Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
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Sept. 28
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on proposed procedure and election law reforms:
Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann unveiled a package of proposed procedure and election law reforms Tuesday, including transparency in who makes reportable contributions and detailed open records of how campaign money is spent.
Hosemann, Mississippi’s chief election officer by virtue of his statewide office, wants any person to have electronic access to campaign finance records, with full implementation of reforms beginning in 2020. The online filing is voluntarily available now at Campaign Finance Search on the secretary of state’s website.
His full proposal would include itemized access to campaign credit card spending records, which would help maximize the proposed tightening of “personal” expenses coming from campaign funds.
Hosemann, a Republican originally from Vicksburg and a former high-profile private-sector attorney, said there is a difference between a candidate taking a spouse to a politically related banquet and purchasing expensive cowboy boots and similar indulgences.
Some reforms were passed during the 2016 legislative session, but parts of what Hosemann and many others sought were defeated or dropped in the legislative process.
As Hosemann noted, he does not have the power to make all the proposed reforms because only the Legislature can pass the necessary laws.
It is wholly reasonable to expect and require full disclosure and easy access to campaign contribution records above the current $200 threshold. Hosemann’s online proposal would result in faster, better reporting of campaign finance figures and harsher penalties if the reports aren’t made or are late. But laws need to be enacted.
There’s no obstacle to activating the reporting system, but full compliance is voluntary unless laws are toughened.
Some people probably don’t care how campaign contributions are spent, but the legal standard should be clear for political items like services, advertising and campaign transportation. It is difficult to justify anything purely personal like mortgage payments or improvements to any candidate’s private residence.
Hosemann said he is inclined only to “narrow exceptions” in campaign spending rules, which he said in a Monday morning meeting with the Daily Journal should be “very tight.”
What Hosemann and others in both parties with similar views seek is not unusual. All 50 states have some kind of campaign finance disclosure laws on the books. The key is in the quality of the laws and enforcement.
The position of the National Conference of State Legislatures is instructive. NCSL, in which several Mississippi legislators have played important roles, says “the most common means of regulating political spending is through various disclosure and reporting requirements.”
Hosemann’s proposals aren’t about federal campaign finance, only Mississippi’s laws, the sphere within the immediate influence of the Legislature, state leaders and citizens.
Just more than three months remain before the 2017 session convenes, when Hosemann and other supporters of reform face the daily grind to win passage.
We believe Mississippi politics at every level can gain integrity with the campaign finance reforms proposed.
Online:
https://djournal.com
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Sept. 28
The Daily Leader on the potential threat of the West Nile Virus:
Fall may have officially arrived but, like summer’s heat, mosquitoes and the West Nile virus they can transmit are still here.
Just recently a new case was reported in Marion County. So far this year, human cases of WNV have been reported in Calhoun, Chickasaw, Copiah (two), Hinds (six), Grenada, Lamar (two), Lee, Leflore, Lincoln, Lowndes, Marion (two), Perry and Rankin counties. There has been one WNV death reported in a Hinds County resident.
Last year, the state saw 38 WNV cases and one death.
As temperatures begin to drop, mosquitoes will be less of a problem. But until then, protect yourself by following these tips from the Department of Health:
-Avoid mosquitoes whenever possible. Stay indoors or take personal protective measures, especially between dusk and dawn, which are peak mosquito biting times.
-Use mosquito repellent with DEET. Products with up to 30 percent DEET will provide adequate protection under most conditions.
-Wear long-sleeved, long-legged clothing with socks and shoes when practical.
-Dispose of tin cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar water-holding containers.
-Remove all discarded tires on the property. Used tires have become the most common mosquito breeding site in the country.
-Make sure roof gutters drain properly, and clean clogged gutters in the spring and fall.
-Change the water in bird baths frequently.
-Close garbage can lids. Be sure water does not collect in the bottom of garbage cans.
Online:
https://www.dailyleader.com
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Sept. 28
The Commercial Dispatch on the state’s open meeting laws:
For more than two years now, Columbus officials have been fighting to overturn two rulings involving cases where the mayor and city council were found to have violated the state’s open meeting laws by conducting the public’s business privately.
The Dispatch, which filed both of the ethics complaints that lead to those rulings, has followed the progress of each appeal. One currently is awaiting a hearing before the state supreme court after the city was found guilty of the violation in chancery court. The other is in the appeals process provided by the state ethics commission. In that case, the ethics commissioned levied a $500 fine against the mayor. There was no fine in the first case.
As we have reported the progress of each of these cases, we have noted the city’s position is contrary to its responsibility to its bosses, the taxpaying public. Like it or not, elected bodies are required to deliberate and decide all city business in public meetings.
It should not be a difficult concept to grasp, nor should complying with these laws inhibit officials from doing business on the people’s behalf.
The prudent, mature response would have been for the city to accept these rulings and “go and sin no more.”
Yet, the council and mayor persist in this needless fight. And here’s the kicker: They are using your tax dollars to do it.
To date, the city has spent more than $16,000 in fighting the two rulings, with the potential of spending more. Those costs, obtained by The Dispatch through an open records request, shows the city has paid the law firm of Mitchell, McNutt and Sams - the firm which employs city attorney Jeff Turnage - $12,274.50 to defend the first case and $3,872 to fight the latter case.
All that to avoid the mayor having to pay a $500 fine.
The city’s position is that if these rulings are allowed to stand, it would prevent officials from having informal conversations about pending city business.
Those fears exist exclusively in the fervent imagination of the city officials, however. Time and time again the ethics commission and the courts have gone to great lengths to make the distinction. A casual conversation among officials is nowhere prohibited by the law. Advocating for a particular position, trying to collect votes to support that position and reaching a decision on that matter outside of a public meeting is quite another. Such conduct violates the spirit and the letter of the law.
That does not seem to deter our leaders from continuing their fight against laws that ensure the public has a say in how their tax dollars are spent. They have spent more than $16,000 of that taxpayer money to do it and appear to have no reservations about spending even more. Damn the costs, is the prevailing sentiment.
In Yiddish, there is a word to describe that. It’s called chutzpah.
You could also refer to it as arrogance, gall, temerity or obstinance.
Whatever the choice of words, it is clear that the council’s costly efforts to fight these rulings are not in the best interests of the taxpaying citizens of Columbus.
That should be their priority.
Clearly, it is not.
Online:
https://www.cdispatch.com
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