Aiden Robinson of Brandon might look a lot different today if not for the care he received at the JMS Burn and Reconstruction Center in Jackson in 2019. 

Aiden, who was 9 years old at the time, was cooking with his father at their home when he accidentally dumped a pot of boiling water on himself, burning over 80% of his body. 

“For best results, burn patients need to be seen as soon as possible. Not all doctors or ER staff even know how to treat the skin of a burn victim, so my fear is, what’s going to happen to those patients now?” said Aiden’s mother Kristel Robinson. 

Kristel is referring to the closure of the burn center that cared for her son three years ago. Merit Health Central, where the program is housed, announced in early September the program  would close in October. It is the only accredited burn program in the state.

In 2021, the center saw nearly 2,000 admissions and 7,261 clinical visits. Surgical cases totaled 2,776. 

Now, several employees of the burn center at Merit Health, who did not wish to be named because they feared retribution from their current or future employers, say they are scrambling to find a new home for the program. They were given just over a month’s notice that the program would be closed, they said, and moving the program to one of the other eight Merit Health locations in the state was not something that interested Merit Health or its parent company Community Health Systems. 

“We were told Sept. 7 that we had until Oct. 14 to get out,” one employee told Mississippi Today. “Shock was an understatement due to seeing 600-plus patients a month. We are very concerned for our patients.”

Another employee also felt blindsided. 

“For something that’s as vital to the community as this – (it was), we’ll go with, aggressive,” another employee said of the hospital’s decision. 

Officials with the hospital did not respond to questions from Mississippi Today for this story. 

In the September statement announcing the closure, hospital officials cited the pandemic and recruitment challenges. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the challenging staffing and recruitment environment have made it increasingly difficult for us to recruit the breadth of specialists needed to maintain the burn program, which is the primary reason we’ve made the difficult decision to close the Burn Center effective Oct. 14, 2022,” the statement said. 

While employees reel from the shock of the announcement, leaders are in conversations with hospitals about opening the burn center elsewhere, and they are hopeful things move quickly. 

After Oct. 14, however, patients will be redirected to one of the regional burn centers in Augusta, Ga., Memphis, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., or New Orleans, La.

Mississippi’s burn programs in recent years have not fared well. The program formerly run in Greenville by Delta Regional Medical Center closed in 2005. Merit Health opened its burn center with the Burn and Reconstructive Centers of America in 2008.

In 2006, before Merit Health agreed to start a center, state lawmakers approached then vice chancellor of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dr. Dan Jones. 

“The finances of burn care at the time were far less than ideal. Unfortunately, like many health problems, this affects families who have lower incomes more than it does other families … The same problem that was happening in Greenville would become our problem,” Jones said.

He said he went to the Legislature to ask for a yearly commitment to help UMMC run the program. Lawmakers offered UMMC one-time money but no commitment for ongoing funds. 

“We made the hard decision that we couldn’t do that,” he said. 

Now, more than 10 years later, when asked by Mississippi Today if UMMC is considering taking on a burn center, officials declined to comment.

Before Aiden’s injury, Kristel knew nothing about the burn program. When she and her husband called the ambulance, she assumed Aiden would be taken to Children’s of Mississippi.

“When we arrived (at the burn center), we didn’t have to wait because he was so severe. They let us know that night there was a window of time the doctors needed to save the skin,” she said. “(In order to have) as few surgeries as possible and for recovery to be easier, he would need surgery that night.”

One of the procedures he had was done on his ear. At the time, only three doctors in the country were performing it, Kristel said.

“We’re not just losing a hospital, we’re losing talented doctors, nurses, OT and PTs by the close of this center,” she said. 

Aiden required a year of treatment, including some physical therapy, after the accident. He received all of his follow-up care at the burn center clinic, his mom said. 

Today, Aiden is 11 years old. The only remnant of his accident is one small scar on his arm and skin that’s extra sensitive to the sun.

“If someone would have told me in 2019 that Aiden would be able to live without scars, I wouldn’t have believed them,” said Kristel.

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Mississippi’s two state-regulated power companies are now pushing back against the Public Service Commission’s new rule expanding incentives for self-generated power.

