July 1 will see winners and losers across the state courtesy of the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves.
The sales tax on groceries will drop from 7% to 5% providing a win to consumers. The benefit will apply to retail sales of food or drink for human consumption not purchased with government food stamps. At the same time consumers will lose as the excise tax at gas pumps moves from 18 cents-per-gallon to 21 cents, the first of three annual 3 cent hikes. After that the excise tax may increase 1 cent-per-gallon every other year based on changes in the National Highway Construction Cost Index. Major changes to the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) benefit package will not take effect until 2026, however the rate employers’ must pay to PERS on each employee’s salary will increase by one-half percent. This will be the second of five such annual increases. The losers here are local governments that must continually foot the bill for the legislature’s mismanagement of PERs funding. Among the biggest losers will be government entities expecting to share in the state’s growing surpluses. House and Senate negotiators were unable to agree on the annual “Christmas tree” bill that often provides millions of dollars for special projects.
Coming out of the recent special session, legislative leaders touted their passage of a “conservative” budget. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told the Commercial Dispatch, “Amid economic uncertainty and federal funding freezes, it was important for the state to take a prudent approach in crafting the next fiscal year’s budget.” Speaker of the House Jason White told reporters, “We're happy with the budget. It's conservative. It is well within our means. We're going to bank almost half a billion dollars again this year. We're going to take in that much more than we're actually spending. So, we think we're running our government in a prudent and common sense and conservative way.” Winners in the special session include public schools and prisons which received notable increases. Most agencies received level or almost-level funding. However, with inflation all those will actually be losers. “When you factor in annual inflation that amounts to a reduction of more than 5% in our operations budget for the coming year,” Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum wrote in a letter to faculty, as reported by the Commercial Dispatch. “It is very disheartening to see this lack of support when the State of Mississippi is in great fiscal shape and seeing record-setting economic development.” “For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man.” – 2 Corinthians 8:21. Crawford is the author of A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives.
12 comments:
“the legislature’s mismanagement of PERs funding.”
Bwahahahahaha. The State of Mississippi’s retirement system is a mess, not because of “the legislature’s mismanagement,” but because it’s a scam.
If state/fed employees would come out better in the free market, they would instead want their retirements invested in the free market.
We really should publish how much the top 10% of retired state employees are currently getting paid each month, as compared to how long they worked and how much they would have had in a 401K like free market retirement system…had they been required to use the free market like those of us funding their lavish lifestyles.
And what was Bill Crawford’s position when the current state retirement system was created?
“It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.” Ecclesiastes 7:5
“,,,the legislature’s mismanagement of PERS funding.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there has ever been a case where any branch of state, county, or city government that didn’t submit to PERS both the employer and employee portions as required by the plan and requested by the board. Since that’s the case, the problem has to lie in either the benefits being too high, and/or the investments underperforming. It can’t be blamed on fewer state employees either, because actuaries have that in their calculations, unless you’re truly running a Ponzi scheme.
I guess all of these issues are why practically all companies on Wall Street converted to defined contribution plans many years ago.
Just saying.
Who do y’all think passed the law creating PERS? Of course it’s the Legislature’s fault.
Smoke, meet mirror.
PERS, like all defined benefit plans, is a dinosaur. Corporations who had defined benefit plans decades ago, realized they would go broke if these plans were kept.
The “gotcha” in the state plan and a 401K is that although I may have more cash but I have to invest and be aware of down markets or crashes. My state retirement friends who retired at 62 and are now 75 collect their monthly benefit and wait for their 13th check. I know several couples where both taught, took retirement at 62 and are, including Ss collecting in excess of $150,000 a year. Federal government employees also get cost of living increases
How interesting that the reduction in federal funds that support existing functions and the elimination of FEMA to help recover from flooding or hurricanes isn't mentioned. Red states especially, are going to learn about federal government the hard way.
Y'all should all learn to follow the money. You will see government tax money being used to enrich politicians more clearly. Already our state tax dollars end up benefitting our legislators and their supporters...not the state as a whole.
Right, your friends are the beneficiaries of the PERS Ponzi where they'll pull out of the system far in excess of anything they ever contributed.
"The benefit will apply to retail sales of food or drink for human consumption..."
Assuming beer and wine sold in grocery stores will not get the tax break, even though purchased, arguably, for human consumption.
At least Mississippi stopped covering the beer case with brown butcher paper on Sundays.
But if you're going bream fishin' and stop at Shell to buy crickets and beer, you will wait until after 7 a.m. Mississippi is a progressive state for sure. Surely this kind of crap helps with industrial recruitment.
What a comedian you are! Lavish lifestyle? Reckon that's why so many state employees work second and third jobs?
10:01 PM, hence the words “publish how much the top 10%” “are currently getting paid.”
Know a state retiree with a lowly job most of their career that earned a higher income for a small percentage of said career. They retired well before the retirement ages of non-government commoners, earning a 6 figure annual income, before the 13th check.
Unless, like non-government commoners, state retirees are forced to live with returns generated from investments via contributions made on their behalf, and they are not being paid with contributions from current workers, it’s a SCAM. And the really big scam inside of the scam is, how does it work exactly? Their retirement is based off of the highest 4 years of income?
But instead of telling the truth that it’s a scam, Crawford blames the scam on “the legislature’s mismanagement of PERs funding,” then quotes scripture.
We really should publish how much the top 10% are currently getting paid.
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