’ve vetoed the bill, the legislature has a chance to come back and override my veto—locking in a teacher pay cut. Or they can sustain it and fix this. I suspect most legislators didn’t realize that they were voting to cut teacher pay, and they will fix it. I believe they can get it done in a special session as soon as the legislature is finished with their quarantine due to the high number of COVID-19 cases that spread there.
Until then, the department of education will continue to function. The bulk of the agency will run in the short term by a letter from me, backed up by an AG opinion, stating that they constitutionally have to perform their duties until the legislature can fix this.
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I also had to veto House Bill 658 and Senate Bill 2123. The proponents call these criminal justice reform bills. I’ve been in favor of significant criminal justice reform bills in the past. I’ve helped make sure they become law. In fact, I signed a different one today that helps provide for better reentry into society after imprisonment. I’m generally sympathetic to the arguments. These individual bills go too far.
Right now, under Mississippi law, you can erase one felony from your record after a few years. One of these bills says that criminals can get three separate felony incidents erased from their record. To me, that goes too far. We can’t have career criminals walking around with no records. The law enforcement community that I spoke with agreed.
The same goes for Senate Bill 2123 – well-intentioned but too far. For example, it says a criminal can get parole if they’re convicted of crimes that could get them the death penalty but they get sentenced to life imprisonment instead. Another example: Right now, you’re eligible to get out of prison at 60 unless you’re a trafficker, habitual offender, or violent criminal. This totally eliminates those protections. I got countless calls from law enforcement and prosecutors about the risk it creates.
Contrary to what some will say, this was not a conservative reform effort. While some of my friends and good people supported it, two-thirds of Republicans in the Senate voted against it. That says something to me.
If they want to try again, I’ll listen. This was not the right approach.
I know that I’ll get attacked and protested for this. In a time when efforts to “defund police” and “dismantle the criminal justice system” are part of the discussion, they’ll probably try to paint any effort at law and order as the radical position. It’s all part of the job—this is the right thing to do.
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There were a few more small vetoes. I had to veto one bill that I love. The intent is perfect—allowing skills training instead of traditional education. It just goes a little bit too far by conflicting federal law. Because of that, it put federal dollars for skills training at risk. I will work hard with the legislators to get it done in a few months! Great goal—just needs a few tweaks and we can get it done!
There was an earmark to give $6 million of CARES Act funds to a cherry-picked corporation to address disparity. That kind of work is necessary. If they gave it to the health department that’d be fine. But there’s no justification for slipping it to handpicked interests and letting them dole it out to others for a vague mission. There has to be accountability. They earmarked $2 million from the CARES Act for a business deal with a Tate County hospital that has been closed since 2018–how does that have anything to do with COVID-19? They’ve been closed for two years!
I signed the rest of their bills—they passed hundreds. Lots of good things in there! A few I let go into law without my signature because I didn’t love them—lots of earmarks for special projects—but didn’t feel like they rose to the level of a veto.
Stay safe and stay strong, Mississippi!
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Governor Vetoes Several Bills
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39 comments:
Two million for hospital closed since 2018?
Thank you Governor Reeves for taking the time
to read these bills!
How does the governor propose we reduce our state prison population?
Administrators already run these little fiefdoms like personal employment agencies. They damned sure can't be trusted to wisely distribute 'free money'.
Looks like Tate is following in Phil’s footsteps with the veto of the parole bill. Phil gave us this prison mess, and so far I’m not sure that Tate will do anything to make it better. Sad.
Good for Tate. The parole bill is a joke. Criminal justice reform is double talk for drug legalization. If you want drug legalization great, vote for drug legalization. But don’t roll theft and assault into the mix and claim the sentences are the problem. The problem is that people won’t stop committing crime. You can not legalize the behavior outlined in the 10 commandments without repercussions. Stop using criminal justice reform as a code word for legalization.
Tater went to Millsaps, we will be OK....
So, 7:25...You favor the expungement of three felonies? You were also no doubt in favor of making it illegal for an employer to run a criminal background check. You're not Eric Fleming are you?
You know something? I’ve got to say that our Governor is making some very valid points. I liked most everything he said. I’ve been a critic of his up to this point. I believe he does have the interest of his people at heart.