The PSC approved the new rule on self-generation, similar to net metering in other states, in July. The update expanded reimbursement rates for low-income customers and created a $3,500 rebate for homeowners and small businesses looking to install their own renewable energy system, such as rooftop solar panels. The rule also adds incentives for public schools looking to use solar panels.

But last month, Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power both filed motions with the PSC to reconsider those changes. The power companies both question whether the commission even has the authority to create such incentives.

The PSC granted a new hearing, set for Sept. 27.

Utility companies like Entergy and Mississippi Power have long argued that expanding self-generation creates added costs for non-participating customers. Clean energy advocates say those companies just want to monopolize power distribution, and point to the long-term benefits of growing the renewable energy industry in the state.

Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley said his goal is to find a compromise before next week’s rehearing and avoid litigation, which he said could take two to three years and would pause Mississippi’s self-generation programs.

“It would be a travesty to be hung up in court for two to three years, and the result of that appeal process is not one residential or Solar-for-Schools project gets done,” Presley said.

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Several Jackson restaurateurs won’t be using the low-interest loan program Gov. Tate Reeves said would “go a long way” to assist businesses as the city’s troubled water system hangs overhead. 

And they can’t imagine many of their peers will, either. 

It’s not that the businesses don’t need a lifeline. It’s that they don’t want to pile on more financial commitments while the water system and the city’s future feels unstable. Most operators already took out similar low-interest loans the Small Business Administration deployed in response to the pandemic.

Most businesses haven’t even started paying back those COVID-19 loans and many loaded up credit cards so they could afford bottled water and extra supplies to stay open during the water system’s seven-week failure. 

“This has been more like a slow bleed than a car crash,” said Jennifer Emerson, who owns Fondren’s Walker’s Drive-in with her husband. “And no one wants to incur more debt.” 

The SBA says about 60 businesses have started the application process so far. Lesley Hill, a public affairs specialist with SBA, said applying for and being offered a loan doesn’t mean a business has to accept it if the owner decides it isn’t the right fit later on. Businesses who don’t take an offered loan also have six months to go back and accept if needed. 

Despite the end of the boil-water notice a week ago and politicians encouraging citizens to spend money downtown, restaurateurs told Mississippi Today sales have improved a little but are still lagging – down by anywhere from 25% to 40%.

Fondren business owners say they’re on edge knowing the coming month’s cold weather will likely bring more problems. Last winter, several businesses in the downtown district were left without water for more than two weeks when frozen pipes burst.

“I’d rather see a plan in place,” Emerson said. “It’s hard to get people who live in Jackson back, and it’s impossible to get people from the suburbs back, if they don’t have the confidence that the water is safe and clean.” 

Reeves announced the water was safe last week, after tests at the plant came back clear for two days in a row. But local business owners said people are still skeptical and that has bled into their bottom lines in an industry already known for low profit margins. 

“We recognize people already have SBA loans, COVID loans, and that the last two-and-a-half years have been trying on everyone,” Hill said. “Businesses have been affected to the point they’re no longer able to survive.” 

Hill said businesses uninterested in loans should still come to their Business Recovery Center inside the Metro Jackson Chamber of Commerce building to be connected to free financial services with a partner group – some of whom have grant programs. 

Dana Koenig, the manager of the Aladdin Mediterranean Grill, said the nearly seven-week boil-water notice was a nightmare to navigate. It was a scramble to get to Sam’s Club to get enough water just to wash vegetables. There were days the business shifted just to take out because they barely had water pressure.

“A grant I could understand,” Koenig said. “But a loan? How about not making us pay sewage bills for the days we didn’t have water.” 

Visit Jackson, the city’s tourism bureau, has launched a small grant program but the payouts for businesses with 50-seats or fewer are $500 and for those with more than 200 seats up to $2,000. That’s the price range most businesses told Mississippi Today they were spending on water and ice just to get through a single week.

The Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program offers Jackson businesses loans with interest rates as low as 3.04% and payback period of up to 30 years. 

The loans are often used by businesses who have been leveled by hurricanes or other natural disasters. Jeff Good, who operates Sal & Mookie’s and two other Jackson restaurants, called the loan program generous but not the right fit for what most of the city’s businesses need.

