DAILY LEADER / NATHANIEL WEATHERSBY / Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves talks with Senator Sally Doty, Mayor Joe Cox and Ward 5 Alderman Fletcher Grice at the end of his tour around Reed’s Metals

Friday afternoon, Lt. Governor Tate Reeves visited Reed’s Metals in Brookhaven for a tour around the company’s facilities and to speak with the company’s owner, Bernie Reed and city officials.

“It’s always great to be back in Lincoln County,” Reeves said about the visit.

Reeves’s visit was intended to emphasize his dedication to supporting home-grown businesses that provide jobs for Mississippians.

“Reed’s really embodies what we are trying to do as a government,” Reeves said, when speaking about Reed’s Metals.

He said the company employs 60 to 70 people in Lincoln County and over 100 others throughout its other locations around the south.

Reeves asserts the government doesn’t create jobs, but the government should create the environment that encourages job creation within the state and among businesses. Reeves said when he and his colleagues consider passing legislation they ask if it will help encourage private sector investments.

Some of Reeves other platforms involve lowering the tax burden on citizens and small businesses. This provides explanation for his interest in Reed’s Metals and the number of jobs the company has created in its approximately 16 years of operation.

Also during his visit, both before and after his tour Reeves talked about education reform and the efforts he and his colleagues have taken to provide such reform. Reeves said they’ve changed the way the state rates schools by switching to a letter grade system which they hope would facilitate comprehension among children’s parents and grandparents.

Other efforts include Third Grade Gate, which keeps third graders who aren’t reading at the proficiency level from being promoting to the fourth grade, reading coaches who go into schools to help students and allowing public charter schools in the state.

“Every kid deserves to have an education,” Reeves said.