Mississippi still plugging away at poverty

from WDAM

This story details the state's efforts on fighting poverty. A recent report omitted Mississippi from it's findings, despite it's having the highest poverty rate in the US. - Kale

The report from the Center for Law and Social Policy, or CLASP, discussed Connecticut's initiative to cut child poverty in half by 2014, and Louisiana's goal to do the same thing by 2018.

Mississippi hasn't set a target date for reducing poverty in any demographic. It has created legislative committees and task forces to look at the issue - an approach that's yielded few tangible results.

In 2006, the Legislature created the Delta Revitalization Task Force to focus on a region of the state that's cursed by high poverty and illiteracy rates. The multi-county area also has inadequate health care and decrepit infrastructure.

The task force met with residents, business and community leaders and state officials, collecting information about the systemic problems fueling the poverty rate. For the past two years, the panel has offered legislation based on those findings, but most of the bills were unsuccessful.

House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, created a select Poverty Committee this year. Its charge was similar to the Delta task force, but applicable to the entire state. Ten bills were referred to the Poverty Committee, including proposals to create a commission on health, to open an obesity clinic in the Delta and to create a task force to study the feasibility of an affordable housing trust fund. All of them died.

The author of the CLASP study, Jodie Levin-Epstein, said Mississippi should have been among the states listed, but she was unaware of the Poverty Committee.

"Just the emergence of the efforts are a signal that the political will that seemed totally nonexistent is at least rebirthing," said Levin-Epstein, referring to the anti-poverty initiatives under way across the nation.

While Levin-Epstein attributes a certain mind-set to the Poverty Committee's creation, state Rep. Reecy Dickson believes personal attitudes and beliefs have hindered some proposed policies and programs.

"What we're finding is such insensitivity among a number of representatives because they don't have the foresight. You have so many folks who only understand their communities and their needs," said Dickson, who was appointed chairwoman of the Poverty Committee.

Dickson, D-Macon, has attended meetings around the state, where she's heard about the lack of job opportunities, the need for childcare, and the probability of poverty rising with a growing elderly population.

"Mississippi is not able to sustain poverty and its impact," Dickson said.

A good place for lawmakers to make a change would be a reduction in the state's 7% grocery tax, said Warren Yoder, executive director of the Public Policy Center of Mississippi. Yoder said 1 of every five Mississippi families doesn't have enough money to always feed children nutritious meals. He said that's the highest rate ever in the U.S.

An attempt to reduce the state's grocery tax failed in 2006. It had been part of a proposal that also sought to raise the tobacco tax.

"There's been no shortage of good ideas. The shortage is of political goodwill to make things happen," Yoder said.

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