INSIDE — Vets team up to bring new pizza concept to Mississippi — Page 3 WEATHERLY The magazine life and the death of a writer — Page 2
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March 17, 2017 • Vo. 39. No. 11 • 24 pages
RECOVERY
Storming Back MBJ FOCUS
» William Carey making huge comeback from devastation of tornado — Page 4
Insurance & Employee Benefits {Section begins P11}
» As workplace changes, some firms re-examine bereavement policies » JSU programs swaps raises for skill training
{The List P14-15}
» Employee Benefits Administrators
Incorporations {P16-22} » January 2017
Courtesy of William Carey University
Photo at left shows Green Science Hall the morning of the tornado. Part of the hall opened for spring classes on Feb. 20 (photo at right) and restoration of the rest of the building should be finished for the fall trimester starting in August.
STATE GOVERNMENT
ROADS, BRIDGES AND A TIGHT BUDGET By JACK WEATHERLY jack.weatherly@msbusiness.com Pick any year, and Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the union. Mississippi ranked 50th in income for 2015, for example, with per capita compensation at $34,771. Fortunately, taxation in the Magnolia State is low. In fiscal 2012, it ranked 41st with taxation as a per-
centage of income (8.6), according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank founded in 1937. For basis of comparison, New York ranked first at 12.7 percent, the foundation’s Facts and Figures 2017 report stated. Yet Mississippi has long needed a major overhaul of its roads and bridges. That takes capital. And it must be done in a balanced budget, as required by state law. The legislative leadership is trying to see if that can be done without raising taxes.
The state obviously takes a fiscally conservative approach in meeting that stringent goal. An ad hoc committee of legislative leaders met twice last year with Nicole Kaeding, an economist with the Tax Foundation, to discuss policy. Geoff Pender, Clarion-Ledger political editor, wrote that House Speaker Phillip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, president of the Senate, said Kaeding “validated tax decisions made by the GOP legislative leadership over the past five years – including more than 40 corporate tax cuts.”
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See BUDGET, Page 2