Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba repeated the lie that state government does not pay Jackson for its water more than a few times before he was forced to backtrack and admit the untrue nature of his statements. The Mayor made the false claim as recently as last week to the progressive website Democracy Now. He made similar remarks in a March 8 local press conference and March 12 in the New York Times.
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez interviewed Mayor Lumumba on March 17 about Jackson's water crisis. The Mayor told the progressive website:
One, the city of Jackson is the largest city by a factor of three, the highest contributor to revenue to the state. We are the state capital, which means that many of our properties are untaxable. We do not get payment in lieu of taxes. Furthermore, we provide water to state facilities at no cost to the state of Mississippi. So, if they just paid their water bill, the city of Jackson would be in a lot better position.
This is the same false statement he told to the New York Times on March 12 and at a press conference on March 8. He reluctantly fessed up - after this website filed some public records requests and busted the false statements. The NYT published a correction on March 24:
An article on March 13 about a prolonged lack of drinkable water in Jackson, Miss., after a storm included remarks from Chokwe Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, in which he described incorrectly the state’s payment for local water resources. The state does pay for the water that its agencies use; it is not the case that the city receives no payment from the state.
WLBT reported the correction last night. Although he admitted making the false statement, he doubled down on casting blame on the state:
The city of Jackson is the largest city by the factor of three. We provide fire and police protection to the state and unlike many other capital cities, we don’t get a payment in lieu of taxes to accommodate (us) for the lost revenue we experience because of state properties not being taxed,” he said.
State-owned properties are not subject to ad valorem taxes. The city, though, still provides fire and police protection to those facilities, the mayor explained.
Many states have put in place PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, programs to compensate cities for the loss of property tax revenue associated with tax-exempt properties.
Mississippi has not established a PILOT program, per se, but has set up a “Capitol Complex Improvement District,” and provides an annual allocation to cover some public projects within it. Article.
The Mayor opposed the CCID bill when it was passed as he preferred a direct appropriation of sales tax money to Jackson.
Kingfish note: The Mayor only made the correction after this website blew up the narrative on March 19. It strains credibility to believe no one in the administration knew the state pays Jackson over a million dollars per year for water services.
41 comments:
The mayor the wokest of them all. Does he not realize that all the state workers pay sales tax by having to come downtown and buy food every day. Does he not realize that the capitol complex has it's own police department, the state does not need JPD. The only thing the city provides is fire protection. How many state buildings have burned down recently.
Dumber than a box of chicken bones.
Stokes is right. He IS a common liar.....
If he is worried about tax exempt buildings why not go after the churches. They don't pay any property tax either. I am sure he would like to see that changed.
Maybe you forgot about the heroic effort the fire Department made to put out the fire at the Ag museum a few years ago.
High schoolers spend more time verifying sources for basic reports than some of the multimillion dollar new media outlets do.
But I get it.
Facts are boring. The people crave drama and narrative and by God, they will make it if they have to.
And the old armory on the Fairgrounds
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
I think it's a bad idea to drag the good men and women of the police department (excluding the leadership at the top) and the fire department into this incredibly stupid narrative created by the mayor.
"If he is worried about tax exempt buildings why not go after the churches. They don't pay any property tax either. I am sure he would like to see that changed."
I sure would. Why do I have to pay for your club house or your hobby? Take a look at churches who pay for their preacher's housing by buying a 'parsonage'. Why does that guy get to live property tax free - or, in the case where the clergy gets a housing allowance instead of a parsonage... that TOO is tax free (save for SECA)?
Why am I paying for your religion?
ok fine those buildings burned 2 in the last 20 years my bad. my feeling is the state should cut a check every month to the fire department, then problem is solved. I mean really how many state owned buildings are there compared to all the commercial buildings in the city. There are very few in comparison. So all this talk about state owned buildings is a distraction. He is liar and the way he talked about the M Club I tend to believe Stokes.
"I think it's a bad idea to drag the good men and women of the police department (excluding the leadership at the top) and the fire department into this incredibly stupid narrative created by the mayor."
Well, after all, he DID drag them into a gun show a few weeks ago.
The Mayor is correct - the state does not pay real estate taxes to the city for the state owned buildings.
Neither does the county. Or the federal government.
Nor do the churches. Or the hospitals. Or many of the charitable enterprises that have property inside the city limits of his most radical city.
And, the city provides fire protection for all of those properties, just as they do for the state owned facilities.
Yet, he only bitches about the state properties. Is he complaining to his Congressman, and his President, that the feds are not paying real estate taxes on the McCoy Federal Building, or the Cochran Courthouse? Or any of the other federally owned properties? No. Just those state-owned buildings that bring tens of thousands of workers into his radical city every day; many of whom live in the city and pay not only real estate taxes but also much in his additional sales tax assessments.