“For most of us restaurateurs in Jackson, a loan, which we must pay back, is yet another negative financial burden which we simply cannot justify,” Good said. “We simply want our operating environment to stabilize. We want water. We want safety. We want quality of life.”

eZra Brown, the owner of Fondren’s new bubble tea shop Soulé, also won’t be applying for the loan program. He said he’s working on digging himself out of debt, not adding more. 

“All we want to do is pay our taxes and deliver smiles,” he said of himself and area business owners.

He has other Soulé locations in South Carolina. He took out SBA loans to get through the throes of the pandemic and then hit the water crisis as soon as he opened in Jackson.

He would like to see state and city leadership create better contingency plans. Most business owners agree: Until the system is overhauled, it’s not a matter of if there’s another outage or boil-water notice but when. 

“If or when this happens again: What do we do? Who do I call on? Is a truck coming to deliver emergency water?” Brown said. “A five-gallon would be great. Just something that makes sense.”

Brown is working on refitting his equipment with his own filter and abilities to go off the water grid. But he wishes he’d be able to rely on the city – and a well-explained plan to fix the water system to ease everyone’s mind and security.

“We have been rallying around each other,” Brown said. “I think the community has gained more momentum helping each other out of a bad situation.” 

He has noticed more people coming back downtown. They’re leery still, he said. But with running clean water, he’s finally seeing more smiles. 

At least that’s something. 

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Brandon High School’s athletics booster club is raffling nearly 30 guns throughout the month of October as a part of its current fundraising campaign. 

The Thirty for Thirty raffle is an annual event which gives away one prize each day in the month of October. This year, 28 of the 31 prizes are guns; raffle tickets cost $20. A raffle winner picks up their prize directly from Van’s Sporting Goods, a local outdoor store, and must meet “all qualifying criteria” according to the information posted on the Brandon Bulldog Athletics Facebook page. 

Brandon High School Principal Bryan Marshall said that Van’s has been sponsoring the fundraiser for years and said this type of fundraiser is relatively common across Mississippi.

“There’s lots of gun giveaways in Mississippi that I know of,” Marshall said. “Most people do it the same way, nobody actually handles a weapon because you can’t just give a weapon away without it being registered, you’ve got to go through the process.”

Marshall also said that the school has no control over what the prizes are, and it is just a beneficiary of the money raised. 

Rickey Neaves, executive director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association, said raffling guns specifically is not something that every school does, but sporting goods are something that draws a lot of interest when booster clubs are hosting raffles or auctions. 

He added that guns may be a popular item to raffle because of the prevalence of hunting in some areas, but did caution schools regarding the optics. 

Nationally, a federal report released earlier this year showed that school shootings in the 2020-21 school year hit an all-time high since the government began tracking the data. A Gallup poll from earlier this month also showed 44% of parents fear for their children’s safety when they are at school, the highest number since 2001. 

“I would say that in today’s society, it’s probably not the best look a school district could give by raffling off guns,” Neaves said. “You always have to be cognizant of how the public is going to take that.” 

Van’s Sporting Goods and the booster club both could not be reached for comment. 

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The U.S. Federal Reserve holds inordinate sway over the world’s economies—yet it acts, in some ways, like they don’t really matter.

Its power is primarily because of the dominance of the U.S. dollar, which soared in recent months as the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hikes made the greenback more attractive to investors. But this has a downside for other countries because it is fueling inflation, raising the cost of borrowing and increasing the risk of a global recession.

If you only paid attention to the words of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, however, you probably would have no idea this is happening. He hasn’t said a peep in his public speeches about the significant risks to the global economy as central banks jack up interest rates to tame inflation—including the Fed’s 0.75 percentage point increase on Sept. 21, 2022.

This may seem a bit odd that the Fed would appear to be so blasé about the global economy that it arguably leads. Yet as a finance scholar, I believe it makes perfect sense—though there are risks.

The Federal Reserve’s Domestic Focus

The Federal Reserve is mandated to focus on the U.S. economy, and it takes this job very seriously.

While central banks are aware of all global economic data, they focus on their own economies, helping them do what is best for their own nations. In the U.S., that means the Fed is focused on improving the American economy through
stable prices and full employment.

