Everyone believes in the basic principle of holding those we elect accountable for their actions. In a representative democracy elected men and women are empowered to make decisions, if they make bad decisions we end their political career by voting for someone else. Being re-elected is the holy grail of most elected officials and often the only thing that keeps them in line.

But what would happen if the politicians could figure out a way to be insulated from their decisions, what if they could give their power to someone else who could be blamed for all bad decisions but would allow the politician to take credit for all popular decisions?

That scheme would undermine the entire fabric of our political system.

Mississippi Senate Bill 2716 – is attempting to do just that, by creating a “quasi-governmental” entity that assumes the powers usually reserved for government.

This form of quasi-government is call “Regionalism”.

Regionalism is the practice of separate political subdivisions banding together to accomplish a cooperative goal.

It sounds benign and harmless until we dive deeper into how this concept is put into practice. On www.renewamerica.com writer Tom Deweese says,

“Regionalism is the means to complete the final stage of taking our private property rights from us and firmly embed us in Communitarianism.”

Currently politicians in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas have proposed a compact between certain counties and cities in their states. This compact would be managed by a private organization called the RegionSmart Development District and Agency of the Greater Memphis Region (RegionSmart).

This quasi-governmental agency will operate virtually autonomously. Because this organization is a privately held company local citizens will lose oversight and control of the tax dollars sent and collected by RegionSmart. Since RegionSmart is located in Tennessee the people of Mississippi lose access to decisions that are made. RegionSmart would not be bound by Mississippi open records laws or open meetings laws and could not be held accountable by the State Auditor.

This means Mississippi tax dollars will flow into a Memphis, TN based company that does not answer to the people of Mississippi.