Greenwood Commonwealth. October 14, 2023.
Editorial: Sales Taxes Up 21% Since 2019
A recent report on the Magnolia Tribune website noted a four-year trend of higher sales tax receipts in Mississippi.
This is a sign that the state’s economy is proving itself to be resilient. Even after accounting for the extra pandemic relief money given to individuals and businesses, and even after factoring in the higher prices brought on by inflation, business appears to be going well.
To put a few numbers to the trend:
- Gross sales in Mississippi exceeded $61 billion in the fiscal year that ended on June 30. That is a 20% increase of $10.5 billion since 2019.
- The amount of sales taxes collected by the state is up 21% over those four years. That’s an increase of about $680 million, from $3.26 billion in 2019 to $3.94 billion this year.
- The number of businesses that are reporting monthly sales tax collections to the state has increased by nearly 3,800 during the four-year period. For the long term, that may be the best sign of Mississippi’s prospects, as it means that more businesses are operating today.
There is a second way to look at all of these positive statistics, though, and that is to consider whether Mississippi’s sales tax revenue has become so excessive that it may be time to return some of that money to the people by reducing the state’s 7% tax rate — or at least by cutting or eliminating it on the purchase of groceries, as most states have done.
For the past several years, advocates of eliminating the state income tax have made such an argument, along with noting that three of the South’s successful states — Texas, Florida and Tennessee — do not tax individual income.
The state income tax is still around, but the Legislature has whittled away at it. Gov. Tate Reeves continues to advocate for its total elimination, and there’s no doubt a significant number of Republican lawmakers would eliminate it if they had the votes.
One argument against getting rid of the income tax, though, is that it would remove one of the state’s largest revenue generators — and there has to be some way to raise money to pay for the services that residents expect. Mississippi’s treasury, after booming for the past few years, may in fact be starting to see a leveling off as the first year of a huge phased-in tax cut takes effect. For the first three months of the current budget year, total tax collections are down 1%, largely because income tax collections are down 10%.
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Columbus Dispatch. October 11, 2023.
Editorial: The spelling bee seems to be on firm footing
Backed by a new corporate sponsor, it appears the Mississippi Spelling Bee is on solid footing, a remarkable turn-around from this time two years ago, when the state spelling bee was in jeopardy after losing its long-time financial sponsor.
The C Spire Foundation Mississippi Spelling Bee will be held at Mississippi University for Women on March 2. Mississippi Spelling Bee Coordinator Lois Kappler said the bee is looking to raise $8,000 before Nov. 15 for production costs and to help send winning spellers to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Kappler said currently there are 183 schools registered to participate in the spelling bee competition across the state, though enrollment doesn’t close until Nov. 30.
That’s a far cry from where the state spelling bee found itself in November 2021.
Columbus can take pride in its collective effort to keep the spelling bee going, for without those efforts it is unlikely the state would have been represented at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2022, and perhaps in subsequent years.
Mississippi would have been alone among the 50 states and the District of Columbia not to have a presence at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. It would have been unthinkable given a state literary tradition that has produced some of the best novelists, playwrights and poets ever to put pen to paper.
It is fitting that Columbus, which claims two of those literary giants — novelist Eudora Welty and playwright Tennessee Williams — played an essential role in the survival of the state spelling bee.
There was no single person or group responsible for saving the spelling bee. Columbus-Lowndes Chamber president Wilson Beck first sounded the alarm and the chamber went to work assembling all the needed elements on a very tight schedule, just a few months.
The Dispatch agreed to be the primary fiscal sponsor. Mississippi University for Women agreed to host both the county and state spelling bees. WCBI took over broadcasting the state bee from Mississippi Public Broadcasting. The 2022 state spelling bee went off without a hitch, with Jessica Widodo of Starkville winning the state title and going on to represent Mississippi in the national spelling bee.
In 2023, The Dispatch again provided sponsorship while also leading a community fundraising effort that produced $16,500 in funding for the event, this year sending two Mississippi representatives to D.C.
Now, with a non-profit formed to ensure the bee lives on and the financial backing of C Spire, it appears the crisis has somewhat passed.
Yet every cause needs a champion, someone to manage the details and rally support and keep the momentum going.
That is why, we think of those who played a role in saving our state spelling bee, Kappler stands apart. Kappler, a retired educator, stepped into the breach to fill the role as the spelling bee’s state coordinator with no prior experience with the bee, organizing the 2022 state spelling bee on the fly. For those efforts, she was recognized by the national spelling bee.
Kappler’s continuing presence as state coordinator is sure to keep the organizational end of the state bee on track, another reason that the future of the state spelling bee seems secure.
The C Spire Foundation takes over as presenting sponsor this year, opening a new chapter of the state spelling bee. MUW will again host the event, so the Columbus connection endures, as does the spelling bee itself.
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