The Business and Industry Political Education Committee (BIPEC) has analyzed the proposed costs and financial impact on individual Mississippians if Jim Hood were to be elected and make good on the promises he’s made on the campaign trail.
The study comes after a Mississippi Today article discussed the proposals and Tate Reeves’ subsequent statements that Hood would “bankrupt” Mississippi.
Hood has made it clear in his platform that he’d want to expand Medicaid, fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), and make community college free among other policy wish-list items.
BIPEC reviewed the costs of each of the Hood campaign’s proposals:
According to the Legislative Budget Office, the current general fund appropriations and re-appropriations for FY 2020 is $5,746,185,920. With Hood proposals (according to BIPEC) requiring $941,700,000 in new spending, that would increase the budget by 16.4%. This would mean $774.50 out of the pockets of the 1,215,412 Mississippians that pay income tax.
BIPEC said the numbers they analyzed are based on numbers provided by the Department of Education, Department of Revenue, Legislative Budget Office, Community College Board, and the Division of Medicaid.
Parker Briden of the Tate Reeves campaign said of the financial impact of the proposals, “Jim Hood’s playbook is the same as National Democrats. He’ll need to hike your taxes by about a billion dollars to fund all of his false promises. It’s an irresponsible tactic built on big government liberalism and deceit.”
The Jim Hood campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
However, in response to an article today in the Clarion Ledger about his education funding proposals, Hood stated, “To sit here and tell you exactly what the Legislature would do and how much we would get and where the revenues would come from, I don’t know the answer to that. It’s not that I don’t have a plan. I’m going to look at what’s out there first.”
