Ellington

A common refrain throughout Mississippi's legislative session so far has involved, for better or worse, the outsourcing of certain government functions to private entities.

Both chambers have passed charter-school bills that would let private organizations run public schools on the state's behalf. Privatization again emerged as a hot-button issue more recently when the House debated HB 1009, which would privatize the state's $200 million per year child-support collection system, which the Mississippi Department of Human Services now oversees.

Brenda Scott, president of the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees/Communications Workers of America, mobilized state employees for DHS to clog the Capitol switchboard last week by calling lawmakers to express their opposition to the bill.

"It's clear that there is no need for this," Scott said. Mississippi briefly flirted with privatization of child support during the mid-1990s, but a 1996 Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review report that found state workers collected more than the private firm the state hired to do the work.

As many as 800 DHS employees in the child support-collections division could be affected if HB 1009 becomes law, Scott said.

Democratic lawmakers seemed skeptical that the bill was designed to alleviate the workload of overburdened DHS workers and help families receive child-support payments faster.

"It's a greased pig already. Somebody up on high already knows who's going to get this contract," said Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, during debate on the House floor.

While the bill does not specify which company or companies would run the program, Sen. Nancy Collins, R-Tupelo, told The Associated Press that the information she used to defend the bill came from Arnie Hederman and Austin Barbour, a pair of lobbyists with deep ties to the Republican Party. Barbour is the nephew of former Gov. Haley Barbour and a former adviser to Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney; Hederman chaired the Mississippi Republican Party until Jan. 2012.

Barbour and Hederman, partners in a Jackson-based lobbying firm, represent YoungWilliams PC, which paid the lobbyists $90,000 in 2012, Secretary of State records show.

YoungWilliams PC is an affiliate of YoungWilliams Child Support Services, does business in 11 states and employs 950 people. In addition to the lobbying efforts, Robert L. Wells, YoungWilliams Child Support Services' chief executive officer, also has also donated to the election campaigns of several elected officials. Campaign disclosure data reveal that, including joint donations made with wife, Wells gave $38,500 to Mississippi lawmakers in 2011, including donations totaling $17,500 to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves' campaign fund.

State Auditor Stacey Pickering and Rep. Percy Watson also received $3,000 and $1,000 from Wells, respectively.

Military Families

About 2,000 members of the Mississippi Army National Guard and the Mississippi Air National Guard are currently deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation New Dawn in Iraq.

When combat operations will officially end in Afghanistan, in 2014, these troops will return home to our cities and towns. Ravaged by war, many of them will need help readjusting to civilian, but many, particularly those in rural communities, may not receive it.

The Northtown Family Readiness Program, whose funding is under consideration by the Legislature, wants to change that. An appropriations bill now under consideration by lawmakers, would fund 20 military veterans as AmeriCorps members to act as outreach workers in Mississippi's rural communities, connecting returning soldiers with services and educating them about their veteran's benefits.

Petra Kay, whose husband served in the National Guard for three decades and served as family readiness coordinator for his unit, said often veterans do not know what services they're eligible or where to go for help.

Adjusting to life off base, away from where services are available, is difficult for returning soldiers, Kay said. "You're really disconnected from the military," she said.

Mississippi soldiers are especially disconnected. Only 15 Family Readiness Centers exist to serve the 209,408 veterans in the entire state of Mississippi compared to 35 such centers in Alabama and 109 in Virginia, Kay said. That despite the fact that 11.1 percent of Mississippians are veterans compared to 14.2 percent of Virginia's population.

Kay said Mississippi's AmeriCorps program, which would involve volunteers going out into neighborhoods and knocking on veterans' doors to educate them about their rights and benefits under the Montgomery G.I. Bill and the Veterans Administration would be the first of its kind in the nation.

House Military Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. David Myers, D-McComb, helped secure the funding to pay AmeriCorps members a living allowance of $12,100 per year for three years.

Comment at www.jfp.ms. Contact R.L. Nave at [email protected].