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The news about Mississippi just keeps on getting better!
First, the Mississippi House passed a bill to allow public to public School Choice. Not far behind is a bill that would allow a form of public to private School Choice.
A few days before that, the House passed a proposal to eliminate the income tax. Then they went and passed a bill to repeal lots of protectionist red tape that restricts the healthcare economy in our state. They even found time to pass a bill to remove the absurd law that prevents adults in our state from buying wine online.
Even the Senate went and passed a bill that has the potential to stamp out Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) ideology in our public universities.
It would be premature to start celebrating these wins for freedom. Each of these bills still needs to be voted through by both chambers before heading to the Governor’s desk. But it is hard to think of a year in which at this stage in the legislative session the prospects of reform shone as brightly as they do today.
After years of seeing free market reforms killed by vested interests in committee, our lawmakers suddenly seem to be giving conservative voters conservative policies.
For decades, vested interests at the state Capitol were able to stifle change. This helps explain why Mississippi was often thought of as 50th out of 50 states. Perhaps it is time to think again?
As Governor Tate Reeves keeps pointing out, Mississippi has momentum. In the second and third quarters of last year, our state had one of the fastest growing per person incomes and per person outputs of any US state.
Yes, you read that right. Mississippi was one of the fastest growing states in America.
This new growth data might only be a snapshoot, rather than a trend. However, if our legislature really does pass all of the measures listed above, Mississippi will be on an upward trajectory for sure.
Of course, even as you read this, an army of lobbyists with their snouts in the Jackson trough are frantically trying to kill off these proposed changes.
The absurdly named “Parent’s Campaign” has gone into overdrive to try to prevent giving actual parents more choice. Fake conservatives are thinking up a hundred reasons why we cannot afford tax cuts. Those Tate Reeves calls the “coalition of the status quo” are trying desperately to keep things the way they are.
Perhaps most dangerous of all are those commentators who have spent years excusing inertia by implying that Mississippi can only manage to make one change at a time. We will hear plenty of fatuous arguments that the state legislature only has the bandwidth to implement change at a snail’s pace. Some will tell us that this is the Mississippi way. Nonsense. Never accept excuses for mediocrity.
If the state legislature in Arkansas and Alabama can cope with tax cuts, school choice and deregulation at the same time, so can we.
A great deal of the credit for this reformist momentum is due to Speaker Jason White and his cadre of conservative lawmakers. We must pray that the Speaker and his team hold their nerve. Let us cheer on Speaker White as he faces down the vested interests that want to hold Mississippi back. Let us call out the hypocrisy of the smug, self-satisfied anti-school choice activists that sent their own kids to private school. Playing nicely with such people never works, so don’t.
Real conservative lawmakers who want to see Mississippi grow can vote for these changes in the knowledge that we have a President and a primary base behind them all the way!
Douglas Carswell is the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
MageeNews.com is the online news source for Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi
