Is your Legislator Going to Destin on your Dollar?

FLASHBACK (8/11/2013):


This morning, The Clarion Ledger's Geoff Pender wrote a few (1) damning reports (2) about state legislators using taxpayer dollars for trips with lobbyists.

According to Pender, not only did lobbyists cover the cost of much of a trip to Destin, these legislators were then reimbursed by the state for travel, food, etc, essentially double dipping on the taxpayer dollar.

The trip's purpose was to meet with a group pushing for the ability of loan sharks to charge up to 99% on "small" loans. Obviously driving up heinous debt on sometimes the most desperate people.

Now this, at its face, is appalling. But what really sticks out is how legislators like Bubba Carpenter (R-Burnsville), Tracy Arnold (R-Booneville) and Ray Rogers (R-Pearl) responded when they were asked about the trip.

Pender on Rep. Bubba Carpenter (R-Burnsville):

Rep. Bubba Carpenter (R - Burnsville)

...when first contacted, on his way back from the same MCFA event in Destin this year, said: “No, sir, I did not. I didn’t file anything on my state report. (Lobbyist) Buddy Medlin paid for that. I can’t turn that in — (the House Management Committee) wouldn’t have approved it. You’ve got some wires crossed with whatever you’re looking at. … Something’s not geehawing. I would have to be approved by Management, and this is a private convention.” 

...

But then, after checking his expense records, Carpenter said he had been pre-approved by the Management Committee, and the $652.70 he was reimbursed by taxpayers for the travel was for mileage, meals and other out-of-pocket expenses. He said neither the association nor lobbyists provided for all meals at the convention.

Pender on Ray Rogers (R-Pearl):

Rep. Ray Rogers (R- Pearl)

...at first said he recalled only filing mileage and that “where lobbyists pay for motel and so forth, the thing they don’t pay for is mileage.”

“I certainly did not ask for meals,” Rogers said. “Mine better not show meal expenses.”
Records show Rogers was reimbursed $547.04, including $138 for meals. Later, Rogers said: “Well, I apologize. Records show I asked for mileage and meals that weren’t covered. … We don’t double up. We don’t pay anything that the lobbyists cover. No, they don’t cover all meals.”

Pender on Tracy Arnold (R-Booneville):

Rep. Tracy Arnold (R - Booneville)

...had a similar first response: “You’re saying the state paid? I need to check that out because it was my understanding that the Mississippi Consumer Finance Association paid for everything on that trip … That’s the first one of those that I’ve been on … the first time I’ve went to one where someone was supposed to be totin’ and paying it all.” He also said he’s had problems with an assistant at the Capitol who files his expenses.


Arnold state-expensed $654.54 for the trip, including $170 for meals. After checking records, he, too, noted the travel was pre-approved by House Management and directed further questions to House Management Committee Chairman Greg Snowden.

But a 23% increase in travel over the last year sounds less like a mistake, and more like uninhibited corruption (by the way, Speaker Gunn refused to comment for these stories).

So was it complete incompetence or good ol' corruption?

Why not both?

Announcing the Bomgar Caucus

With the dust clearing from Tuesday's primary elections, we know one of the biggest losers of the night was public education.

Empower PAC, a group promoting charter schools and for-profit education spent tens of thousands of dollars against incumbent legislators - and they won. Big time. Empower was able to defeat DeSoto County Republicans Forrest Hamilton, Wanda Jennings, Pat Nelson, and Gene Alday. They also went after Republican Rep. Ray Rogers of Rankin County but were unsuccessful.

While Empower was sending checks to its anti-public education candidates, House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) sat idly by while members of his own Republican caucus took hit after hit only to fall last night. Since Gunn is doing Empower's bidding, it seems that good riddance is the best Gunn will offer his soon-to-depart colleagues from DeSoto County.

Dan Eubanks, the candidate who defeated Gene Alday, produced the video below with his brother, Dave. Dave Eubanks challenged incumbent Republican Sen. Chris Massey of DeSoto County but was unsuccessful.

Empower, which claims to seek better schooling options for marginalized children, funded the Eubanks campaign to the tune of about $21,000. Those funds must have assisted in Eubanks's widely-circulated song about "Mississippi values" featuring a disgusting racist caricature around the 1:27 mark. Then again, maybe the racist video was part of a calculated political strategy cooked up by Empower's out-of-state benefactors in order to peel GOP primary voters away from incumbent Gene Alday, who infamously said, "... all the blacks are getting food stamps and what I call 'welfare crazy checks.'"

Joel Bomgar, the financial muscle behind this plot to defeat public education supporters, won a solid victory in his race for House District 58 in Madison County. Using his personal fortune, Bomgar spent what it took in order to capture this seat.

With Bomgar and his Empower-bought supporters heading to the Capitol in January, Mississippi's public education supporters should be terrified. There are now five more Republicans who will join a caucus already doing their best to undermine public education across Mississippi. With the Bomgar Caucus ready to fight public education, the statement still stands: You can either support public education or be a Republican, but you cannot do both.