Jackson Free Press

Some former mayors of Mississippi Delta towns would like to have a word with Gov. Phil Bryant.

In a recent interview, Bryant asserted that "there is no one who doesn't have health care in America."

Former Aguilla Mayor Emma Cooper-Harris says she's a living, breathing example to the contrary.

"Is he here today? I need to tell him I don't have a drop (of health care)," Cooper-Harris told the Jackson Free Press at the Capitol last week.

After being laid off from her job with a nonprofit agency and losing her health insurance, Cooper-Harris said she needed to have kidney surgery. Now, she owes the hospital $60,000.

"I've got to go back to the doctor next week. I don't even know how I'm going to get there," Cooper-Harris said.

Former Metcalfe Mayor Shirley Allen said her husband recently retired from Mars Foods, which makes Uncle Ben's rice, in Greenville. She said the cost of insuring them both would cost $900 per month, about half his pension.

Last week, state House Democrats fired the first salvo in what could be a big, messy battle over Medicaid expansion by killing an otherwise routine reauthorization bill. Democrats prefer the Senate bill, which, would let lawmakers have a debate about expansion.

Former Leland Mayor Barbara Brooks is hopeful that the Legislature goes through with the Medicaid expansion despite Bryant's resistance. "Our governor is uninformed about a lot of things related to health care," Brooks said.

Early Education Kumbaya?

Mississippi's legislative leaders promised a whirlwind session heavily focused on education issues. Based on the volume of education-related bills flying out of the Capitol, they appear to be achieving that goal.

Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn rolled out a plan last week to fund early childhood education 
in Mississippi.

"I think it's going to make a huge difference long-term in improving the overall educational performance of our citizens," Reeves said last week.

The Legislature passed a pilot pre-kindergarten program in 1990, but never funded it. This year, bills in the state House and Senate call for creating public-private collaboratives that would include public-school districts, Head Start programs and private child-care facilities and businesses.

Oleta Fitzgerald, director of the Children's Defense Fund's Southern Regional Office, called the bills a good start. "Any incremental change will help us along the way," Fitzgerald told the Jackson Free Press.

The groups could apply to the Mississippi Department of Education for money to pay for teaching 4-year-olds in schools that meet certain standards. The state would put up half the money, and the local groups would raise the rest. In the first year, the state would kick in $8 million and serve about 3,500 children.

Baria Sacks PAC

Politics is dirty game, and the 2011 Mississippi statewide elections were some of the dirtiest anyone has witnessed in a long time.

During that campaign, then-Sen. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, was running for a House seat and became the target of what he calls some "nasty hit pieces"--direct-mail flyers that falsely accused Baria of voting to raise taxes on food and give himself a pay raise as well as gouging clients in his law practice.

Despite that, Baria won the race. In Nov. 2012, he filed a libel suit against the outfit that produced the mailers, Advance Mississippi PAC.

Steve Simmons, a lobbyist from Brandon, is behind the political-action committee, according to Secretary of State records. Advance Mississippi's filings show that the, group spent $284,000 on races and took in donations of more than $50,000 each from the political-action committees of the Mississippi Manufacturers Association, Mississippi Association of Realtors and the Mississippi Bankers Association. The Mississippi Poultry Association PAC also kicked in $11,000.

Baria said he thought the groups had reached a settlement that involved the PAC recanting the false allegations in a full-page newspaper ad; however, the settlement was dropped because the PAC wanted to include the inflammatory political mailers in the newspaper ad. The suit is still pending.

Comment at www.jfp.ms. Contact R.L. Nave at [email protected].