As a result, when the U.S. economy is slowing too quickly and people are losing jobs, such as early in the pandemic, the Fed lowers interest rates—no matter the impact on other countries. Similarly, when the economy is growing but consumer prices are rising too fast, the central bank raises interest rates.

The U.S. dollar is the world’s main reserve currency. AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia The Fed’s Global Impact

Yet it’s unavoidable that the Fed’s policies will influence economies, companies and citizens in virtually every country in the world.

While all central banks influence the rest of the world, the Fed has a much larger impact because of

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Mississippi’s free-market think tank, the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, won two national awards at the State Policy Network annual conference in Atlanta yesterday. 

• 1ST AWARD – “Biggest win for Freedom” award: Earlier this year, Mississippi passed historic tax reform, with the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act. The change cut the state income tax and gave 1.1 million Mississippians a tax break. In recognition of MCPP’s role in achieving this landmark reform, MCPP was given the “Biggest Win for Freedom” Award, jointly with Empower Mississippi.

“Mississippi has historically had a high tax burden and slow growth,” said Douglas Carswell, MCPP’s President & CEO. “Our campaign to cut the state income tax is helping to change that.”

“We won this award for the work we did to bring key people and organizations into alignment, found common ground for carefully costed state income tax cuts, and at the same time built popular support for the idea.”

• 2ND AWARD – SPN Network Award: In recognition of our effort to overturn the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, our litigation division, the Mississippi Justice Institute, won the SPN Network Award. We were given the award jointly with a number of other think tanks, including the Texan Public Policy Foundation and Louisiana’s Pelican Institute.

“We are honored to be recognized alongside so many esteemed constitutional litigation centers,” said MJI director, Aaron Rice, who helped lead the fight. “We will continue standing up against government overreach and protecting constitutional rights at every opportunity.”

The State Policy Network supports a movement of over 60 independent think tanks across America and has over 90 partners. At this year’s conference, SPN gave out five awards. MCPP was a finalist in three of the five categories, going on to win in two.

“It is wonderful that MCPP was a finalist in three of the five categories,” Carswell said. “But we like to win for Mississippi, so it was wonderful to go on to actually win twice.

“Mississippi has been one of the poorest states in America for as long as anyone can remember,” Carswell said. “MCPP exists to try to change that, and we believe we will only change that by achieving big, strategic changes that improve decades of public policy failure.”

“These awards show that MCPP is an effective vehicle for change,” Carswell said. “We are helping to drive the far-reaching change that Mississippi needs. Now we want to try to achieve big, strategic wins in improving education and healthcare in our state, too.”

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Former welfare agency director John Davis is set to plead guilty on Thursday to two federal charges and 18 state counts of fraud or conspiracy related to his role in the Mississippi welfare scandal, according to separate federal and state court filings.

The new federal charges pertain to welfare funds Davis allegedly helped funnel to the companies of retired professional wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., son of famed WWE wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase. Davis and Teddy DiBiase Jr. had developed a close relationship during Davis’ term as welfare director from 2016 to 2019, as Mississippi Today has reported in its investigative series “The Backchannel.”

Davis instructed two nonprofits receiving tens of millions in welfare funds from his department to pay Teddy DiBiase Jr. under what the federal court filing called “sham contracts” to deliver personal development courses to state employees and a program for inner-city youth, “regardless of whether any work had been performed and knowing that no work would ever be performed.”

Davis, who had not previously faced federal charges for his role in the welfare scandal, is the latest defendant to plead guilty. In April, Nancy and Zach New pleaded guilty to state charges in the welfare case as well as to separate federal fraud charges they faced related to public school funding. The News are cooperating with federal investigators, who continue to probe the welfare scheme and who else may have been involved.

The federal bill of information unsealed Wednesday, to which Davis is set to plead guilty, also describes four unnamed co-conspirators in the scheme. Based on the incorporation dates provided in the filing for the co-conspirators’ affiliated organizations or companies, Mississippi Today identified three of the co-conspirators as Nancy New, director of Mississippi Community Education Center; Christi Webb, director of Family Resource Center of North Mississippi; and Teddy DiBiase Jr., owner of Priceless Ventures, LLC and Familiae Orientem, LLC.

