Archive for February 2021
Empower Mississippi Releases Dynamic Modeling on Elimination of Income Tax
Empower Mississippi has released a new report that provides dynamic modeling under two scenarios for eliminating the income tax, a comparative analysis that demonstrates that states without income taxes can both sustain reasonable government spending and thrive economically, and some policy considerations for lawmakers weighing transformative tax reform. Empower Mississippi began this project last year.…
Read MoreBetter Jobs Mississippi: Tax Structure for Growth
Mississippi can eliminate its income tax. Find out more here:
Read MoreFrom addiction and despair to a new life
“I’m a junkie. This is my life.” That’s what Mary Hirsch thought she was destined to be after spending years in and out of jail, a nine-month stay in prison, and losing everything in her life that she held dear. How could she turn her life around? There was no hope for her, she thought.…
Read MoreHouse Moves to Eliminate Income Tax
Yesterday, the Mississippi House of Representatives made good on a promise to begin the process of eliminating Mississippi’s individual income tax. HB 1439 filed by Speaker Philip Gunn, Speaker Pro Tempore Jason White, and Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, cleared its first hurdle passing out of committee. The bill now heads to the House…
Read More“We are in the community treating the people who live here”
In rural South Mississippi a patient enters his primary care clinic. He is turning yellow, but he feels fine. He was sent to see his nurse practitioner from the hospital. Winnette Denmark sees the patient and immediately calls a specialist. The patient is airlifted to Jackson and within hours is placed on a liver transplant…
Read MoreA new life after addiction and prison
“I was a functioning addict.” That’s how Julie Crutcher describes herself during the early years of her struggles with addiction. “I had an addiction problem for a long time. I had my kids. I had my house. I worked and was in school, but I still used,” she said. It was in 2013 that Crutcher…
Read MoreBarrier to entry. Barrier to healthcare.
As a young girl entering college, Sarah Catherine Morrow had a picture of what her life would look like. She wanted to major in business and open a coffee shop. “I think I had watched too many episodes of ‘Friends’ and I wanted the ‘Central Perk’ coffee shop,” she laughed. She quickly realized sitting in…
Read MoreLegislature should act on criminal justice reform, before it’s too late
The Mississippi legislature is nearly halfway through their 2021 session. Every year when the legislature convenes in Jackson, they are faced with hundreds of new policy proposals, many of them intended to address problems faced by the state of Mississippi. This year is no different, and legislators are considering several bills aimed at addressing the…
Read MoreMy nurse practitioner saved my life. Twice.
In 2016, I walked cautiously into my local nurse practitioner’s office. I was unable to walk back out unassisted. This is the first time that my nurse practitioner saved my life. She begged the hospital to admit me. When the hospital couldn’t diagnose me and tried to discharge me – despite the fact that I…
Read MoreLegislature Working to Keep Mississippi Safe and Provide Second Chances
Both the House and Senate have demonstrated desire to pass meaningful public safety legislation that provides second chances for rehabilitated offenders. So far this session, bills have cleared individual chambers to reform parole eligibility, reform habitual sentencing laws to ensure punishment fits the crime, and provide a path for record expungement for released offenders who…
Read MoreInmate #53918 and the Cause of Conservative Justice Reform
Inmate #53918 shuffled into a Mississippi prison on January 23, 2006. Fifteen years later, he remains. For inmate #53918 there is little cause for hope. His fate includes two life sentences without the possibility of parole. What manner of man is this? A murderer? A rapist? No. In 2004, inmate #53918 went to two stores,…
Read MoreCoffee and Conversation: Grant Callen with New Orleans Saints LB Demario Davis
Say the name Demario Davis, and people rightfully think of one of the greatest athletes in the NFL. The New Orleans Saints linebacker is a leader on and off the field who has received countless awards including being named captain of his NFL team; the Saints’ nominee for the 2020 Walter Payton Man of the…
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