How about this for reducing prison population - DON'T COMMIT THE CRIME!!!
Sorry Joel Bomgar, Dana Criswel, Russ Latino, Grant Callum, Franc Lee that the Governors vetoeD your soft on crime bills. I know you want your drug dealing pals criminal history erased. Maybe y’all can go live in California with all your liberal friends. Wouldn’t you be much happier there? Lol Hey 6:30. Stop committing crime will reduce the prison population.
Reeves admits we have major problems in our prison system and vetoes the first meaningful piece of legislation that could help fix it. Parole eligibility is not automatic release. But if gives inmates incentive to act right and better themselves, which can help them earn parole. It’s no rubber stamp.
8:26, let it go Bruce.
One problem with pardoning or expunging drug crimes is that it was illegal when the crime was committed and the person had "scienter," or clear knowledge that their conduct was illegal, at the time of the crime. It may be a valid argument in many cases that the person has reformed or would not have committed other crimes, and those are valid points. Just because a person sold pot doesn't mean they would rob banks, burglarize homes, or commit violent crimes, but it does mean that they were willing to risk imprisonment by violating what they knew to be a serious and seriously-enforced law against the very conduct in which they were willing to engage.
Clemency from further incarceration, is another matter. But with such clemency, those receiving it should not have that past willingness to engage in felonious activity wiped from their history should they further engage in it. However, a person who can clearly show reformation should be allowed to petition for a full pardon and in my opinion pardon should be granted in such cases.
Barbed wire, tarps and chain gangs.
giving teacher pay to a pool that administration controls? straight outta JPS policy...
That $26 million dollar education fund is for school districts with good accountability scores or marked improvements from the previous year.
MDE suspended accountability scores for the 2019-2020 academic year, so this money would not be a "pay cut." Rather, it would simply remove an unearned bonus teachers at high-performing schools which would have been paid. Put simply, eliminating the program would mean teachers in Tate-voting school districts would not be able to pay for Christmas presents with an ~$800 bonus awarded in November after the release of prior-year accountability scores.
My wife is a teacher. I think teachers should be paid more, but removing this incentive program for the current fiscal year is a reasonable thing because no data supports the program. However, redistributing it in a way administrators could see pay raises is wrong.
They campaigned on a teacher pay raise, and that $26 million would equate to a roughly $600 raise for teachers if it was codified under MAEP like last year's raise.
They screwed this up, and DMR employees don't currently have health insurance, but by-golly they changed the flag, beat their chests, and left town. Is it too much to ask for them to be thorough?
8:30 "incentive to act right and better themselves"?? They had that opportunity when they were on the outside and obviously failed to take advantage of the situation.
If as much attention were paid to keeping these dirt-bags out of jail to begin with as is being paid to getting them out of jail early, this conversation would not be necessary.
Haha all the soft on crime LIBERALtarians lose again. Stop trying to convince us it’s “conservative” to let criminals back into our streets to save money. I’d gladly pay more in taxes to pay more for our prisons so we can have order and peace in our neighborhoods.
By the way, Van Jones supports Empower MS. NUFF SAID.
Why don’t we have gang violence and turf wars over cigarettes and beer? Because they are LEGAL. Overprotective big government types types created this mess we have today because they want to protect us from ourselves from drugs. Same with requiring masks. That is NOT conservatism.
@ 9:47 sounds like a Northeast Jackson socialite too pretentious to move Madison or - gasp - Rankin County where crime is not tolerated quite so well.
I don't really feel sorry for people who voluntarily buy houses or choose to live in a place where there is no "order and peace" and subsequently complain about it. If you can afford to pay more taxes, you can afford a different solution.
Personally, I think a person charged and subsequently convicted of three felonies for the same criminal act (How many felony charges could come from walking into someone's house with a pocket knife?) should be able to have all three expunged. Perhaps this bill was too broad, but nobody can argue we need reform.
Hey 9:26, I'm a contributor to Empower MS and support what they do. Pretty sure Van Jones does not support them, unless you have evidence of that? No? Didn't think so. Law enforcement do a good job for the most part, but the question is what happens after people are arrested. Do we keep them in prison forever? In truth the prison system is just another big government program that spends too much and has little to show for it. Texas and Georgia have done a good job cutting their prison populations and reducing crime. Too bad our Governor doesn't have that kind of foresight.
