A House In a Hurry

by Adam Lynch
Jan. 2, 2007

This story will appear in the print edition on Jan. 3.

Within hours of the Legislature convening on Jan. 2, the House Appropriations Committee approved a total of seven money bills seeking attention with little dissent. H.B. 238, a bill seeking to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program for more than $2.2 billion easily passed the committee, although Rep. Bill Denny, R-Jackson, complained that the budgetary figures for the session were not recent enough to be a reliable gauge upon which to base a vote. He added that other priorities such as the Department of Corrections and Medicaid needed more immediate attention.

“The people elected me to a $13 billion fiduciary,” Denny argued. “Now how can I go out in the public and vote on one of these bills, and somebody says ‘Bill, tell me about that MAEP,’ and I say, ‘Well, I don’t know anything about it. I walked into the chamber, it was hanging on the hoof, and we voted on it?’”

Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, chairman of the House Education Committee, said there was enough state cash to fully fund MAEP, and entered into a back-and-forth with Denny.

“Gentlemen, (the money) is there. That’s not the question, and you know that as well as I do. There’s around $4 billion. … Education is most important, second only to public health, and we need to pay for it.”

“Can you tell me what Medicaid is going to (cost), or what the prisons are going to cost … because I don’t have any idea,” Denny said.

“I can tell you what the governor says they’re going to be and what our budget staff says they’re going to be. I can tell you, based on many, many hours in the Legislative Budget Committee, that there is enough money here for all of our needs and some left over. Will it be as much as the governor wants left over? No, but it’ll leave $100 million, and that’s a good bit of money,” Brown said.

The committee went on to approve bills to provide pay increases for teachers and state employees, to reduce premium rates on commercial property in the wind pool fund, to fund a Highway Patrol trooper training class, to fully fund crisis centers through the Department of Mental Health, and to approve state funding for junior colleges and universities.

House members delayed votes on all seven bills once they hit the House floor at 4 p.m., however. Members needed to suspend House rules to take up the seven bills on short notice, but supporters could not achieve the majority to suspend the rules.

“This was a kind of protest,” said Rep. Rita Martinson, R-Madison. “Some of us don’t like the idea of approving appropriation bills this early in the session. You want to get the most current figures as you possibly can,”

Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, said it was Gov. Haley Barbour “flexing his muscle in the House,” by steering his followers in the House to oppose the vote.

Gov. Haley Barbour, having eyed the budget expectations in early December, announced that MAEP would likely get full funding, and has voiced no opposition to any of the seven bills so far.

The bills will be taken up again Wednesday, when House rules will not require suspension for a vote. With average House approval on each bill hovering in the 70 percent range, all bills will likely pass the House.

 
posted by ladd on 01/02/07 at 10:20 PM. [printer-friendly version]   

posted by Adam Lynch on 01/03/07 at 12:21 PM