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Given House Speaker Philip Gunn’s recent testing of the waters for a challenge of Gov. Tate Reeves, there was some anticipation their back-to-back Neshoba Fair stump speeches could serve as a soft launch of a Gunn gubernatorial campaign.

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But if Thursday’s speech by Gunn was intended as any sort of a launch, it didn’t make it off the pad.

And except for a couple of mild jabs at each other, the two state leaders mostly threw out the same red meat for the GOP base and mostly espoused similar policies. In case you missed it, they both really, really, really oppose critical race theory being taught in Mississippi schools and vow to prohibit it. They both detest any liberal, socialistic, Democratic federal overreach coming from Washington, D.C., and they both want to eliminate the state’s individual income tax — although their plans do differ.

If Gunn plans to put any significant daylight between himself and Reeves on policy or politics, he didn’t do it at the fair on Thursday. One would doubt that “vote for me just because I’m not Tate Reeves” would be a way to entice much of the GOP base to jump ship from a well-financed Republican incumbent in 2023.

The only major policy difference between the two evident at Neshoba is that Gunn wants to eliminate the individual income tax by swapping it with increased sales and other taxes. Reeves wants to just eliminate the income tax period, and let the loose end drag.

Gunn is reportedly still undecided about a run. His speech would indicate he’s keeping his powder dry — although there’s a fine line between keeping your powder dry and giving a pretty blah stump speech at the fair.

Much of the speaker’s presentation sounded like a 1950s civics book warning of the evils of socialism and “how it continues to creep its way into this country.” He also reminded fairgoers that he warned them a couple of years ago about Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and now “she’s become a national figure … known as AOC.”

He also doubled, or maybe tripled, down on his opposition to Medicaid expansion in Mississippi — a policy he also shares with Reeves.

READ MORE: Will Gunn run? Speaker signaling 2023 challenge of Gov. Tate Reeves

Gunn in his speech gave relatively scant attention to his income tax-sales tax proposal, despite having been touring the state pitching it (with limited success) for months and having called it the most important proposal of his legislative career.

Gunn’s only — subtle — jab at Reeves was over the federally funded $300-a-week pandemic unemployment stipend that Reeves recently halted for Mississippians.

Gunn took credit for halting it.

Gunn said, “The government needs to stop subsidizing people to stay home and not work. That’s why we called on the governor to stop the excess payments. In response to our appeal, he did so.” He was referring to a letter Gunn sent Reeves in May calling for an end to the payments that about 87,000 unemployed Mississippians were receiving. Reeves promptly initiated a halt to the payments, but never acknowledged he did so at Gunn’s request.

In his speech, Reeves’ main jab at Gunn was on the income tax-sales tax swap, and he wasn’t very subtle.

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“There are some folks at the Capitol that are proposing we swap the income tax for an increase in sales taxes … or agriculture taxes, or increases in other taxes,” Reeves said. “I want to be clear, I am opposed to taking less here and more here. I am opposed to robbing Peter to pay Paul … What we need is a lower tax burden, period.

“And I will insist on it, no matter who in the Legislature stands in the way.”

Reeves has not been known as a fiery orator. In fact, in years past in his long political career, his speeches have been noted for their cringe-worthiness and stilted delivery. No one’s every mistaken him for Daniel Webster or even former Gov. William Winter.

But he’s gotten better, and while his keynote address Thursday didn’t shuck the corn or rattle the roof on the Founder’s Square pavilion, it was the highlight of the fair, complete with breaking a little news: that he plans to push for a large teacher pay raise next year.

READ MORE: Reeves promises teacher pay raises in Neshoba stump speech

Reeves bashed the media, pandemic health experts, and masking recommendations, and praised his administration’s work in education, economics, supporting law enforcement and fending off liberalism despite unprecedented natural disasters and COVID-19. He appeared to be at ease in pandering to his base and not too concerned about any challenge from Gunn or elsewhere.

Reeves, who in the past has struggled to even get an awkward chuckle out of a crowd, even managed to land a few jokes including one about “if the radical Democrats had their way, they’d have law enforcement policing the streets with squirt guns — but given their Second Amendment stance, they may ban those, too.”

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Gov. Tate Reeves in his Neshoba County Fair speech on Thursday proposed “an immediate $1,300 across-the-board” pay raise for teachers followed by $1,000 raises for the following two years – all of which would require legislative approval.

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The total $3,300 teacher pay raise over three years, coupled with a $1,000 raise lawmakers passed this year, would fulfill a campaign promise Reeves made for a $4,300 teacher pay raise while running for governor in 2019. He caught some criticism from teacher advocates last year when he didn’t include any teacher raise in his state budget recommendation.

“I believe merit must be rewarded,” Reeves said Thursday, after praising teachers for soldiering through the COVID-19 pandemic. “… While some teachers in some other states kept kids chained to laptops or cell phones and pretended it was school, Mississippi insisted on in-person instruction. Other states said, ‘We can’t,’ but Mississippi teachers said, ‘We can.’”

Reeves said he’s fiscally conservative and “spending tax money on new things is not my nature, but education attainment is my priority.” The $1,000 pay raise lawmakers passed this year cost about $51 million.

“I think it’s wrong for us not to demonstrate that we appreciate Mississippi teachers,” Reeves said during the annual political speakings that resumed this year after being canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reeves chided “local media” for saying Mississippi has the lowest teacher pay in the nation. When adjusted for cost of living, Reeves said, Mississippi’s teacher pay is only the 37th lowest, and with the raise he’s proposing it would move to 21st.

