The taxpayers of Mississippi pay millions of dollars every year in compensation to the members of the legislature, lt. governor, and governor in return for their handling of the affairs of the state. These same elected officials are NOT paid to take care of business outside of that scope. However, in the session that just ended, the ruling members took it upon themselves to handle the problem of crime and policing for the city of Jackson by passing the new CCID district bill. While it is no secret that the city of Jackson is lacking the leadership to run its affairs on every level; it is not the responsibility of the taxpayers of Mississippi to step in and take control.
This is emphasized even more by the fact that the legislature failed to take care of the business that it IS tasked with. Things like fixing the ballot initiative, raising minimum wage, stricter oversight of MDHS federal monies, expanding Medicaid, finding a way to adequately and sustainably keep rural hospitals open, etc. The list goes on and on. And every one of these issues affect Mississippians from one end of the state to the other.
That being said, I can safely say that we are lacking leadership at the state level to tackle problems of a much larger scale than that of crime in Jackson.
I have never minded paying my share of state income tax to fund the state but when we have the current lack of leadership that we have, no level of taxation will fix the huge chronic problems that face our state, year after year.
It is past time for the current members of the legislature and governor to be given their walking papers. We, the taxpayers of Mississippi, need to replace them with fresh, competent, and bold people that can begin to get the state off of the bottom of the pond. In other words, people that will do their job! We will get that opportunity in November. If Mississippians can look beyond elementary party identity, I believe we can do it. If we fail to do so, the fault is ours.
Camille Wright is a Northsider.
