Press Room
Editorial: Hosemann Getting More for Schools
August 04, 2009
Delbert Hosemann’s efforts to help Mississippi school districts maximize their revenue from 16th Section land is not going to generate much attention from voters.
This initiative by the secretary of state is an unsexy, workmanlike endeavor, but it can make a huge difference in improving the finances and the educational offerings of the public schools.
Hosemann, a Republican, is following in the same philosophical line as his Democratic predecessors. Both Dick Molpus and Eric Clark believed that many of the 16th Section leases were skewed to the benefit of the renters, with the school districts and their students being gypped out of a fair return on the farmland, hunting land and commercial lots that were leased out.
That was particularly a problem when Boards of Supervisors were responsible for negotiating the leases, often rewarding their friends with absurdly low leases for as long as 99 years. Those sweetheart deals have been less common since the Legislature years ago transferred that negotiating responsibility to the school boards, but it still happens. It’s the secretary of state’s job to make sure it doesn’t.
Molpus and Clark had their share of fights to correct imbalances and won more than they lost. Hosemann has taken that multi-decade effort to the next level by using technology to open up the process and bring more competition to the bidding.
All of the 16th Section leases are now put online. The innovation accomplishes several things.
First, it lets the school boards know what other school districts around the state are getting for similar acreage. That lets them know what to expect and whether to rebid the leases if the bids come in too few or too low.
Second, it dissuades the school boards even further from negotiating sweetheart deals, since they know the result will be put out there for anyone to easily see and compare.
Third, it attracts more potential bidders, since the Web site allows those looking for tracts of land to shop around. A Hinds County school official told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger that his school district will get seven bids on an individual lease — a number that never happened before.
The results of this openness have been dramatic. According to figures released last week, 16th Section lease revenue jumped 42 percent during the 2008 fiscal year. Hosemann said he expects to report another increase in the 2009 fiscal year, which ended June 30.
As we said, there isn’t anything sexy about what Hosemann has been doing. It’s just been effective.
