JACKSON - Some things never change in Mississippi politics where Gov. Ronnie Musgrove is concerned. One can always count on Mr. Musgrove to never let doing what's right get in the way of doing what's politically expedient.
Musgrove's State of the State address last week was long on impassioned rhetoric about quality schools, jobs and communities, but short on details about how we pay for the programs he advocates to get us there. More than that, Musgrove's speech was a political cop-out on the divisive state flag issue that Musgrove chose to inflame last year that has left many of the governor's allies on the issue feeling angry and betrayed.
Musgrove got not one clap of applause during his remarks on the state flag from a Legislature that wants to get the issue off its plate as soon as humanly possible. Musgrove appointed his Flag Commission last year and paid lip service then to the need to change the state flag.
But after a year in which Musgrove watched from the cheap seats while his flag commissioners were demonized in public hearings and while the commission chairman, former Gov. William Winter, stood tall and took the political shots Musgrove didn't have the stomach to take himself, Musgrove's references to the state flag in his SOS speech were weak-kneed and jelly-spined.
Musgrove - reading the popularity polls - now magically has no opinion on the inclusion or exclusion of the Confederate battle emblem in a corner of the present state flag. He merely supports the right of the people to vote on the issue.
The governor appears now to have adopted the posture that the issue is too politically hot to handle - and that he will leave it to the state's clergy, business community and the media to get in the fight and do the hard work of selling white Mississippians on the need to adopt a flag that doesn't insult 40 percent of the state's population and provide an excuse for the national media to bash the state on the image question.
In case anyone's keeping score, Musgrove's mush-mouthed dive for political cover on the state flag issue isn't leadership. It's a naked, gutless act of political self-preservation that has seen Democrat Ronnie Musgrove talking out of both sides of his mouth on the issue within the span of one year. Black Mississippi voters, black state lawmakers and Democratic Party liberals of all races who can't read the handwriting on the wall after last week's speech simply aren't paying attention - for on the question of the state flag, mighty Musgrove has sold out.
In the speech, the sophomore governor identified "the people's priorities" as better schools, jobs and communities.
On those topics, Musgrove used the SOS speech to take a slap at Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck on the question of removing the 5-percent growth trigger on the six-year teacher pay package adopted by the Legislature last year. Calling for removal of the 5-percent growth trigger at a time when both the House and Senate leadership have already committed themselves to funding the first year of the raises during this session, Musgrove aimed this dagger at the Tuck-brokered 5-percent requirement: "The 5-percent condition is not a commitment (to education), it's an excuse."
Musgrove also called for full-funding of the Adequate Education Program in addition to the teacher pay raises, but got lockjaw on the question of making up last year's Minimum Foundation Program deficits or funding the MFP for the next budget year.
In doing so, Musgrove apparently wants to see the MFP shortfalls picked up by local taxpayers who will blame their school boards and local government bodies for that tax hike and to see better-paid teachers hamstrung with no money to operate the local school districts.
Why? Musgrove helped author and pass the Adequate Education Program, so he'll want that funded. He has no political collateral attached to the Minimum Foundation Program. It appears Musgrove thinks those funds are the problem of local taxpayers.
The governor also dodged the issue of changing the state's 85 percent rule to ease prison overcrowding and decried the construction of new prisons - again, apparently leaving the problems associated with overcrowded local jails to local taxpayers despite the pressure put on those local jails by the overcrowding mess at the state level.
Musgrove's brainchild to fight crime and help the elderly at the same time? He wants to put Mississippi prisoners in the manufactured housing business. That initiative met with belly laughter from lawmakers in the halls of the state Capitol immediately after the speech. "Not happening," snorted one veteran lawmaker.
The governor did nothing more in his speech than give the state's colleges and universities and the community college system a polite pat on the head. Musgrove outlined no new funding for those groups, which have taken much of the brunt of the budgetary belt-tightening over the last two years.
Bottom line? Musgrove has raided the "rainy day" fund to the tune of $50 million to shore up declining state revenues. He can't get any more of that "rainy day" money without legislative cooperation. Both Senate Finance Committee Chairman Jack Gordon and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Charlie Capps have made clear their intention to stay the basic course of the Legislative Budget Committee recommendations.
Musgrove gave his SOS speech earlier than any governor in recent memory. If that strategy was designed to beat the Legislature to the punch in the court of public opinion on the need to control state spending, it was a strategy that has miserably failed.