Does he complain that the hospitals are not paying 'their fair share', yet at the same time enjoying the fact that the one square mile north of Woodrow Wilson in itself would be the second largest populated city if it were a city rather than a part of his radical complex?
He doesnt recognize the fact that the State government provides $12 million annually in the form of CCID expenditures fixing his neglected infrastructure - a program that was provided to be "in lieu of taxes". Why? Because he wanted that money given straight to the city so that they could grease their favorite contractor's pockets with it, and require all his EBO (minority business set-asides) in the construction projects.
He refuses to provide police protection on or around the Ms fairgrounds during the annual state fair, een though it is within his radical city and the streets surrounding it are city streets.
What he doesn't want to acknowledge is that if those state owned properties were not in his radical city, Jackson would not be the 'largest city by a factor of three". Not only would the staet employees not be living in Jackson, but many of those who's business is related to the functions of stata government would not be living here any longer. Nor would those private businesses be renting or owning office buildings in his radical city, and paying taxes on those buildings.
Smaller towns also have state owned buildings within them - granted, not to the same extent but to many they represent a similar percentage of the total buildings within their city limits - and within the jurisdiction of their fire and police departments. And they aren't bitching about them being there either. In fact, if the state ever proposes to move the facilities out of a town, the bitching then starts - because the town fathers appreciate the value of having those operations within their towns.
But not Chokwe. He wants to be the big wig of THE CAPITAL CITY. But he wants the Capital to pay for being here. Nothing like having your cake and eating it too. Along with never letting a crisis go to waste, no matter what kind of lie you have to make to gain benefits.
4:55. You are so "perfect" in this analysis it is scary. I wish I could state my name. I KNOW. You are perfect.
Maybe a little reductive analysis is called for?
If it wasn’t for the state buildings being in Jackson along with the largest hospitals in the state, Jackson wouldn’t have much to offer. Lots of tax paying businesses have already been run out of town.
Kingfish - Stop with the damned pandering about the fire department. The post clearly said the city PROVIDES fire protection.
Imagine how bad Jackson would be if the state decided they were moving all the agencies and the legislature to Madison or Rankin. Then who would this dummy blame for his incompetence?
If I lived in Jackson, I think I would have to vote for Big Mama before I voted for Labumba. I don’t think she can be worse. I mean there is literally sewage in the streets.
The atheists and other anti-Christians on this blog seem devoid of critical thinking skills. Tax the churches and other charities and watch your taxes explode due to the increased costs in social services. The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, UMCOR, local churches, etc. get their hands dirty by doing the work that the anti-churchers will not do. Does anyone rationally think that the government can do through taxation and confiscation better than what the church folk do from passion?
That bunch does little but whine at the people who actually care.
WLBT story written by that loser Anthony Warren:
"However, local blog site Jackson Jambalaya uncovered that the state does pay bills, something that WLBT has confirmed through its own open record request."
Get that? Warren has to confirm Kingfish's reporting but apparently WLBTWAPTWJTVClarionLedgerNYTimesWAPOMSNBC will report on ANYTHING that comes out of the mouth of Lumumba without fact checking a damn thing.
They don't even lift a finger -- or in Warren's case get off his fat ass -- to assess whether or not this ideologue Mayor is playing fast and loose with his always self-serving spin, they just report his garbage verbatim as fact.
Screw 'em all and screw Antard Lumumba.
Ok so why is this worth taking about and talking about and talking about. The mayor lies his ass off. Most politicians do it’s just that he’s taking it to a fine art. What’s troubling is constituents that keep voting these types on con man criminals into office. One has to wonder just what kind of city would allow themselves to be duped into believing the con. Oh, he looks like me so he must be on my side and will fight tooth and nail for my needs and not his own. It’s nothing new, major cities across this nation are being run into the ground by incompetence gleefully supported by unapologetic lunatics. So let’s just turn the page on the morally corrupt mayor and his mentality deficient minions.
Stokes is smarter than he lets on. Dope boys running Jackson. And boo boo running freely.
A lie is knowingly saying something you know is not true, which is not what the Mayor did. He was mistaken, and when he learned that the State did pay for at least some of the water it uses in Jackson, he immediately set the record straight.
Mayor Lumumba should be applauded for doing the right thing, not condemned. He could have done like former President Trump does to this day and double down even when Trump knows what he’s saying is a lie. How many times has he told the lie “I won the election in a landslide?”
Does the city actually collect ad valorem taxes? I thought that was a county function.
Dear Mayor,
The state does not owe Jackson a bailout of its water system. If the state provides assistance, it will be an act of grace, not payment of a debt.