A fourth unnamed co-conspirator, a resident of Hinds County, is unidentifiable in the filing.

Davis and the three alleged co-conspirators are each facing civil charges in an ongoing lawsuit Mississippi Department of Human Services is bringing in an attempt to recoup welfare money from people who received it improperly.

“As a result of the actions of DAVIS, the Co-Conspirators, and others, millions of dollars in federal safety-net funds were diverted from needy families and low-income individuals in Mississippi,” the federal filing reads.

The bill of information signals that Davis chose to waive a formal indictment and plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of theft, which come with maximum prison sentences of five and 10 years, respectively. The court filing does not indicate what kind of deal he received for pleading guilty.

The federal charges specifically outline four payments or contracts Family Resource Center made to Teddy DiBiase’s companies in June and August of 2018 totaling nearly $2.2 million.

Casey Lott, the attorney for Webb, who is facing civil charges but has not been charged criminally, said his client stopped making payments to Teddy DiBiase Jr. when it became clear his companies were not conducting the services.

“The DiBiase’s and their organizations contracted to provide services to needy families,” Lott said in a written statement Wednesday evening. “The problem is they didn’t hold up to their end of the bargain. And once they refused to do everything Christi asked them to do, she refused to award any additional subgrants to those organizations. This enraged John Davis. He yelled and cursed Christi and other FRC employees for not sending them money anyway. He threatened to cut their funding if Christi didn’t do what he told her to do. And when she stood her ground and did the right thing, he followed through with his threat. Christi is the only one who ever told John Davis ‘no,’ and she was punished for it. She was forced to lay hundreds of people off. Those innocent people who were providing much needed services to the North Mississippi community lost their job because Christi stood up to John Davis and did the right thing. So, to say she’s a ‘co-conspirator’ is absurd.”

Attorneys for New, Davis and Teddy DiBiase either declined to comment or could not be reached Wednesday.

Officers from the auditor’s office initially arrested Davis in February of 2020 on state charges of conspiracy, embezzlement and fraud after a roughly nine month investigation. Hinds County prosecutors accused Davis of using federal money administered by the agency he oversaw to send Ted DiBiase Sr.’s other son, Brett DiBiase, to a luxury rehab facility in Malibu. The criminal charges pertained to just a small portion of a scandal that forensic auditors eventually determined totaled misspending of at least $77 million in funds from a federal program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty to his role in the scandal — raking in $48,000 from the agency for work he didn’t complete while he was in treatment — in December of 2020.

In April, Davis was indicted again on 20 state charges, including nine counts of bribery, which came with a possible sentence of 150 years.

An order of dismissal filed Wednesday in the state case signals Davis plans to plead guilty to five counts of conspiracy and thirteen counts of fraud in state court Thursday after pleading guilty to federal charges. The filing indicates that Davis will spend his entire sentence in the case in federal court and avoid notoriously harsh conditions of Mississippi’s state prisons, an arrangement similar to the plea deal New received in April. New, her son Zach New, Brett DiBiase, and Mississippi Community Education Center accountant Ann McGrew have pleaded guilty but have not been sentenced.

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John Davis, the former Mississippi Department of Human Services director who presided as a massive welfare fraud scandal unfolded, is facing multiple federal conspiracy, fraud and embezzlement charges relating to the misuse of funds meant for poor families with children.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge F. Keith Ball unsealed the Sept. 15 indictment in United States v. John Davis on Wednesday, revealing allegations that he conspired with four unnamed conspirators “to commit certain offenses against the United States.” The indictment says he and the co-conspirators sought to “obtain through fraud and to divert federal funds intended for needy families and low-income individuals for their personal use and benefit.”

Since 2020, Davis has faced multiple state charges in Mississippi after an investigation found that MDHS misspent more than $77 million in welfare funds under his reign. That includes $1.1 million in Temporary Assistance For Needy Families funds that a non-profit organization, the Mississippi Community Education Center, gave to retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre for speeches that State Auditor Shad White says he never gave. 

MCEC’s founder and former leader, Nancy New, and her son, Zach New, plead guilty to multiple charges in the welfare fraud scandal earlier this year and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Text messages between her, Brett Favre and former Gov. Phil Bryant show that they discussed using TANF funds to build a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi. 

