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?

Meanwhile, in Tupelo...

This...

Rep. Brian Aldridge (R - Tupelo)

became this...

Rep. Brian Aldridge (R - Tupelo)

By the way, I do have a potential explanation for where Aldridge could have gotten the money for that trip to Hawaii: You know those guys at the fair who try to guess your age?  I bet he kills it at that game.  He's the oldest looking 36 year-old I've ever seen.  

C-L reports that Kevin McGee cut a deal to avoid further prosecution

The Clarion-Ledger has a story up saying that the Ethics Commission has cut a deal with former Representative Kevin McGee (R - Brandon) in which he will pay a $10,000 fine and leave the Legislature in exchange for the Commission not pursuing the case against him any further.  That's a heck of a deal, considering that he was ordered by the Commission to repay $346,000 earlier this year.

McGee, one of Speaker Philip Gunn's chief lieutenants in the Legislature, was active on Twitter this afternoon in response to the news.  At one point, McGee tweeted "To my new follower who wants to laugh at my misery you won't find any misery here! Plus my replacement will be just like me! Good luck."

Well, since McGee just made off with well over $300,000 in taxpayer funds in exchange for a $10,000 fine and giving up his seat in the Legislature, misery is about the last thing I'd expect McGee to be feeling.  And let's hope that McGee's replacement isn't just like him.  I don't know that our budget can handle another Rankin County representative gone wild.

A deliciously ironic tweet from Rep. Kevin McGee (R - Brandon)

Upon the news of his resignation, a reader brought the following tweet from Rep. Kevin McGee to my attention:

It's ironic, of course, because Rep. Kevin McGee was hit with an order by the Ethics Commission to repay nearly half a million dollars in state funds that he got...wait for it...by unethically doing business with the state. 

"Money for nothing" and "me me me", indeed.

***BREAKING*** - Capitol sources say Rep. Kevin McGee (R - Brandon) has resigned from the House

There have been calls for Rep. Kevin McGee's resignation this year, and according to legislative sources, it appears as though he's finally heeded them. Rep. McGee, one of Mississippi's ALEC legislators and a chief lieutenant to Speaker Phillip Gunn (R - Clinton), had been found in violation of state ethics laws earlier this year for illegal contracts with the State.

Harvard Study: Jackson among most corrupt state capitals

A study by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government lays out what many of us living in the Magnolia State know well: Jackson is home to one of the most corrupt state governments in the country. The study (see below) focuses on the relationship between state government corruption and the relative isolation of the state capital from the majority of the state's population. At first, naming Jackson as a leader in corruption would seem to undermine the theory of the study, which is that corruption grows the further the state capital is from major population centers. After all, Jackson is the largest city in Mississippi by far, and sits at the center of the state's largest metropolitan area.

Reading a bit more of the study, you'll see that in actuality, the study is a condemnation of our state's media over the period from 1979-2002. (That's the era from which data was collected for the study.) I have no reason to believe it's improved since then, especially considering that Mississippi's only statewide newspaper, the Clarion-Ledger, appears to be dwindling away before our very eyes. Thanks, Gannett!

Facts like these are what animate many citizens, from Tea Party members to good-government Democrats. With the demise of the stalwarts of old media, hopefully new media can do a better job over the next generation informing the populous of what goes on underneath the dome at the corner of Mississippi and Congress in Downtown Jackson.

Of course, they'll have to actually care about what's going on, which is a whole other matter altogether. (The authors of the study appear to think that state capital isolation is what breeds lower education spending, while I can't help but wonder if the two are related at all, and if they are, whether or not that's a chicken and egg problem.)

Here's a link to an L.A. Times article on the study which gives a synopsis, and here's the actual Harvard study itself:

Harvard Study on State Government Corruption