Did he veto the PSA payments to SupeeTalk!
I'm with 9:10.
There's a rumor going around that a JPS principal got forced out of her job recently, because she allegedly tried to cover up her kid beating up another student with brass knuckles.
I'm not remotely concerned about reducing the prison population. There's something to making people who BREAK THE LAW have to serve their time. There's also something to making people who BREAK THE LAW have to earn their own keep. Bring back the prison farms where inmates actually have to produce much of what they eat. Remove cable TV. Actually make a prison be like a prison again.
As to the teachers and the attempt to cut the pay that they've already earned - lets put the legislators on the same pay scale that our teachers operate under. Maybe they would be a little more reluctant then to doing this kind of crap.
You can all jump on this now. Good day!
Good for Tater! And Bomgar is a conservative fraud!
The hospital in Senatobia was going to reopen with these funds in time to assist a community being overwhelmed with Covid
11:27, you have no idea what prison in Mississippi is like. It ain't no picnic anywhere. People with your mentality have been setting our criminal justice policy for decades. Our current policies don't work.
8:19, 8:26, 8:59, 9:32, 9:47, and 11:27: Spot on and thanks!
9:57, unlike you, I don't believe that everything should be ok. Some things are actually wrong and a menace to society (like mind altering drugs - taken them, been there, so I know about what I speak). The damage done to society from illegal - and legal - drugs, is incalculable. No way you can support a position that says making certain drugs illegal is unfounded. That being said, if you don't like the laws making them illegal, get them changed, because as long as there are laws making them illegal, people will be put in jail for breaking those laws. Incidentally, those same people are in 100% control of what they choose to do. It's difficult to feel sympathetic towards those who choose to break the law, then later complain about the consequences. I've never been to jail, because I first feared the consequences of breaking laws.......chief among them, the possibility of being put in jail. I'm not the only person capable of making the same types of decisions.
10:01 No sense at all. You totally contradicted yourself in your statement.
As for the teacher reward program or whatever it is called. The Nancies have been dead set against it from day one. Loome has always had her way with Gunn but she also gets a great deal of input with the Lieutenant Governor as well.
Russ Latino was mentioned above. Is he even borderline relevant any more?
Speaking of Money going to Supertalk, when will Kingfish acknowledge the July 2 Northside Sun article spotlighting the $700,000 dollars that went to that network empire from those who stole the welfare dollars? Or is that info off-limits?
1:28. . .I agree that our current policies aren't working. That's why we need to go back to the old days and what 11:27 suggested. Make prison as unattractive as possible to act as a deterrent to criminal behavior.
Van Jones' Reform Alliance partnered with Empower MS to try to pass criminal justice reform in Mississippi. That is a fact.
KF, the Northside Sun has deleted all of their articles about TeleSouth (Supertalk) millions of dollars of ad contracts from the taxpayers.
It's our money.
We deserve to know about this.
I posted a Bigger Pie article about it recently. Said pretty much the same thing. N Sun stories don't get posted here unless it is an absolute necessity.
"Joel Bomgar, Dana Criswel, Russ Latino, Grant Callum, Franc Lee"
You just named some of the most conservative people in our state. If you find yourself to the right of them, you really have to ask yourself 'just how far have I strayed?'
When are people going to learn that conservative and libertarian are not the same thing
4:02, those are not necessarily some of the most "conservative" people in the state. They are certainly some of the loudest, and all love to hear themselves opine. Some do so partly because others are paying them to do it.
And - conservative and libertarian are not the same, as was accurately noted by 7:53 above.
There may well be some criminal reform needed, but neither of these bills were right - except to those that either think 'minor crimes' don't need punishment or that are only concerned about the cost (tax dollars that they think they are the only ones contributing them) of incarceration.
Instead of focusing on saving those dollars by turning criminals free, they should be worried about the criminality of some members of the legislature in spending COVID dollars for non-COVID purposes, while personally profiting from them. That kind of criminality should be drawing attention but our Capitol Watch media see nothing wrong with it since one of the darling children was the perp.
@6:30 maybe people not commit crimes????????
Re: Education Funding Bill- Please explain partial veto? Do we have line-item veto? What was vetoed and what was not?
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