In one July 24, 2017, text message after a meeting between Nancy New, Brett Favre, John Davis, and others, Favre appears to indicate that Davis agreed to use of MDHS funds for the volleyball stadium. “John mentioned 4 million and not sure if I heard him right. Very big deal and can’t thank you enough. ?,” reads the text message which appeared in a recent court filing.

In his plea agreement on April 22, 2022, Zach New claimed that he “acted with” his mother “and others, at their direction, to disguise the USM construction project as a ‘lease’ as a means of circumventing the limited purpose grant’s strict prohibition against ‘brick and mortar’ construction projects in violation of

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State Economist Corey Miller told legislative leaders that nationally there is a 35% chance of “a modest recession” during the upcoming calendar year.

 Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said he believes odds of a recession are much higher.

“I believe we will have a recession…,” Hosemann told reporters during a break in the hearing attended by him, House Speaker Philip Gunn and other key lawmakers who make up the Legislative Budget Committee.

Hosemann pointed out that Miller and other economists projected inflation of about 2.5% for the year and thus far it has been more than 8%.

“I think we need to be preparing for all the issues we face that come from a recession,” Hosemann added.

Overall, Miller said the state economy has slowed considerably during the current fiscal year but that both the state and national economies remain “resilient.”

“In summary, the U.S. and Mississippi economies have slowed and the risk of recession is elevated, but not the base case. Inflation remains historically high but may have peaked,” Miller said. “The Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates to reduce demand, which should bring down inflation.”

Miller pointed out that nationally the number of people working had surpassed the pre-pandemic levels of February 2020. Mississippi remains 10,900 jobs below the number employed in February 2020.

Members of the Legislative Budget Committee normally receive a report from the state economist as they begin work on a budget recommendation that generally serves as a guideline for the full Legislature when it convenes in January to begin work on crafting a budget for the new fiscal year that begins on July 1.

Legislators said they budgeted conservatively in the 2022 session despite unprecedented revenue collections and should do so again in 2023.

Hosemann said lawmakers held back about $350 million in federal pandemic money last session and it could be spent in the coming year to help stave off an economic downturn in Mississippi.

“If people are out working on public projects we fund with that, it will lessen the chance of a significant impact here,” the lieutenant governor said.

Getting more people working in Mississippi remains an issue, Miller said. The state’s labor force participation rate, which accounts for all eligible to enter the workforce, remains one of the lowest in the nation, Miller said, at 55.2%. The pre-pandemic level was 56.2%.

The national labor force participation rate is 62.4% – a percentage point lower than the pre-pandemic rate.

Several factors could impact the lower numbers, including people retiring early and long-term symptoms of COVID-19.

The bottom line, Miller said, is that multiple factors are driving the high inflation, including higher wages driven by a lack of workers, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supply shortages affected in part by China’s refusal to fully ramp up because of COVID-19 fears. Even the issue of fewer immigrant workers is contributing to the lack of workers.

While there might be disagreement on the extent of a economic downturn in Mississippi, it is a certainty that inflation has impacted all Mississippians. During the 2023 session, legislators will have to consider whether a salary increase for state workers is needed to deal with inflationary factor.

Kelly Hardwick, executive director of the State Personnel Board, told Budget Committee members he wanted more time to consider the size of any pay increase to recommend to the Legislature. But he said he expects it would be about 1.5% a year over several years, or a one-time increase of about 5%.

Both Wendy Bailey, executive director of Mental Health, and Burl Cain, corrections commissioner, said increasing pay for their employees is a key goal.

Bailey asked the Budget Committee members for a $26.6 million increase in general fund revenue to $247.7 million. A large part of the raise would go for salary increases.

She said the agency is having a difficult time  competing with fast food workers for primary care workers. And salary increases are needed for nurses and other advanced health care employees.

Bailey also asked for funds to continue to adhere to demands from a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit to provide treatment when possible on the community level instead in state institutions.

The Department of Corrections is trying to avoid a Department of Justice lawsuit based on poor conditions in Mississippi prisons. The lack of adequate staff continues to be an area of concern for DOJ.