A recent analysis from the Southern Regional Education Board found Mississippi teachers’ beginning salary and take-home pay for early and mid-career teachers are take home pay is “extremely low” compared to other Southern states, and teachers here make about 15% less than their similarly-educated peers in other jobs in the state.

“It will help us attract the top-tier teachers that our kids deserve,” Reeves said.

Of the governor’s proposed pay raise, Mississippi Association of Educators President Erica Jones said, “We’re pleased that Gov. Reeves intends to deliver on the pay raise plan he campaigned on in 2019. We look forward to working with the governor and other state leaders to see that promise through. Facing a teacher shortage crisis and an average teacher salary that lags behind our neighboring states by between four and seven thousand dollars, we cannot afford to continue down the current path of piecemeal pay raise legislation. Mississippi’s hardworking educators deserve better.”

Many education groups have been at odds with Reeves because of his failure to advocate in last year’s budget proposal for a teacher pay raise and for his refusal to impose a mask mandate in schools this year to combat COVID-19. Reeves has held firm in his opposition to a mask mandate despite rising COVID-19 cases, including among children.

Reeves criticized the Centers for Disease Control’s new mask recommendations.

READ MORE: Back to masking: CDC recommends even the vaccinated should wear masks in public indoor spaces

“Tuesday’s change in the CDC’s mask guidance is foolish and harmful and it reeks of political panic to appear that they are in control,” Reeves said. “It has nothing to do with rational science … In Mississippi, we believe in freedom.”

Reeves praised former President Donald Trump for helping deliver vaccines through “Operation Warp Speed,” but did not make any plea for more Mississippians to get vaccinated as other governors have recently amid a new surge of COVID-19 cases.

READ MORE: Other governors use bully pulpits, incentives to urge vaccination. Where’s Gov. Reeves?

He said “1.2 million Mississippians have chosen to get vaccinated. Others have chosen a different path. I will always defend those people’s right to decide what is best for them and their families.”

Besides teacher pay, focus at the annual political event also centered in on critical race theory, which has been vehemently opposed by many conservatives nationwide in recent months.

Both Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn in their Thursday Neshoba stump speeches vowed to fight next year against critical race theory being taught in Mississippi schools.

Reeves called it “the latest, dumbest idea coming from the East and West coasts.”

“Some of these Ivy League liberals are the dumbest smart people in the world,” Reeves said. “In what world is it OK to teach children that they are born racist? In what world is it OK to tell children they will be judged by the color of their skin and not the content of their character … In Mississippi, our kids should be learning STEM education, not Dem education.”

In some parts of the country schools have come under attack because of their efforts to ensure students have a true understanding of American history, including the multiple instances of racism and oppression, and for discussing with students how racism has shaped public policy and events from past to present.

During a recent interview on conservative leaning SuperTalk radio, Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said basic history and social studies are being taught in Mississippi schools.

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“I have not heard anything about that in K-12,” she said when asked about critical race theory. “That’s not risen its head. I have not had letters. I’ve not had emails about that. We got our standards, our social studies standards which are based on the history of the United States, and that’s already been out there; it has been out for public comment. It is black and white in terms of facts.

“I have not had anybody express concern about that being taught.”

Still, Reeves said he plans to push lawmakers again next year to approve his “Patriotic Education Fund,” which failed to pass this year. He had proposed $3 million to financially reward schools that combat “revisionist history.” He said Thursday that his plan would promote teaching of “the incredible accomplishments of the American Way.”

Gunn, who focused much of his speech on the dangers of socialism, also vowed to prohibit teaching of critical race theory, which he called “an attempt to reintroduce racism back into our schools and un-do all the progress we have made.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t take the chance on critical race theory,” Gunn said. “… Socialists seek to turn Americans against each other and against this country by introducing critical race theory in our schools … We cannot allow our schools to teach that one race is better than another. Those days are behind us.”

Of critical race theory, Jones of MAE said, “No matter color, background, or zip code, we want our kids to have an education that imparts honesty about who we are. We will always support the rights of educators to teach history, social studies, and civics in a way that deepens students’ understanding of the world around them and broadens their perspective.”

She said school funding is a bigger impact on the quality of education in the state.

“We hear from educators from across Mississippi all the time. And when they call our office, it’s not to take issue with the state’s history curriculum; it’s to tell us they lack basic resources and feel unheard and unsupported,” Jones said. “We’re far more concerned with educators teaching in schools that, as a result of inadequate funding, lack textbooks and paper or pencils and chalk, and deal with toilets that don’t function or window units that are broken when school starts in August.”

Don’t leave just yet…

Our hope is that when Mississippians have equal access to information, they are empowered to hold their leaders accountable, find solutions and work together to make our state a better place to live.

So far, our nonprofit work has only been possible because of the support of readers like you—and we need your help to make the next five years possible.

If you found this article informative, please donate. Give before 12/31 to help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 by the end of the year.

We want to hear from you!
Central to our mission at Mississippi Today is inspiring civic engagement. We think critically about how we can foster healthy dialogue between people who think differently about government and politics. We believe that conversation — raw, earnest talking and listening to better understand each other — is vital to the future of Mississippi. We encourage you to engage with us and each other on our social media accounts, email our reporters directly or leave a comment for our editor by clicking the button below.

Republish This Story […]