JACKSON, Miss. -- House members and their counterparts in the Senate worked over the Easter weekend to put finishing touches on state government's General Fund $3.5 billion-plus budget for the next fiscal year starting July 1, 2002. The House convened Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m., and came back to work Sunday (Easter) afternoon.

Under the calendar for processing legislation for the 2002 session, the Legislature faces a Monday, April 1 deadline to complete floor action on the bills that appropriate operating funds for the more than 100 state agencies, boards and commissions for FY 2003. There also is a Saturday, March 30 deadline for conference committee negotiators from the House and Senate to file final versions of spending and revenue-generating bills to be presented to the full membership of the Legislature.

During the week of April 1-6, the House and Senate will be working on final versions of general bills and constitutional amendments (non-revenue measures). By Sunday, April 7, the 90-day session that started January 8 will be history. The House is scheduled to adjourn sine die on April 7.

The Legislature began the session with one of the tightest budget situations that ever faced a legislative session, due both to declining state revenues and financial woes in the Governor's Office of Medicaid. That office, which provides almost one-fourth of all Mississippians with health insurance, began the session with a budget shortfall of almost $160 million. The Legislature worked on the Medicaid problem for two months before a financial package bringing temporary relief was given final approval in early March.

February brought somewhat brighter news about state revenues than the state had experienced in more than a year. However, overall tax collections for FY 2002 remain well below projections, and that situation has already forced the governor to initiate budget reductions in most state agencies as required of him by law. House and Senate budget leaders have been scrambling to plug financial holes in some budgets, particularly those affecting public education.

In other action during the past week:

--Both the House and Senate voted to override the governor's veto of HB 1551 and passed the bill that prohibits local governments from passing ordinances to restrict the use of cell phones in motor vehicles. It was felt that local ordinances would amount to a hodgepodge of laws and could also create a "speed trap-type" situation in a locality. Even proponents of cell phone regulation tended to agree that there should be more uniformity than would be afforded by local governmental ordinances.

--During the last two weeks of each legislative session, the House considers numerous "local and private" bills, or measures that generally affect only one city or county. For example, the House passed bills this week to allow Monroe County to contribute to the local Shrine Club for burn victims’ transportation and to authorize Covington County to donate to a local Boys and Girls Club.

The House approved dozens of "commending resolutions," which honor individuals and groups for outstanding achievements. Included among these actions were bills honoring: several high school teams for winning state basketball championships, noted Civil Rights leader and Coast physician Dr. Gilbert Mason for his career, former President Ronald Reagan, former House member and Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Mike Mills for his appointment as a federal judge, Gulf Coast seafood industry pioneer Charles E. Weems, and retiring Delta State University women's basketball coach Lloyd Clark.

The House also passed several bills to restore suffrage -- the right to vote -- to former state inmates who have been released and have proven to be conducting themselves as law-abiding and honorable citizens in a good and lawful manner.

The House Agriculture Committee this week heard a presentation regarding the restructuring of the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service that is scheduled to go into effect in the next fiscal year. Under the plan, each county will have a core staff consisting of a county director, a 4-H agent or 4-H program assistant, and one or more office associates. In some counties, the county director will also serve as 4-H agent. All agriculture and natural resources agents and all family and consumer education area agents will specialize in a program focus area.

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