The narrative from Mississippi Democrats is one in which Republicans are responsible for the state’s revenue shortfall and budget cuts — those present and those predicted to come during the next fiscal year.
Respected Democrats like Rep. David Baria of Bay St. Louis blasted the GOP supermajority in the Legislature during and immediately after the 2016 session. On a number of social issues, Baria found agreement for some of his criticism among what he calls “reasonable Republicans.”
But on the budget and taxation, Baria has called for Republicans in the majority to “own” the impact of tax cuts and budget shortfalls. In a May column, Baria used words like “totalitarian” and “militaristic” to describe his Republican colleagues in the state government.
By the time the Neshoba County Fair rolled around, Democrats like Central District Public Service Commissioner Cecil Brown joined in the chorus, saying: “Based upon my experience, review of the details of the budget, and information from folks involved in the budget-making process, I can tell you that the state budget is a mess. The budget the Legislature recently passed spends at least $136 million more than the state expects to collect.”
Brown’s narrative had consistent Democratic echoes under the tin roof of the Founder’s Square Pavilion at Neshoba. In short, the Neshoba narrative for Democrats was that if you have a problem right now in Mississippi — education, health care, mental health, transportation, infrastructure, corrections, you name it — blame the Republicans in power.
No question, that’s smart politics. Yet where that narrative falls apart rolls back to Baria’s insistence that the current Republican majority “own” problems confronting state government.
Let’s run that political rabbit for a time. From Reconstruction through the 2011 elections, Mississippi Democrats controlled the Legislature. Republicans have held the Governor’s Mansion for all but four years since 1992.
But the House was solidly in the control of the Democratic Party from Reconstruction through the 2011 elections, when the GOP wrestled control away from the Dems for the first time in 150 years.
And the state Senate only came under Republican control in 2007 as the result of a party switch by Shannon Walley that pitched the Senate into a 26-26 partisan tie.
The fact of the matter is that state government — education, health care, mental health, transportation, infrastructure, corrections, you name it — was planned, administered and funded from Reconstruction through 2012 by Democratic leadership in the Legislature. In other words, for more than a century and a half, Mississippi Democrats “owned” it.
Recent Democratic arguments that all was well in state government before Republicans got total control four years ago strains both credulity and the historical record.
Like the current Republican supermajority, the Democratic supermajority oversaw monumental failings in public policy on their watch.
