Recent Updates

Balanced Approach that Includes Raising Revenues Needed to Navigate Budget Challenge

Like most states across the country, Mississippi is experiencing difficulty generating revenue to support critical state services such as K-12 and higher education, public safety and agriculture.  For Mississippi to be competative when prosperity returns, a balanced approach budgeting, one that includes raising revenues, is needed.  The following briefs highlight the state's revenue shortfalls and options for raising revenue.

• Medicaid Change Saves Mississippi $36.7 Million (2/10 pdf)
• Lottery In Mississippi: A Gamble for State Budget and Working Families (2/10 pdf)
• Fourth Round of Budget Cuts Highlights Need for Balanced Approach (2/10 pdf)
  
• Revenue Options for Mississippi's Fiscal Crisis (Updated 2/10 pdf)
• Nonprofit Tax Exemptions and Estimated Revenue Impact (2/10 pdf)
  
• Legislative Budget Recommendation - Actual (12/09 pdf)
• Who Pays?  Overview of who pays state and local taxes in MS (11/09 pdf)
• Executive Budget Recommendation - MEPC Summary (11/09 pdf)
  • Executive Budget Recommendation - Actual (11/09 pdf)
• Revenue Estimate Summary / Options for Raising Revenue (11/09 pdf)
  • Mississippi Revenue Estimate (11/09 pdf)
• First Quarter Revenue Report (10/09 pdf)

A Closer Look: Mississippi's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and the Workforce Enhancement Training (WET) Fund

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program is a federal-state partnership designed to replace the lost earnings of eligible workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own.  UI benefits are funded through the Unemployment Insurance Tax which is paid by employers.  A portion of the tax is returned to employers through a rate reduction (.3%) and then an additional contribution of .3% is collected and used to fund worker training administered by Mississippi's community colleges, provided the UI Trust Fund remains above three (3) solvency targets. As a result of the recession, the UI Trust Fund balance has fallen below one of the three (3) solvency targets. 

This memo provides background information on the UI Trust Fund and the Workforce Enhancement Training Fund as well as a comparison between the existing law and the proposed changes to keep this workforce training program in place.

• UI Trust Fund and WET Fund Overview (1/10 pdf)

Report Finds One in Three Mississippi Households Lack Adequate Income to Meet their Basic Needs

With basic living costs rising faster than incomes, more and more of Mississippi's families are facing economic hardships as they struggle to cover basic needs such as food, shelter, health care, and child care.  By comparing household incomes to bare-bones budgets, this report finds that 32% or nearly one in three Mississippi households does not earn enough money to cover their basic living expenses.

For more information, click on the links below.

• Listen to MEPC Director, Ed Sivak on Mississippi Edition (12/17/09)
• Overlooked and Undercounted Executive Summary (pdf 12/09)
• Overlooked and Undercounted Full Report (pdf 12/09)

Map Released on Check Casher Concentration in Jackson, MS

Using data provided by the Mississippi Department of Banking and Consumer Finance, MEPC created a map to illustrate the locations of check cashers within the city limits of Jackson.  The map shows high concentrations of check cashing businesses in the most economically distressed parts of the city.  To view the map click here.