The sad ghost of the COVID-19 pandemic hangs over Tuesday’s state of the nation address Tate Reeves.
The speech was given outside the Mississippi capitals to a limited crowd, including lawmakers and a few others. The event is usually held in the Chamber of Deputies, where lawmakers and other state-elected officials gather elbow-to-elbow to hear the annual speech.
Governors usually use the State of the Nation Address to announce new policy initiatives. Reeves delivered a relatively short speech on Tuesday, avoiding new policy-specific ones.
The theme of Reeves’ speech was the state’s resilience and the need to recover strongly.
“We took every hit that could be thrown,” Reeves said. ‘We have been tested by every force of nature, disease and human weakness. It’s a wonder our state is still standing, but we are not standing still. We are marching forward. ”
Mississippi Today reporters listened to Reeves’ speech and fact-checked and contextualized key points made by the governor.
EDUCATION
Reeves: “I support an education increase. I know that the Senate has already implemented the Lieutenant Governor’s plan, and I know that the Speaker and the House have always supported the increases for teachers. I would be happy to sign any increase that the legislature can send me. Our teachers deserved it. This is the right way to invest. ”
Fact check: Reeves has previously said he will sign a salary increase bill when it comes to his desk. Although he campaigned in 2019 for a promise to give Mississippi teachers a four-year salary increase of $ 4,300, he did not call for an increase in the budget recommendation he sent to lawmakers in November 2020.
Senate Bill 2001 was recently passed by the Senate and is now awaiting action in the House. This would provide an increase of $ 1,000 for most public school teachers, and a $ 1,110 increase for teachers with zero to three years of experience with a bachelor’s degree, bringing their entry fee to $ 37,000. It is still below the Southeastern regional average of $ 38,420 and the national average of $ 40,154. A study by the National Education Association on starting teacher salaries for 2018-2019 made Mississippi’s salary 46th among the states. If successful, the increase would cost taxpayers about $ 51 million a year.
Reeves: ‘That mission really started years ago with a good education. Mississippi has made incredible progress – improved number one in the country. ”
Fact check: It is unclear what specific improvements the governor is referring to here. In 2019, Mississippi received high praise for being the only state in the country to improve reading scores on a nationally administered exam, but the coronavirus pandemic caused state investigations to be canceled in the spring of 2020, meaning there were past years was no way for schools and districts. to receive new accountability ratings that measure student performance.
COVID-19
Reeves: ‘Last weekend we celebrated 100,000 vaccinated vaccines. It took us about six weeks. We have done another 100,000 vaccinations since then, and as we speak, we are probably delivering our 200,000th vaccination! This is because we refused to accept a slow pace – we switched from the worst state in the country to a peak ability at the beginning of the process. ‘
Fact check: On January 26, at least 175,417 Mississippis – about 6% of the state’s population – received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Mississippi Department of Health’s database. On the same day, 18,012 Mississippians received the second dose.
Officials said more Mississippians probably received the vaccine than is reflected in the database due to overdue reporting. It is possible that Mississippi delivered its 200,000 dose on Tuesday, but it is unlikely that a 200,000th Mississippian received a first dose on Tuesday.
Reeves: “We have to defeat (COVID-19) because Mississippians are done. We are already buried loved ones who have been lost due to this virus. We’re done with stressed hospitals. We’re done with the awful talk of locks and locks. ”
Fact check: Mississippi is on track to set a record death of COVID-19 in January. On January 26, at least 948 Mississippis died after contracting the virus in January alone – by far the highest monthly death toll since the pandemic began. The state’s total COVID-related deaths are 5,852.
On the day Reeves delivered the speech, the state reported 75 deaths – one of the highest total one-day totals.
ECONOMICS AND JOBS
Reeves: ‘Despite the once-century pandemic, Mississippi’s economy has grown year by year. Think about it. ”
Fact check: The governor apparently referred to the fact that there was more capital investment in the state in businesses by 2020 than in 2019. Yet it is doubtful that the state’s gross domestic product has grown year by year. Final figures for the state’s gross domestic product (total value of goods and services produced) were not disclosed by federal or government officials.
Forecasts from the state’s University Research Center were that GDP would contract annually by 4.3%. But according to figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Mississippi’s GDP growth in the third quarter was the 10th best in the country, at 39.5% – but still 2.6% lower than the state’s GDP. for the fourth quarter of 2019. Overall, however, GDP rebounded strongly nationally and in the state after a dismal second quarter when the COVID-19 pandemic hit for the first time. In the second quarter, the country’s economy shrank at a rate of 31.7% against the state for 20.9%. The more populous states mostly had economic decline and greater job loss.
Mississippi lost a smaller percentage of its jobs during the year than the country as a whole.
But in the last four years, including 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state’s GDP has grown by 0.4% compared to the national growth rate of 0.8%, and the state actually has a larger percentage of jobs lost as the land as a whole.
Reeves: ‘We were the third best state in the country for job recovery (in 2020).’
Fact check: The governor cited an Empower Mississippi report and analyzed the numbers of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Non-Farm Work from February to November 2020.
Mississippi has apparently fared better than most in terms of jobs lost during this period of the pandemic, and the state of Magnolia has lost a little over 28,000 jobs. According to a University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy Analysis of BLS statistics for the period, Mississippi was equal to Alabama for third in terms of the lowest percentage of job losses for the period, -2.4%. It also noted that Mississippi added 3,800 jobs from October to November. Alabama, which lost nearly 50,000 jobs for the period, added 6,600 jobs from October to November.
According to an analysis by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from Mississippi Today, between December 2019 and December 2020, Mississippi ranked third for the smallest percentage of job losses, just 1.4 percent. The state lost 16,400 jobs during the year.
Reeves: “Mississippi … had more tourist spending than any other state in the country – we were number one!”
Fact check: Reeves’ office said he was referring to a report by the American Travel Association in December. It shows that the percentage of Mississippi loss year-on-year in the teens – lower than other states – was equal to about $ 30 million less per week that tourists spend here compared to last year.
But the Mississippi tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. In the 2020 financial year, which began in July, approximately 20 million visitors spent $ 5.5 billion, compared to fiscal year 2019 with nearly 25 million visitors spending $ 6.6 billion. From February to August, Mississippi saw a 6.4% decrease in jobs for leisure and hospitality. But other states were hit much worse, including Hawaii, by nearly 53% and Louisiana by 20%.
Reeves: “Mississippians do not want welfare. They want to work. ”
Fact check: Granted, Mississippians do want to work. But the state is also one of the poorest in the country and one of the countries most dependent on federal spending and on ‘welfare programs’.
According to the Tax Foundation, Mississippi is the fourth most dependent on total federal spending, with 43.3% of its government revenue generated by the federal government. In addition, Mississippi has the fourth highest number of residents (14,825 per 100,000 residents) in welfare programs such as temporary assistance for dependent children, medicaid, supplemental nutrition assistance programs, and others.
Article credit to Mississippi Today staff –