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Government services, state taxes a tough balancing act: key to holding the line? Growing the economy.

Article Excerpt
Especially in a state where the need for government services is so great because of low per capita incomes, it is a very intricate balance between keeping taxation at a reasonable level while providing essential government services.

One largely untold story is that Mississippi has been successful in recent years in keeping the size of state government employment steady while growing the economy to create new jobs. As a result, the percentage of state government employees compared to overall employment has declined.

"In the last few years, state government is becoming less and less a percentage of the total employment base," says State Treasurer Tate Reeves. "The state employment numbers have remained relatively constant while employment in the private sector has increased, which is a very good thing."

Reeves says in the past five years, state government as a total percentage of employment has declined from near 24% to the current level of 21.1%. The reason for that is the state has seen an influx of almost 70,000 new jobs in the past four years, almost all of which have come from the private sector.

"That is very important," Reeves says. "It is one of the reasons our...

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