The House and Senate were under a Wednesday, February 26 deadline for floor action on appropriations and revenue-generating bills that originated in the other respective chamber. This is part of the normal process leading to final adoption of the state's $3.5 billion General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2004 beginning as of July 1, 2003.

In the week beginning March 3, general policy issues, rather than those dealing with money, return to the spotlight as the Legislature faces a Tuesday, March 4 deadline for committee action on general bills that originated in the opposite chamber. The House committees will be completing work on Senate bills, and their Senate counterparts will be finishing consideration of House bills. March 12 is the floor deadline for these bills.  Click the following link to see a listing of all legislative deadlines applicable to the 2003 session.

Still later in the session, any differences between the House and Senate versions of these bills will be negotiated in what is known as a "conference committee" comprised of three members from each chamber. The 2003 regular session is scheduled to adjourn sine die on April 6.

The House Ways and Means Committee, and then the full House, approved a bond package for the state's largest private employer, Northrop Grumman -- formerly Ingalls – Shipbuilding in Pascagoula. HB 1603 would provide $48 million in state general obligation bonds to finance capital improvements at the state-owned shipyard to help the company be prepared for the next round of government contracting for U.S. Navy destroyers within two years. The project could create as many as 2,000 new jobs at the shipyard that already employs more than 11,000 workers.

Expansion of the facility will bring about 6,000 in construction jobs alone. Northrop Grumman is asking the state for $144 million in bonding over three years, but the company would match the state's contribution, and then put an additional $40 million of its own money on top of the match. The shipyard currently has a $2 billion annual economic impact on the state, with a payroll of more than $430 million annually. The firm has a shipbuilding backlog worth $6 billion. Many lawmakers noted the significance of this major economic development effort on behalf of an existing Mississippi employer – the state must continue to seek effective ways to assist businesses and industries already in Mississippi as well as trying to attract new development from out-of-state concerns.

The House Education Committee brought out SB 2636 to the House floor for debate and a vote. The bill is supposed to provide for an assessment of early childhood education programs in the state, including all pre-kindergarten school readiness programs operated by public or private school districts in the state or by head start programs. Most lawmakers acknowledge that such an assessment is a predicate to mandatory Kindergarten and pre-Kindergarten, a long-time goal of many educators who consider this vital to the state’s future, but undoubtedly also potentially a very expensive expansion of an educational system that already consumes some 62 percent of Mississippi’s struggling General Fund budget.

In the floor debate on SB 2636, Rep. Charles Young (D–Meridian), who chairs the Universities and Colleges Committee in the House, pointed out that the data supposed to be collected pursuant to SB 2636 is already available from other sources, including the Federal government, and that a separate state assessment therefore may be unnecessary and perhaps even wasteful. Upon being put to a vote, SB 2636 received 69 votes (several votes more than a simple majority), but, as announced by the Speaker, nevertheless two votes short of the number (71) necessary to adopt the measure. The bill is not listed as a revenue measure (which would require a 3/5 vote for passage), so there is some confusion as to whether the bill actually received sufficient votes for passage or not.  The House Daily Action Report for February 27 shows the bill to have failed, but proponents quickly held the bill on a motion to reconsider, so it is very possible that a reconsideration early in the week of March 3 may yet yield the two additional votes for final passage, assuming additional votes indeed are necessary.

Also in the educational area, the House passed SB 2482, which restricts the "Critical Needs Teacher Scholarship Incentive Program" to college juniors and seniors. Currently, freshman and sophomores are eligible as well, but this will change if SB 2482 becomes law. It has been the experience of the program that underclassmen have too frequently failed to progress in their studies or have simply changed their minds about their teaching careers, and that as a consequence scarce scholarship funds have been drained away from deserving upperclassmen who are more definite with their career plans. As with SB 2636, however, SB 2482 has been held on a motion to reconsider, so it is possible that the ultimate vote may change in the week ahead.

The House Ways and Means Committee and the full House approved several business-related proposals in addition to the Pascagoula bond measure. Included were HB 1483 to grant a partial tax exemption for poultry houses built after January 1, 2003, a move to help the state’s struggling chicken-growing industry; SB 2570 to allow airports to borrow up to $10 million for improvements required in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks; HB 1493 to enhance the Emerging Crops Fund; HB 1037 to put $20 million more into the program to rehabilitate bridges in rural parts of the state; and HB 839 to enhance the state's Economic Development Highway Act. The House also approved HB 1594 to issue bonds for improvements of facilities at the state universities, two-year colleges, some state agencies, and at the Stennis Space Center in Hancock County.

In other committee work this week, the House Public Utilities Committee and the full House approved SB 2592 to allow the City of Oxford to assume water and sewer service for an area outside the city. Several rural water and sewer associations around the state which were built 40 and 50 years ago have been impacted by new growth and have been found to be unable to adequately meet growing demands. Other areas of the state could well face similar problems in the future.

The Judiciary B Committee was also busy during the week, amending and then approving SB 2756 to enhance the law against exploiting children to include computer-related violations; SB 2410 to use proceeds from the sale of confiscated firearms to purchase bulletproof vests for law enforcement officers; and SB 2583 to include earlier House language that strengthens the Open Meetings law.

The Judiciary B Committee also amended SB 2446 to establish a commission to study issues arising from police pursuits, including possibly recommending that the Legislature create a new offense of fleeing or eluding a law officer, something law enforcement officials have been requesting for several years. Remarkably, in Mississippi, a suspect who places the lives of innocent citizens in danger by running from the police in a high-speed chase may, if caught, be charged with various traffic offenses, but not with the presumably more serious offense of fleeing a law officer, because such fleeing, per se, currently is not illegal in the state.  The original version of SB 2446 as adopted by the Senate, would have created such an offense, but the House committee opted for a study commission instead.  If the bill, as amended, passes the full House, differences between the two bodies will have to be worked out in a conference committee if the bill ultimately is to survive in any form.

The full House of Representatives killed on a voice vote SB 2084 that under certain circumstances would have allowed for the suspension of a youth's driving license when caught illegally buying tobacco products. The full House also amended SB 2348 to allow the Department of Corrections to take a biological sample for purposes of DNA identification analysis from any person convicted of a felony or in DOC custody, before release or transfer to another prison facility.

The House Appropriations Committee amended and then approved SB 2605 which would establish drug courts in any circuit court district in the state. However, no money was appropriated for the plan this year due to extraordinarily tight state finances. The bill was re-named the Rep. Alyce Clarke Drug Court bill to honor the House member who has pushed for the legislation.

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.