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The Magnolia Flag 1861-94
"Go, Mississippi"
Official State Song
Words and Music by Houston Davis
Verse:States
may sing their songs of praise
With waving flags and hip-hoo-rays,
Let cymbals crash and let bells ring
Cause here's one song I'm proud to sing.
Choruses:
Go, Mississippi, keep rolling along,
Go, Mississippi, you cannot go wrong,
Go, Mississippi, we're singing your song,
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
Go, Mississippi, you're on the right track,
Go, Mississippi, and this is a fact,
Go, Mississippi, you'll never look back,
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
Go, Mississippi, straight down the line,
Go, Mississippi, ev'rything's fine,
Go, Mississippi, it's your state and mine,
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
Go, Mississippi, continue to roll,
Go, Mississippi, the top is the goal,
Go, Mississippi, you'll have and you'll hold,
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
Go, Mississippi, get up and go,
Go, Mississippi, let the world know,
That our Mississippi is leading the show,
M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
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MISSISSIPPI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEEKLY SUMMARY REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 01, 2002
JACKSON, Miss. -- The House of
Representatives voted 95 to 21 Friday morning to break into the Tobacco
Trust Fund for the money necessary to plug a hemorrhaging deficit in the
Governor's Division of Medicaid. The action, taken during the fourth week
of the 2002 legislative session, came less than one month before the
agency literally would run out of funds and have to shut its doors.
House Bill 1200 is designed to ease the
crisis in the Medicaid health insurance program that affects almost
one-fourth of all Mississippi residents. The Governor’s Division of
Medicaid needs about $155 million in extra state funding for the current
(FY 2002) fiscal year. Attorney General Mike Moore has charged that the
governor violated the law by allowing the deficit to balloon to such huge
proportions without making the mandatory cuts required by statute. By
failing to take timely action to reduce expenditures in the agency
directly under his control, Governor Musgrove has thrown the huge deficit
squarely into the lap of the Legislature.
Under the plan adopted Friday by the House,
lower reimbursements to health-care providers and other cost-saving
measures should save about $60 million. The state's Health Care (tobacco
settlement money) Trust Fund would produce another $108 million for the
Governor's Medicaid shortfall, with a portion supposedly to be repaid if
and when state revenues grow sufficiently in the future. However, many
legislators and other observers doubt whether the money will ever be paid
back, and worry that Friday’s action could mark the beginning of the end
for the Tobacco Trust Fund.
There seemed to be a general consensus in
the House that despite the distaste for doing so, borrowing money from the
Tobacco Trust Fund is the only viable solution immediately available to
plug the governor’s huge deficit. However, there was considerable
disagreement concerning several amendments offered to require certainty in
the repayment of the money. The key vote of the day was on an amendment
offered by Rep. Jim Ellington (R–Hinds) which would have mandated the
Legislature to put back the money it took in regular installments
beginning with Fiscal Year 2004. This vote was considered crucial, because
if the amendment failed, there would be no guarantee that the money ever
would be repaid. The Ellington amendment in fact did fail by a close vote
of 52 in favor and 67 against (3 absent), with four Lauderdale County
representatives voting on the losing side and in favor of requiring
certainty in the repayment of the "borrowed" funds: Rep. Tommy
Horne (I–Meridian), Rep. Greg Snowden (R–Meridian), Rep. Charles Young
(D–Meridian), and Rep. Eric Robinson (R–Quitman). The two Lauderdale
County lawmakers voting against the Ellington amendment were Rep. Reecy
Dickson (D–Macon) and Rep. Billy Nicholson (D–Little Rock).
Rep. George Flaggs (D–Warren) also
offered an amendment which would have required a two-thirds vote for any
future Legislative efforts to take money from the principal of the Tobacco
Trust Fund. Despite an eloquent appeal for fiscal responsibility and for
the integrity of the Trust Fund, the Flaggs amendment was defeated on a
voice vote.
The governor’s own plan for rescuing the
Medicaid program received scant attention from the Legislature after it
was put forward on January 25, it being generally presumed by lawmakers
that the governor’s plan was offered for purely political purposes and
did not represent an attempt at a serious solution. Early in the week
state revenue experts told a joint session of legislative fiscal leaders
that the governor’s plan would not solve the immediate budget problems
in the governor’s Medicaid office. Musgrove’s plan to borrow $48
million from the State-Aid Road Program to use for Medicaid would cost the
state almost $30 million in interest over the 20-year payback period,
while his suggestion to require large businesses to electronically send in
sales tax receipts on a weekly basis would not bring the windfall he
claimed would result. Also, the State Tax Commission said it would need
more time to implement a weekly electronic collection system, and the
necessary changes could not possibly take effect in time to be of help in
the immediate crisis.
The House of Representatives had one of its
heaviest schedules of committee meetings for the session this week as the
panels worked toward the February 5 deadline to report bills and
constitutional amendments that originated in the House. Among the
committee action taken this week:
 | The Appropriations Committee approved HB
400 to provide a new method of choosing the director of the State
Department of Human Services. The Public Health committee had earlier
passed the bill that would set up a 9-person board over the agency.
