A State of the State that doesn’t add up

Regardless of how many times you say something, it does not make that statement true – even if you say it to the entire legislature, media and citizens of the state.

In his 2016 State of the State address, Governor Phil Bryant said the following:
“We now face a new year where I am able to inform the people and the duly elected members of the House and Senate – the state of the state in Mississippi is sound.”

Of course, he had to immediately brush off the fact that revenue projections were not met this year causing mid-year budget cuts along with a raiding of the rainy day fund. And revenue projections for next year are already down. Add to this the jobless rate INCREASING from 6% to 6.4% in the month of December (and still remaining much higher than the national rate of 5%). Even the Republican legislature’s best friend ALEC said our economy is terrible (though not the worst) ranking us 41st out of 50 on whatever arbitrary scale they produced.

ALEC is not the only group to give us a poor ranking on our economy, and Education Week is not the only group to name us 49th in the country for our abysmal education system. And while we might be “sound” because we have more money than is necessary in our rainy day fund for the future lack of revenue, nothing has improved in the lives or everyday Mississippians in the last four years – not benefits, not access to healthcare, not education, not job opportunities. It would be unfair to say pay hasn’t increased – from 2010 to 2014 the median household income did increase $273, allowing us to maintain our spot at 50th in the nation.

Mississippi's Unemployment Rate Nation's Highest

The Phil Bryant economy continues to drag Mississippi down. Reports out this afternoon show Mississippi's unemployment rate to now be the country's highest - now at 7.9 percent. This now means over 100,000 Mississippians are out of a job.

We should point out that unemployment in Mississippi has been over seven percent for the entirety of the Bryant terms as governor at lieutenant governor. For all the Republican hot air about being pro-business, the government handouts they give to their friends do not seem to be paying off. Either these are very bad returns on investment, the Republicans do not have any idea what they're doing, or both.

If Gov. Bryant is going to brag about our unemployment rate, a comparison is in order

So that everyone can be informed about Mississippi's employment rate, a comparison between our rate and our neighbors' rates. More Alabama and Louisiana, Gov. Bryant, and a little less Tennessee:

Season's Greetings: Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Expiring

In this season of family, charity, and self-reflection, it is important to remember those among us who are still struggling financially. Tomorrow, long-term unemployment benefits are set to expire for 13,400 Mississippians. 37,600 Mississippians could lose their benefits during 2014 and over 1,400 of our fellow citizens may lose their jobs as a result of the expiration of benefits.

Some may ask why these folks don't just go out and get a job. Seems simple enough. Well, it's a bit more complicated than that.

Mississippi's unemployment rate now stands at 8.3 percent, the highest of any other Southern state. Our unemployment rate has remained over 8 percent since January 2009. From June 2013 to November 2013, our state's labor force has decreased by roughly 24,000. A more worrisome statistic is that during this same time period, our state's education and health care sectors grew by about 1 percent.

All along we were under the impression that Governor Bryant wanted to be known as the health care governor. A recent study showed that an expansion of Medicaid could produce over 20,000 jobs and inject over $1 billion into the state. The response from Bryant goes something like this: No way do I want to create health care jobs to Mississippi. I'm more than happy to give hardworking Mississippians' tax dollars to my fellow Republican governors in North Dakota and Iowa who expanded Medicaid and have unemployment rates of 2.6 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

While Tea Party cheerleaders like GOP Chairman Joe Nosef and Bryant sing "Happy Days are Here Again," the direction of our labor force is going in the wrong direction. Bryant will stop the presses to announce a job created in the state, but he understandably goes radio silent when job losses occur.

It seems the Republican agenda can be boiled down to this: You have to vote for our party so you can find out what's in it.

Job losses in Mississippi expected with SNAP cuts

Last week, Congress passed a bill out of the House with drastic proposed cuts to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and our tea-party-influenced House delegation has been very proud to support such a measure.

The economy is rebounding, unemployment rates are decreasing - these folks don’t need help - right? Well, if you read Ryan’s post last week highlighting findings from the Mississippi Economic Policy Center, you saw that while jobs are coming to Mississippi, they are not high-paying, or even well-paying, but low-paying. Median wages in Mississippi are dropping while the poverty rate in Mississippi is increasing. People are still not able to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, cutting benefits doesn’t just mean there will be less food on the table. According to one study, over 1100 jobs in Mississippi could be lost if the proposed SNAP cuts are passed. The Center for American Progress last year estimated that at a $7.2 billion cut (10%), 1,151 total jobs in the food industry could be lost in Mississippi. These jobs include retail workers at grocery stores, food manufacturing and agriculture, trucking and warehousing. However, the proposed cut is $39 billion over the next ten years, and the number of people in Mississippi needing benefits has increased since this was published (and in every year since the recession), giving us years of future unemployment to look forward to in Mississippi.

Flounder with Phil: State's unemployment numbers still abysmal

Mississippi's unemployment rate jumped 0.7% to 9.3% from December to January. That's not really all that surprising, considering the abject failure of Republicans to offer a jobs plan for Mississippi. Sure, they'll get on the stump and say they're all about jobs, jobs, jobs, but in reality they aren't. The only jobs they've been interested in creating have been for their wealthy contributors, as the governorship of Haley Barbour proved, and as Phil Bryant's time in office is proving.

Mississippi's consistently abominable unemployment numbers under GOP leadership shouldn't be surprising to anyone who's been paying attention. Here's a look at Mississippi's unemployment numbers from 2000 (which is when Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, took office) through today. If you look closely, you'll notice that in this century, there has been no time during which more Mississippians were working than during the Musgrove governorship.