Where Jackson mayoral candidate Frank Melton does or doesn’t file his homestead exemption isn’t going to solve the city’s pressing issues, such as crime, housing, transportation, or services such as water and sewer.
So, now that the attorney general’s office has resolved that he can run in the May 3 Democratic Primary against incumbent Harvey Johnson Jr., can we have a real debate?
The issue of Melton’s legal residence is an interesting sidelight, but nothing more.
Melton owns a home in Jackson appraised at $352,820 and a Texas home, where his wife lives and he has claimed homestead exemption, valued at $488,600. Just about anybody with eyes and ears should know that the flamboyant former WLBT-Channel 3 executive has lived here for 18 years. Had he not, the silence would have been deafening.
Besides, his Texas home certainly was no barrier to his serving as chief of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, or before that on the state Board of Education.
Melton and Johnson will debate at 5 p.m. Sunday at Murrah High School, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Jackson Area, WJTV-Channel 12 and The Clarion-Ledger.
Clarion Ledger
4/15/5
Magnolia Tribune
