Columbus Dispatch. April 7, 2022.
Editorial: One more opportunity to experience nationally-recognized performance
Imagine if, right here in our backyard, there were an affordable, family-friendly, educational, award-winning event featuring local students who’ve devoted months of research and rehearsal to a production that has gained national acclaim for the past three decades?
Wouldn’t that pique your interest?
Welcome to Tales from the Crypt, a production of the history department at Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. Each year, MSMS students under the direction of history teacher Chuck Yarborough — 27 students this year — lead graveyard tours at historic Friendship Cemetery, portraying some of the people who are interred there. Since African-Americans were historically not buried at Friendship, some students portray the slaves of those buried there. Students research their chosen person and tell their stories in first-person, dressed in the period costumes those they portray might have worn.
For students, it’s a great way of learning how to do historical research and perform before an audience. If you have ever attended the event, you immediately recognize that the students are well-prepared, entertaining and informative.
In bringing their subjects back to life, in a manner of speaking, the students allow the audience to learn about our community’s history in a unique and thoroughly entertaining way. The night-time tours through the old cemetery, which opened in 1849, certainly provide a powerful backdrop to the performances.
For years, Tales from the Crypt has been a wonderful complement to the Columbus Pilgrimage.
This year, 927 visitors have taken the tour during its first three performances, which seems to us to barely scratch the surface, given the quality of the event.
The 45-minute tour costs just $5 for adults and $3 for students. Admission is free for preschoolers. It’s hard to imagine a better value for your entertainment dollar.
For those who have never attended — or those who haven’t attended this year — there is one final opportunity.
Friday, Tales of the Crypt holds its final performance of the year, with tours beginning at 7 p.m.
Tickets and information can be obtained online at preservecolumbus.com.
It would be a shame to miss out, don’t you think?
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Tupelo Daily Journal. April 6, 2022.
Editorial: Mississippi needs local option sales tax program not beholden to state lawmakers
Discussions over taxes — specifically the state income tax — dominated this legislative session. Almost unnoticed, however, were a handful of bills seeking to raise local sales taxes for tourism purposes.
Among those was House Bill 1747, a local option sales tax bill for the city of Clinton that Speaker Philip Gunn championed for his hometown. We brought the bill to light because Senate Local and Private Chairman Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, was holding up the bill in committee. The reason: Gunn and House leaders last year killed a local option sales tax bill for Lee County that McMahan championed. At that time, Gunn’s income tax elimination bill included sales tax increases that would offset the loss in revenues, and Gunn didn’t want any local and private bills that increased sales taxes any further.
Of course, McMahan’s bill also did not have the support of Lee County’s House delegation. The unwritten, general rule is that no local and private tax bill will pass without support of the local delegation.
All of that sound over-complicated by politics? It is. Furthermore, it is unnecessary. The Legislature should give more control to local governments and voters by adopting a local option sales tax program that removes the legislative barrier, at least from the front-end.
Mississippi is one of about 10 states that does not have a true local option sales tax program. Five of those states don’t even have sales taxes, which leaves Mississippi in an even smaller minority.
Under current state law, the Legislature has to first approve any local option sales tax. If that happens, the local governing body seeking the tax can put it on the ballot for the local voters to decide. Only if 60% of voters approve the tax would it go into effect.
That the Legislature has to approve the ability for a local government and its citizens to decide a local taxing issue is an outdated model. It is simply the legislative leaders in Jackson wanting to control all taxing authority while paying nothing more than lip-service to the idea of home rule, which so many of them claim to back.
For many years the Mississippi Municipal League fought for a new program. They got nowhere. So what we have now is a patchwork of special local taxes passed under the heading of tourism (like the one to be considered in Clinton). But they are limited in scope, usually affecting only restaurants, hotels and similar hospitality-related businesses.
Lawmakers should make changing this system a priority next year. They have plenty of time to study the issue between now and then, and not that much study is needed. Good programs exist, and even old MML proposals are still relevant.
In fact, what lawmakers do now for tourism taxes could be easily expanded. A good local option sales tax program will require 60% approval of voters and should be for only a limited time, with another vote required for renewal of the program.
Likewise, such a program would require the uses for the taxes to be clearly defined, just like with a bond issue vote. It should not be simply a way to create additional revenue for general operating costs.
Tupelo is a perfect example of how this model can work and how successful it can be. In 1989, Tupelo voters adopted a one-quarter percent sales tax to go toward water infrastructure.
But Tupelo also has a special property tax, which would be a great model for a statewide local option sales tax program.
The Major Thoroughfare Program was first adopted in 1991, when voters approved an extra 10 mills on property taxes. The funds generated go to a specific account designated for road infrastructure projects. The program is overseen by a committee that studies various projects and makes recommendations to the city council. The program has been so successful that voters have renewed it six times since it was adopted more than 30 years ago.
Other cities and counties should have the same ability. But it can only happen if the Legislature will get out of the way and allow local elected officials and citizens to make their own decisions about taxes and how to spend them.
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