10:06, that's the biggest bunch of crap, or having your blinders on, or being on the payroll (official or back pocket) of the Mayor.
If he didn't know that the state paid for their water, he is a bigger dumbass than we have been shown over the past four years. And, he made these statements over several days, in front of his staff -- you know, those people that get paid to make sure they know things like this. His CAO, his CFO, his Head of PW, and the staff that run the billing department at the water/sewer office all should know the answer to this even if he didn't.
And, if he didn't, why hasn't he raised this issue sometime prior to this last week, after the 'crisis' he declared needed a state bailout? He has gone to the state with his hand out every year since coming into office. He has never raised the issue of the water and sewer being provided and not paid for - because he never thought that was a tale he could get away with, even though he punctuated it with his traditional "right"!
Comparing Lumumba to Trump is probably a good comparison, though. Both are such egotistic idiots that they think/thought they could say anything and get away with it - at least with their 'followers'. And both of them can. But the fact that you compare Lumumba's idiocy with Trump's is nothing but proving against your point. He lies, just like Trump lied (particularly about the election being stolen.) Maybe Kennuf is the only one that called it right, on both counts.
If Lumumba didn't know that the state was paying water/sewer bills in excess of a few million dollars per year, which was a significant percentage of the total being collected, then we should accept your premise and kick the idiot out since he obviously wouldn't have the reasonable ablility to be in charge of his 'radical' city.
Jamie, you’re taking a lot of credit for something that had nothing to do with you. Stop stealing CJ’s stuff and passing it off as your own. It’s getting old.
Lumumba and Biden are a good comparison: egotistical and incompetent but with media lap dogs swallowing every word. Heck, even James Carville was complaining that the media gave Biden a press conference love session. KF is the only media I find the questions Lumumba.
Trump is egotistical but competent with media at his throat.
chowke is right, the city does provide police and fire protection to the state-owned buildings for free. So does every other state capital city in the country. And yet, all of those others somehow manage to run a water system without screwing it up. Imagine that.
You all need to leave Mayor CAL alone. It is a re-election time and he scrambling to stay in.
I work for a small town in Ms with nowhere near the assets, businesses, and tax base that Lumumbatown has. We have city, county, state, and federal buildings in our town that pay no ad valorem(property) taxes. Also numerous churches, a hospital, and some businesses that pay no or reduced taxes per state law. We provide police and fire protection to all of them for free. We also have a well functioning water/sewer system. We never lost any water service during the winter storm, even though we had colder weather and more ice/snow than Lamumbatown.
Perhaps its because over the last 50 years we have spent thousands and thousands of $$$ maintaining our system.
Perhaps we had the $$$ to perform this maintenance because we bill ALL our customers EVERY month, collect those payments, and CUT OFF the ones that dont pay.
This aint rocket science.
What reason does the Mayor of Jackson have for showing up your a hearing/trial of a convicted felon in Madison County. if he has ties to the Mayors deceased father then let that dog LIE! Stokes is right as this is too shady to not be connected to drugs. Our parents told us that whoever we ran with as children you would be associated with. You can love the sinner but hate the sin. You do not have to associate with Criminals!
10:08 No congrats are in order. He is either a liar or an incompetent fool. After years as the mayor, he was not aware of such an essential fact(he said it was important) means he lacks basic competence... Or he is political opportunist and liar. Applause?
“ Tax the churches and other charities and watch your taxes explode due to the increased costs in social services.”
I’m willing to bet that if Broadmoor has to pay property taxes, my taxes wouldn’t go up a penny.
With $2.3mm in cash in hand, I think they can afford it.
Get a fuckin grip.
1:52 Name the atheist or agnostic groups that show up to feed the hungry, provide relief to disasters victims, etc. Nah, you would rather see human suffering increase.
Give a link proving Broadmore Baptist has $2.3 million in cash. I say you are making it up.
Jackson is lost and only the citizens can save it. I do not see any hope on the horizon. The rest of this state is not going to let Jackson take the rest of us down with it.
Which ad valorem taxes is the city missing out on? It isn't property tax or motor vehicle tax because those are collected by the county.
On a different note, boasting about your church being rich is not cool.
10:09 who is boasting about their church being rich? Some clown claimed the Broadmore Baptist is sitting on $2.3M in cash. I called the guy out and asked for a credible source.
And no, I don't go to Broadmore and neither am I Baptist. I do get tired of seeing people lie about the churches. Do churches have flawed people? Sure. But as someone posted, you don't see atheists showing up to relieve human misery.
1:07, I was referring to the comment at 1:52. Why would you think I was writing about you?
-10:09
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