McRae: Here’s to the Future Mississippi!
By Treasurer David McRae
For too long, Mississippi has been overlooked and underrated on the national stage. The pundits and big-city commentators wrote us off. But they were wrong, and Mississippi is proving that every single day.
In recent years, our state has climbed to the top of national rankings. Our students’ test scores are higher, our economy is stronger, and our policies are more innovative. As a fourth-generation Mississippian, I’ve always known this about our home, but it’s encouraging to see the rest of the country finally take notice.
I’m especially proud that the State Treasury has played a key role in this conservative comeback. We have protected (and then leveraged) our strong credit rating to secure debt-refinancing deals that saved taxpayers more than $100 million. At the same time, we invested wisely and earned an additional $1 billion for the state, easing the burden on hardworking Mississippi families and proving that fiscal discipline pays off.
We also took a hard look at the Mississippi Prepaid Affordable College Tuition (MPACT) program. When I took office, it was funded at only 72 percent, threatening taxpayers with a multi-million-dollar bailout. Through prudent, free-market investment strategies, we restored the program’s solvency and protected families from a government bailout.
Beyond that, we doubled down on returning unclaimed money to its rightful owners, infusing roughly $150 million back into our economy over the last five years. That is nearly half of everything returned since the program began in 1982. Those dollars belong to the people, not the government.
Combined with a strong economic-development strategy from Governor Tate Reeves, these efforts have helped draw new private-sector investments and good-paying jobs. Mississippi is now poised to benefit more than almost any other state from the reshoring of American manufacturing, a testament to our pro-business climate and conservative leadership.
This is the Mississippi my grandfather believed in when he started our family business, and it’s the state my wife and I proudly chose to raise our own family. I’m honored to represent a place that shows the nation what happens when you pair fiscal responsibility with freedom-loving, conservative principles: stronger families, thriving communities, and a brighter future for generations to come.
Mississippi Treasurer David McRae is the 55th Treasurer for the State of Mississippi. In this role, he helps manage the state’s cash flow, oversees College and Career Savings Mississippi, and has returned more than $140 million in unclaimed money to Mississippians. For more information, visit Treasury.MS.gov.