“We do not have adequate staffing to manage our population,” Cain said.

Cain is asking lawmakers for a $32-million increase to his budget. Most of that, about $20 million, would be to cover rising medical costs for inmates. About $7.5 million would be increased per diem paid to private prisons for state inmates.

Child Protection Services, the agency that runs the state’s long-troubled foster care system, is asking lawmakers for a $15 million increase, mostly to provide increased subsidies for people who adopt children in state custody.

Andrea Sanders, CPS commissioner, said Mississippi pays less – by about half — to families who adopt children from custody than it does to foster parents. Sanders says this incentivizes people to stay in the foster program rather than adopt children.

Sanders said that the federal government will match, at nearly one-to-one, the state funded subsidies for adoption.

“State agencies will always be a poor substitute for a family,” Sanders said.

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A state education board wants lawmakers to take a different approach to financial aid programs intended to tackle Mississippi’s growing nursing shortage. 

Earlier this year, lawmakers created the Nursing and Respiratory Therapy Education Incentive Program, which would provide nurses with money for college if they agree to work in Mississippi for five years after they graduate. If a nurse reneged on the deal, they’d have to pay the money back with interest. 

This forgivable loan program would create more student debt in Mississippi and likely do little to address the nursing shortage, Mississippi Today reported earlier this year. 

It’s not yet up and running because it was too complicated for the Office of Student Financial Aid to implement this year. Now the program may never get off the ground. 

Members of the Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Board on Wednesday unanimously voted to ask lawmakers to roll back the forgivable loan program and replace it with a stipend that would be awarded at the end of each year a nurse works in Mississippi. Nurses could use the funds to pay off federal student loans. 

The move reflects a shifting policy debate over Mississippi’s use of student loans to address labor shortages as well as the board’s desire to reduce the administrative burden on the seven-person office that would implement the program. 

“It is philosophically saying the state needs to back out of loans the way they’re currently structured,” said Jim Turcotte, the executive director of Mississippi College’s alumni association and the chairman of the Post-Secondary Board.  

Members also voted to approve rules and regulations for the forgivable loan program in the event this proposal does not find a “champion” in the Legislature. The board has faced trouble getting lawmakers to approve its requests in the past. 

For future nursing students in Mississippi, the bottom line is that a stipend program would help them pay off student debt while a forgivable loan program would be another way to take on even more debt. 

“We’re talking about somewhat of a subtle shift in a way of who’s holding the debt,” Turcotte said. 

Mississippi has long relied on forgivable loan programs to address labor shortages, said Jennifer Rogers, the director of the Office of Student Financial Aid. These programs, in theory, can fix labor shortages by using student debt as a tool to create more college graduates for a field that needs workers. 

To administer these programs, the state essentially has to become a bank, which means forgivable loans are a financial boon for Mississippi. Rogers said her office collects about $1 million each year from borrowers because the debt is only forgiven under two circumstances – death or permanent disability. 

“We have some on the books that date back to the late 1970s, before I was even born,” Rogers said. 

“We could continue to service those loans forever and ever and ever,” she added. 

While the state financially benefits, forgivable loans do little to address labor shortages. 

Rogers told the board this is particularly true for the state’s nursing shortage because it is not caused by a lack of Mississippians who desire to go to nursing school. In fact, nursing schools, lacking faculty, are forced to turn away thousands of applicants each year. 

“Students want to go to nursing school, they want to be nurses, but there’s still a nursing shortage in Mississippi,” Rogers said. “So what’s causing that shortage?” 

With the board’s preferred approach, a stipend program, Rogers said the state will see an immediate benefit. The stipend might even attract nurses from across the country, seeking help paying off student debt, to work in Mississippi hospitals.

“They’re immediately going to see students out working in the areas,” Rogers said. 

Barney Daly, a board member who is the president of North Metro at Trustmark National Bank, asked if there is a downside to a loan repayment or stipend program. 

Rogers replied that these programs don’t help students pay for school on the front end. 

After about a half hour of discussion, Turcotte called for a vote. He asked if the board wanted to discuss the proposal further and members seemed no one had more to say.

“Is the horse dead?” Rogers asked. 

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