Why does is seem that every time election season rolls around, politicians have the solution to the community’s problems — and that the answers fit neatly in a 30-second sound bite or 3 inch-by-5 inch advertisement?

Yet when the ballot boxes are put away and the final swearing-in ceremony is finished, the easy solutions rarely come to fruition.

Take economic development and jobs for example. Each election, candidates push their ability to attract companies to the area and grow the ones already here.

Despite the addition of the new federal prison, the recent Elevance announcement, and the prospect of a future Rentech plant, candidates say more jobs are needed. Of course, who doesn’t want more jobs for our community?

Those with prior business experience emphasize their real-world credentials to justify why they should replace a board they say is ineffective. Candidates four and eight years ago, some of them incumbents, used the same arguments we hear from the wanna-be supervisors today.

The answer is there are no easy answers when it comes to creating jobs and boosting economic development.

So, too, with education. With test scores nearly stagnant and dropout rates too high, nearly every candidate is in agreement that something needs to be done with the schools.

Neighborhood schools, smaller class sizes, accountability, greater parental involvement and more technology are just a few of the ideas candidates have already thrown out this election season as solutions to the community’s education crisis. Too much money is being spent on the administration and not on instruction, they say.

They are all easy explanations for candidates who are looking for a campaign issues. But they fail to acknowledge a system that is bound by a sea of regulations from the state and federal government in a community that refuses to acknowledge the real effect area private and parochial schools have on public school performance.

Of course, few of the issues touted by the candidates can be legislated by the board of supervisors.

When it comes to the one area in which the supervisors do have control — the appointment of school board members — many candidates want to hand that decision over to the voters. In effect, many candidates want schools to improve, but be removed from being responsible for their success or failure.

Once again, the answer is there are no easy answers when it comes to improving test scores and boosting education.

Ironically, a decision the board did hand over to voters may be one of the biggest issue of this election. In 2009, nearly 80 percent of the voters said they wanted a recreation complex. The non-binding referendum placed a price tag of $5.4 million on the complex but didn’t say how it would be paid for.

Since then, the supervisors have moved little to bring a complex to fruition. In fact the debate is no longer about recreation and now about tax increases. A vote for recreation is a vote for a tax increase, opponents of the current plan say.

Of course this is to presuppose that there is only one answer to the recreation question.

Could the recreation complex be done in phases? Could other areas of the county budget be cut to provide funding? Could recreation be funded publicly and privately in the spirit of the city and county’s new economic development model?

If voters overwhelmingly want a recreation complex, the question shouldn’t be whether we should have a new complex, but why supervisors aren’t trying to find a way to make it happen.

If a candidate tries to tell you there is an easy answer to that question or on any of the big issues this election, I’d consider taking my vote somewhere else.

Ben Hillyer is the design editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.