By now the whole country has heard of the landmark court case on Roe v Wade…..but did you know that it originated in my state of Mississippi?
And that is not the only ‘famous’ court decision that originated in Mississippi…..25 years ago the landmark tobacco settlement originated in Mississippi.
Yep time for that short trip into history.
If Mississippi’s political leaders had stuck to their plan, the state would now have a trust fund of more than $4 billion earning about $320 million annually to spend on health care, based on projections made in 1999.
But, as often is pointed out, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Such is the case with the health care trust fund that was created in 1999 with the money from the state’s settlement with the tobacco companies of a landmark lawsuit to collect government funds spent treating smoking-related illnesses.
The settlement funds have been delivered to Mississippi as promised, but the promise of a trust fund was broken long ago.
The lawsuit, which originated in Mississippi, turned into a $365 billion national settlement that was announced by then-Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore and others on June 20, 1997 – 25 years ago.
The lawsuit guaranteed Mississippi $4 billion over 25-years with annual payments of $100 million or more, based on a formula, continuing forever.
The new cash was earmarked for health issues….but since the GOP runs this state and their push to cut spending the state Congress has been hitting the fund to plug all the holes that they have created by all the austerity measures.
This is typical for Mississippi…they lie.
Like casino tax money was earmarked for education and yet the state education system sucks because there is little money.
Do you pay attention to how your tax dollars are spent? Or do you just care about issues that mean little to the people of your state?
I can wait for the answers.
Class Dismissed!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scrfibo”
In Saner Thought 
Ohio has a thing called “The Rainy Day Fund” that was instituted by a GOP governor years ago and it was intended to be used for emergencies confronting the state. It was also set up legally so that it could never be investigated. There must be billions of dollars in it by this time and so far not a dime has ever spent on anything pertaining to the state …so because it can’t be investigated, nobody knows where the money is.
So, Ohio’s piggy bank has grown plump under DeWine. That might seem paradoxical, given COVID-19. But as a very shrewd bystander recently said, voters might forget that DeWine furloughed about 16,000 non-union state employees last year for 10 workdays, “the equivalent of a 3.8% pay cut,” cleveland.com’s Andrew Tobias reported. Earlier, DeWine cut state spending. And Ohio’s “rainy day” budget fund, which totaled almost $2.7 billion on June 30, remains untouched.
Mississippi just uses a ‘general fund’…..they use the lawsuit money to fill holes in the budget that they create by eliminating income for the state…..has not been used for the promised programs…..health care mostly since this state sucks at health issues. chuq
Your state has a rich history of being corrupt and generally awful, it would seem.
Best wishes, Pete.
Yep and has been controlled by the GOP for 5 decades or so….chuq