JACKSON, Miss. – The 2003 Regular Session finally ground to a close during a rare Sunday morning session as the Legislature plugged a $300 million-plus budgetary hole with one-time monies and gave the state’s hemorrhaging Medicaid division a virtual blank check to continue running up record deficits. The bad budgetary news only gets worse: when the newly-elected Legislature returns to the Capitol next January, new and additional revenue of at least $650 million will be needed just to keep up with existing FY 2004 obligations and to meet built-in increases for the projected FY 2005 budget. Barring an absolute fiscal miracle (i.e., revenue growth much greater than typical in historically "normal" periods), lawmakers next January must confront and answer the hard questions relentlessly avoided in this election year: will the Legislature raise taxes, or will it cut state services and limit chronic overspending?

Friday, April 4, truly was a chaotic day in the House of Representatives. With some members reluctant even to bring up for a vote the question of whether to override or sustain Governor Musgrove’s veto of HB 1036, a key budget bill, the House twice (once on a roll call and once by voice vote) defeated motions Friday to adjourn sine die and thereby end the 90-day regular session without any further action at all. If this had been done, a special session would have been required before July 1 just to adopt the budget the Legislature supposedly had been working on since January. Fortunately, most House members simply refused to adjourn and go home without the adoption of a budget, so after the governor's veto of HB 1036 indeed was sustained, a suspension resolution was passed in both the House and the Senate which allowed the introduction of new budgetary legislation even after all the normal deadlines therefor had expired. The ultimate result was HB 1667, which finally was agreed to on Sunday morning only after late-night sessions in both chambers Saturday evening.

Many members of the Legislature are convinced that the state will never successfully restrain overspending unless and until the governor’s Medicaid division is brought under reasonable control. This ever-expanding welfare program now spends a total (state, Federal, and special funds) of nearly $2.6 billion, with some 709,000 Mississippians (almost one out of every four) now being Medicaid recipients. Incredibly, the FY 2004 Medicaid budget just adopted will result in an admitted state funding shortfall of approximately $91 million. Nevertheless, by virtue of controversial language inserted as Section 6 into the final version of HB 1667, the Medicaid division is absolved of any real concern for the shortfall, and actually is directed to ignore the looming deficit and continue spending at current levels just as if the agency were fully funded "until such time as the 2004 Legislature convenes." In other words, as with the budget generally, the buck has been passed on Medicaid until after the 2003 general election. Make no mistake, however – the piper will demand prompt payment next January.

Voter I.D. also died in conference committee during week 13 of the regular session. The three House conferees refused to accept several compromises offered by their Senate counterparts, and adamantly rejected all efforts to retain any of the reasonable Voter I.D. provisions contained in SB 2821, designed to implement the "Help America Vote Act of 2000" passed by Congress to update voting machinery and procedures. By doing so, opponents of Voter I.D. may have cost the state $34 million in Federal dollars expected to be made available pursuant to the "Help America Vote" legislation, but the latest word is that the state nevertheless may qualify for a waiver by which this Federal money may be obtained even without the passage of SB 2821. Indeed, knowledge of the potential for obtaining such a waiver quite possibly provided Voter I.D. opponents the fortitude for their continued resistance even in the face of the growing demand of most Mississippians for a sensible Voter I.D. law applicable to all voters in all elections.

The last week of the regular session also saw the Legislature give final approval to dozens of general bills on diverse policy issues such as putting some limits on telemarketing solicitation, mandating an assessment of the state's early childhood education programs and a cost analysis of mandatory kindergarten, creating a statewide system of drug courts, strengthening laws against the exploitation of children via computers, tightening the state's open meetings law, creating markets of last resort for medical malpractice insurance and homeowners' residential property insurance, and requiring criminal background checks for new health-care workers.

The Legislature also approved numerous measures that raise funds to repair or construct state-owned facilities including university campuses and to enhance the economic development of the state. One major act in this regard was the issuance of bonds to fund improvements at Northrop Grumman-Ingalls shipbuilding on the Gulf Coast. Another makes grant funds available to small population cities and counties for their continued development. Another bill should boost the state's agricultural sector, particularly in corn and soybean growing, with incentives to encourage the production of ethanol and other alternative fuels. And the Legislature appropriated another $20 million for the ongoing program to rehabilitate the hundreds of dangerous bridges scattered across the state.

The Legislature also made it clear it backs the Mississippi troops on active duty in Iraq -- more than 2,000 state residents at the latest count. Legislatively, more money was appropriated for veterans nursing homes, and out-of-state college tuition was waived for non-resident military vets born in Mississippi.

Finally, in ceremonial duties, the House of Representatives honored Alcorn State University's long-time men's basketball coach, the legendary Coach Davey Whitney.

Representative Greg Snowden (R-Meridian) maintains a legislative web site to aid constituents and other interested persons in obtaining information about state government. The web site address is  www.gregsnowden.com.  Rep. Snowden may be reached by e-mail at any time greg@gregsnowden.com, or by telephone at 601-693-5700 (Meridian office) or 601-527-5350 (cell phone - a local call from anywhere within Mississippi).

EDITORIAL NOTE: Most of the facts and much of the organization of the above summary is due to the fine work of Mac Gordon, of the House Information Office. However, although Mr. Gordon provides this information weekly to all House members, each member has the privilege of using it however he or she sees fit. Rep. Snowden has taken the liberty to re-write much of the standard summary, and to include his own comments and expressions of opinion. Accordingly, while Rep. Snowden gratefully acknowledges the work of the House Information Office in organizing and supplying reliable and timely information as to the workings of the House, all comment and all opinion contained in this summary is that of Rep. Snowden alone, and not that of Mr. Gordon or any other staff employee of the House of Representatives.