This blog is about the Mississippi Legislature. JFP bloggers will follow the session and post news pieces from other media that merit discussion, analysis and factchecking. This site also contains links to all Jackson Free Press stories and columns about state government and policymaking.
[verbatim]
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE FOR HOUSE BILL 1115 -March 27, 2006-
TO THE MISSISSIPPI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
I am returning House Bill 1115: AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 43-13-403, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO DEFINE CERTAIN TERMS IN THE HEALTH CARE TRUST FUND LAW; TO AMEND SECTION 43-13-405, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT ALL TOBACCO SETTLEMENT INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS MADE TO THE STATE SHALL BE DEPOSITED INTO THE HEALTH CARE TRUST FUND, INCLUDING ANY SETTLEMENT PAYMENTS MADE UNDER COURT ORDER FOR TOBACCO CESSATION PROGRAMS, EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE PROVIDED IN THIS ACT; TO EXTEND THE DATE OF THE REPEALER ON THAT SECTION;
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Following is Gov. Haley Barbour's statement today vetoing the popular effort to raise the tax on cigarettes and lower the tax on on groceries. Note that he is repeating his past statement about the effect the tax-switch would have on local governments—even though his allegations on that front are disputed by the State Tax Commission. As quoted in Adam Lynch's report this week on this issue:
The State Tax Commission refuted Barbour’s argument depicting the “tax cut” as an actual tax hike. The bill would cut grocery tax revenues by $172.5 million in fiscal-year 2008, but bring in $181.5 million that same year. The bill would also impose a fee on non-settling cigarette manufacturers estimated to generate an extra $17 million in fiscal-year 2007.
Nevertheless, here are Mr. Barbour's veto comments, verbatim ...
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WMC-TV is reporting that a folksy poem by Paul Ott, proposed to the Legislature as the state poem, is causing controversy, with a group of Ole Miss professors and students saying it doesn't exactly make Mississippi look very, well, smart.
A great number of the bills pushing through the Legislature this session—more than in most years previously—deal with immigration and immigrants. more...
*verbatim via e-mail* There has been a lot of discussion over the past few days about Senate Bill 2310, which proposes to eliminate the sales tax on groceries and increase the tax on cigarettes. Despite the initial claims that this proposal is simple and revenue neutral, this bill in fact shortchanges our towns and cities which are already strapped in post-Katrina times and destroys our ability to increase needed funding for education in the future.
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Jan. 9, 2006 [verbatim]
"Thank you. Lt. Governor Tuck, Speaker McCoy, ladies and gentlemen of the Legislature, fellow Mississippians. Thank you for being here for my third State of the State address. I apologize for being hoarse, but I struggled with a bad cold last week*sore throat and all. For you Legislators who think that means my speech will be shorter than last year*don't get your hopes up!
Last year, I opened my State of the State speech by saying, "It is my privilege to report the State of the State is better today than it was last year but not as good as it will be this time next year."
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It's amazing the lengths these yucks will go in order to try to make up for the precious manufacturing jobs lost in the state due to NAFTA madness. And, thanks, Haley for your role in that, dude. Ledge:
The Mississippi House approved a contentious $14.5 million proposal Thursday to buy land in northeast Mississippi, hoping to score an auto plant. The success of the bill — criticized for sparking regional jealousies — already has one Delta representative wanting similar aid for an auto plant site near Tunica.more...
Maben native Amy Tuck switched to the Republican Party in the fall of 2002, and she is not switching back. But through a maturation process or through a return to her roots or perhaps through political suicide - depending on a person's own beliefs - the second-term lieutenant governor has become her own brand of Republican. For a while, rightfully or wrongfully, Tuck was thought of as Gov. Haley Barbour's Republican.more...
The Clarion-Ledger editorializes about the upcoming legislative "Katrina session" today:
The $4 billion 2007 budget that the 2006 Legislature meeting Tuesday will approve for the fiscal year starting July 1 hinges on federal relief. Even so, Medicaid and funding for public education remain touchy subjects. Mississippi got a huge Christmas present with the crucial, but tardy, $29 billion federal aid package to help the state rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The influx of dollars should solve a lot of issues when the 2006 Legislature convenes Tuesday and, as a result, the 90-day session will probably be called "the Katrina session." [...]
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Apr 05, 06 | 4:45 pm Scared of Xenophobes? Gallivant: One of the wonderful things about Mississippi is the fact that it's a little out of touch. I mean that -- it makes for a wonderful sense of living in a kinder, gentler time. A sort of quiet superiority that you have to live here to understand. I...
Mar 27, 06 | 11:46 pm Barbour Vetoes 'Partnership' Bill L.W.: Tim, you aren't alone. I thought I would puke at this sentence:
From its inception, the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi has been cloaked in politics and cronyism.
Okay, so what's Barbour cloaked in? Don't answer that. :-P...
Mar 27, 06 | 11:39 pm Barbour Vetoes 'Partnership' Bill Tim Kynerd: OK.
Call me cynical, but am I the only one who finds it amusing that HALEY BARBOUR is accusing other people of BEING OVERLY POLITICALLY MOTIVATED in their actions?
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Mar 27, 06 | 11:37 pm Barbour Vetoes 'Partnership' Bill L.W.: I have come to the conclusion that this administration's main goal is for every Mississippian to smoke, get sick and die. That would increase revenue for tobacco companies, hospitals and funeral homes. Economy saved, ladies and gentleman!...
Mar 16, 06 | 11:07 am Barbour Vetoes Tobacco-Grocery Tax Bill guywithanidea: yeah health care cost will go down...one day... maybe in about 20-50 years once the symptoms start taking people out, but I don't know anyone who currently smokes (relatively young people) who are having current adverse health affects yet. That's...
Mar 16, 06 | 9:22 am Barbour Vetoes Tobacco-Grocery Tax Bill ladd: so what happens when everyone stops smoking? Does grocery taxes go back up?
For one, health-care costs would decrease.
While waiting to go on WLBT this morning -- at 6-friggin'-a.m., they had a report on Barbour's veto. They quoted him...
Mar 16, 06 | 3:18 am Barbour Vetoes Tobacco-Grocery Tax Bill Brian C Johnson: I would like to pose questions about parts of the governor's speech. The first is a question of fact. To quote Barbour:
"The fact is, the State Tax Commission has consistently said it does not even know the amount of sales tax collected on...
Mar 15, 06 | 10:50 pm Barbour Vetoes Tobacco-Grocery Tax Bill guywithanidea: so what happens when everyone stops smoking? Does grocery taxes go back up?
I'm tired of all these tax exemptions/special taxes; personally.
Why didn't people try to just raise the cigarette tax alone and force the money into a medical fund...
Mar 15, 06 | 10:14 pm Barbour Vetoes Tobacco-Grocery Tax Bill ladd: (BTW, I find it hard to believe that neither Hampton or Salter are blogging about Mr. Melton threatening one of their reporters. ?)...
Mar 15, 06 | 10:13 pm Barbour Vetoes Tobacco-Grocery Tax Bill ladd: On his blog, Sid Salter is going after Barbour's "logic", as he calls it, although when you read his post you see that it is more than...
Mar 03, 06 | 1:49 am Scared of Xenophobes? Tom Head: More on racism in the anti-immigration movement, from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Just click here,...
Feb 16, 06 | 10:32 am 'Coon Hounds' Poem Causing Controversy kate: How about "I have an education, and I know how to speak and write without mutilating the English language, and I even have indoor plumbing, and I am Mississippi." Or, at the very least a poem that scans correctly, and doesn't sound like a bad...
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