Jackson Free Press

Gov. Haley Barbour laid out his agenda and policies, in many ways for the first time, when he gave his State of the State address on Jan. 26. Of course, as usual with such speeches, what he didn't say is about as important as what he did. Thus, here's a look at a few of the facts that ended up on the cutting-room floor.

Barbour: "First and foremost, my budget will state very clearly that we do not need to raise anybody's taxes — period. … I sense the Legislature's sentiment not to raise taxes… ."

The governor, probably due to his own conservative philosophies, seems to assume that the state of Mississippi, and its citizens, are opposed to the idea of raising taxes, any taxes, no matter what the alternative is. And in a year when federal mandates (such as No Child Left Behind), national economic and job woes, and the loss of manufacturing jobs due to free-trade policies have come home to roost, the state is facing some very difficult decisions about how to spend its money. Barbour is ignoring the fact that Mississippians are not opposed to raising any and all taxes for any and every reason. In 2003, a Stennis Institute of Government survey of Mississippians found that 78 percent are willing to pay higher taxes for guaranteed health-care coverage and to ensure good health care for children, and a strong majority support a 50-cent hike on cigarette taxes, in particular. In essence, both Republicans and Democrats in the state are prepared to look at a progressive approach to solving budget problems, even if Mr. Barbour isn't.

Barbour: "t is our job as state leaders to make the soil for those seeds [of job creation] fertile. One way to do that is to continue the work this Legislature began in 2002 to reform our civil justice system. We must eliminate lawsuit abuse in Mississippi. Lawsuit abuse continues to threaten the quality of and access to health care in our state."

It is a favorite mantra of Barbour and his backers to say that "lawsuit abuse" is the root of the cause of high medical malpractice rates in the state of Mississippi, which in turn, they say, are driving doctors out of the state. But recent studies are showing that this rhetoric is overblown, with much of the blame for high malpractice rates falling back on the insurance industry for their business practices. The non-partisan General Accounting Office of Congress concluded last year that malpractice claims are only one spoke in the wheel of reasons driving high insurance rates—and that doctors are not leaving states including Mississippi at nearly the rates that are hyped by the media and industry. And it criticized the mainstream media for only telling part of the "tort reform" story, including the fact that the vaunted damage caps passed by the state of California worked in conjunction with reforms of the insurance industry passed by the state's voters in 1988.

Barbour: "Of course, the mother's milk of economic development is education. I share this Legislature's goal of making education the top funding priority. We're making progress in education in our state, and we have an outstanding State Superintendent, Dr. Henry Johnson. I look forward to working with him to make sure no child is left behind."

Education may be the mother's milk, but the governor, however, pointedly did not say that he would support fully funding Adequate Education, leaving a big question mark in its stead. (See page 14.)

Barbour: I've discussed the teacher pay raise, but we need other incentives besides just pay packages to recruit new teachers in our public schools. Mississippi faces a significant teacher shortage, and as any school superintendent will tell you, the problem gets worse every year. To try to address this problem, this Legislature passed the Mississippi Teacher Shortage Act in 1998. An important component of this bill was to provide scholarships and other incentives to attract future teachers. These programs to recruit new teachers require those future teachers to be education majors and to be from Mississippi.

What Barbour doesn't say is that it is a major component of the Bush administration's education strategy to shift the focus away from the so-called "liberal" education offered in traditional education programs and toward attracting teachers without education degrees. In fact, the teacher requirements of No Child Left Behind make it more difficult for many education majors and less difficult for "experts" in various fields to be certified as public-school teachers. (See page 15.)

Barbour: "We should reform our charter school law to encourage innovation and improvement in the public schools by giving parents and students more choices."

This possibly means a reform of state law to make it easier for private corporations to get taxpayer dollars to run schools, such as the Edison Project does in other states. But that effort has not yielded the results promised. Keep an eye out.

Barbour: "For too long, we have judged politicians' commitment to education by how much money they are willing to spend. We should be judging politicians' commitment to education by the results they demand and achieve for our children."

Considering the level of high-stake testing already in place under both state law and No Child Left Behind, and the difficulties that states including Mississippi face in meeting its mandates financially, it is difficult to imagine why this statement was needed—other than to reaffirm Barbour's commitment to conservative public-education ideals of too little money amid a phethora of tests for both kids and teachers. In public schools, that is.

Barbour: My goal is to house prisoners at the least cost. My administration will make increased use of county-owned regional jails and private prisons to save money.

Barbour kept his promise on this one—and fast. By Feb. 3, he had signed into law House Bill 544, the Tallahatchie County Correctional Authority Bill. Being the very first bill he signed as governor, the signing may not have been the most symbolically progressive move of his administration, but both the House and Senate stood behind him. The Senate approved the measure with a 44-3 vote and the House adopted it by a 117-2 vote. Barbour's staff points out that the prison is a privately owned enterprise and that the measure is thus the equivalent of keeping alive a large business in a traditionally poor economic region. They are less prone to point out, however, that this business and its $6.3 million annual payroll, is more like a state university in that it's dependent upon state subsidies. (See below.)
— Staff reports