Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves speaks at Rotary
Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves was the guest speaker during the Starkville Rotary Club’s weekly meeting on Monday afternoon.
“I firmly believe that our state government’s number one priority should be job creation, bringing better and higher paying jobs to our state,” Reeves said. “I have a political philosophy that says government does not create jobs. Government’s role is to create an environment that encourages those in the private sector to invest capitol and create jobs.”
Reeves said there were three main priorities to encouraging economic growth in the state.
Reeves said the first key point to seeing longterm economic growth and prosperity is that Mississippi must have a fiscally responsible government.
“We are focused on operating our government in a fiscally productive manner,” he said. “The key component is that we aren’t going to spend money we don’t have.”
Reeves said the state has a truly balanced budget this year and a little over $300 million in a rainy day fund in case of natural or fiscal disasters.
The second priority Reeves mentioned is the state must have a fair and flat tax code that encourages economic development.
According to Reeves, inventory tax and corporate franchise tax made Mississippi less competitive because all surrounding states do not have those taxes.
Reeves said manufacturers looking to start a new business in the state would have to pay a corporate franchise tax that they wouldn’t have to pay in other states in the Southeast, and the cost of doing business is higher because of those taxes.
“That’s the reason why we’ve led the charge to, in a responsible way over time, eliminate both the inventory tax and the corporate franchise tax,” he said.
Reeves said the largest tax cut in Mississippi, the Taxpayer Pay Raise Act, which passed a couple years ago, will also reduce individual income taxes on every taxpayer in the state.
The third key Reeves highlighted involved improving the educational attainment level of state citizens.
“Ten to 15 years ago, when businesses were looking to locate in various states, the first question they asked is ‘what kind of incentives do you offer?’” Reeves said. “They no longer ask that first. Today, the first thing every potential employer and current employer says is ‘tell me about your workforce.’”
Reeves said in the past, people were out looking for jobs, but today jobs are out looking for people, and there are 48,000 jobs in the state posted online that are unfilled.
Reeves said he believed education starts at pre-K and goes through lifelong learning.
the recommendation of JH&H Architects, which designed the school.
At the October school board meeting, JH&H Principal Bruce Wood told the board the school’s costs would likely increase by more than $2 million in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Current contributions to the school stand at $27.5 million, with $12.5 million coming from the district, $10 million from the state of Mississippi and $5 million from Mississippi State University.
Completion is scheduled for fall 2019. The school will be located near the north entrance to the MSU campus across from the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development
Park.
Once complete, the school will serve all sixth and seventh graders in the district and serve as a laboratory for the MSU College of Education.