The governor would choose the DHS leader from a list of three names
submitted by the board. The director would appoint department heads
within the agency. The system would take effect in January 2004. DHS
has had six directors in just the past decade. The current leader
would be eligible for reappointment under the plan.
The Appropriations Committee also basically froze all new state
spending through the end of the current fiscal year. It would prohibit
the hiring of any new employees or promotions. It also would halt the
purchase of any new equipment unless strictly approved after an
agency's appeal. |
| The Education Committee approved HB 284
to strengthen the compulsory school attendance law by including
students who turn 17 during the school year; HB 113 to require all
K-12 instruction to be delivered in English; HB 346 to require schools
to fly the American flag at half-staff whenever directed by the
President or by Federal law to do so; and HB 465 to include
instruction in organ donation in the driver education program. |
| The Insurance Committee and the full
House approved HB 666 which would create single-limit, "nonstacking"
coverage for automobile liability policies that cover 10 or more
vehicles. This legislation represents a compromise hammered out
between insurance company interests, trial lawyers, consumer groups,
and business concerns. |
| The Fees and Salaries of Public Officers
Committee and the full House okayed HB 251 to require state agencies
to prevent the inadvertent disclosure of a Social Security number when
distributing information or material to anyone other than those
persons who, in the performance of their duties and responsibilities,
have a legitimate need to know an individual's number. |
| A subcommittee of the Judiciary A
Committee heard from a bevy of physicians and attorneys on both sides
of the civil justice reform issue, sometimes referred to as "tort
reform." Several doctors told the panel that excessive judgments
arising from medical malpractice lawsuits have run away insurance
companies that formerly wrote such coverage in the state. A result,
they said, is that many doctors either have no access to malpractice
insurance or the price is prohibitive, leaving some regions of
Mississippi medically underserved. The trial lawyers who testified
said, however, that poor investments in the stock market by insurance
company giants have cost the companies great sums of money, and that
the companies are trying to make it up on the backs of doctors by
imposing higher malpractice premiums. The trial lawyers said the
crisis is really an "insurance crisis" fabricated by the
insurance industry and built upon deliberate lies being told to the
doctors and to the public. Dozens of bills seeking to initiate various
tort reforms have been introduced for the 2002 session, but it remains
to be seen whether any of them will be reported out to the full House
to be voted upon.
In a related matter, the House Insurance Committee approved HB 930 and
HB 1560, both of which would create a temporary joint underwriting
association to provide medical malpractice insurance for physicians,
registered nurses and others licensed to practice in a hospital and
hospitals. |
Another Judiciary A subcommittee approved
HB 1482 that says a court may allow a child who has reached 14 years of
age to declare a preference of the parent with whom he or she would like
to live. Such decisions often arise in custody matters. Under current
law, a child may make such a decision at 12 years of age.
| The
Elections Committee approved HB 1409 to create a statewide centralized
voter registry to help county election commissioners keep accurate
voter rolls. The Secretary of State's office would establish a
centralized database of all registered voters, deleting multiple
county registrants, deceased registrants, those who have changed
addresses and those convicted of disenfranchising crimes. Federal
funds would be used to pay for the new system and an advisory
committee to assist in its development would reflect the state's
population demographics. The Elections Committee also approved HB 833
to provide guidelines for local election officials to use in
determining voter intent. The bill's objective is to head off
potential problems such as those which occurred in Florida during the
last presidential election. These bills came from the work of
Secretary of State Eric Clark’s Select Task Force on Election
Procedures and Technology, created last year in the wake of the
concerns over the 2000 elections. |
| The Public Utilities Committee and the
full House approved HB 1551 to prohibit local ordinances from being
implemented to restrict the use of cell phones by drivers. While the
Legislature may or may not hereafter choose to restrict the use of
cellular telephones by the operators of motor vehicles in the state,
HB 1551 makes clear that any such regulation will be a state
responsibility, and will not be left up to local governments. |
| The Penitentiary Committee and the full
House approved HB 1382 to allow correctional field officers at any
time to search a residence or any automobile operated by an offender
who is on post-release supervision. The offender will have to agree to
permit such random searches as a specific condition for being released
in the first place. |
| The House Military Affairs Committee and
the full House approved HB 777 to allow the state to take over
operation of veterans’ nursing homes in Jackson, Kosciusko and
Oxford. The state already has assumed operations in Collins after
problems there with a nursing home contractor. |
| The House Agriculture Committee and the
Ways and Means Committee both approved HB 1341 to enhance state
agriculture programs through the Mississippi Land, Water and Timber
Resources Board.
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To contact House members, call the Capitol at
601-359-3770.
State government's Internet address is http://www.ls.state.ms.us
Representative Snowden's cell number (no long distance to Jackson) is
527-5350
Greg Snowden's e-mail address is greg@gregsnowden.com
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