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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 MARCH 14, 2003
JACKSON, Miss. -- The 10th
week of the 2003 regular session was marred by the collapse of what had been
a promising biracial, bipartisan compromise on Voter I.D. Instead of
returning a compromise bill to the Senate which would enable the state to
receive up to $34 million in Federal dollars for election reforms pursuant
to the "Help America Vote Act" passed by Congress, opponents of Voter I.D.
engineered a House flip-flop on the issue. The bill (and its promise of
qualifying the state to receive the $34 million) now likely heads to a
Senate-House conference committee, where ultimate passage of the entire
measure will be very much in doubt if opponents continue to resist the
enactment of sensible election fraud deterrent measures clearly favored by
the overwhelming majority of Mississippians.
The regular session is scheduled to end with a sine die
adjournment on Sunday, April 6. The past week was another major milestone
week for the Legislature, as March 12 was the deadline for floor action on
bills that originated in the opposite chamber. In the coming week, March 18
is the deadline for floor action on appropriations and revenue measures that
originated in the opposite chamber.
Click here
to see a listing of
major
legislative deadlines applicable to
the 2003 regular session.
The House’s ignominious retreat on Voter I.D. cast a pall over
legislative activity this past week. The compromise
Denny/Flaggs amendment
to SB 2821, containing reasonable Voter I.D. provisions, had passed the full
House on March 6 by a solid vote of 67-51. Because the bill had been held on
a motion to reconsider, however, it was necessary Thursday morning to
dispose of the reconsideration motion in order to send the bill on to the
Senate (which last month had already adopted a version containing good Voter
I.D. language substantially similar to that in the Denny/Flaggs compromise
amendment). And because the amended House version was so much like the
original Senate version, there was widespread speculation that the Senate
leadership planned to ask that body simply to concur in the House changes,
thereby sending the entire bill (containing sensible Voter I.D. language as
well as the necessary "Help America Vote" provisions) straight to the
governor’s desk. Tragically, this was not allowed to happen because partisan
opponents to Voter I.D. managed to scuttle last week’s biracial compromise,
and, as a result, the $34 million the state otherwise would receive pursuant
to the "Help America Vote" act has been endangered.
When the amended SB 2821 was called up Thursday morning, presumably to
dispose of the motion to reconsider, a key architect of last week’s
biracial, bipartisan compromise,
Rep. George Flaggs, Jr.
(D–Vicksburg), took to the podium to propose that the bill indeed be
reconsidered for the purpose of still further amendment. Rep. Flaggs told
the House that he had decided to offer his new amendment after conferring
with the Secretary of State’s office, and he implied that
Secretary of State Eric Clark
supported (and perhaps had suggested) his newest proposal. It quickly became
apparent to those on the House floor that
Rep. Flaggs' newest unilateral amendment
represented an abandonment of the Voter I.D. compromise he had carefully
crafted last week with
Rep. Bill
Denny (R–Jackson).
Indeed, Rep. Flaggs’ newest solo amendment would have gutted the Denny/Flaggs
amendment by removing Voter I.D. requirements for all but first-time voters.
With one side clearly reneging on the deal, and last week’s compromise by
then in tatters,
Rep. Keith
Montgomery (R–Clinton) raised a point of order on all House amendments
to SB 2821, which immediately was sustained, because the House committee
which handled the bill had contrived from the outset to bring to the floor a
deliberately flawed product as a procedural obstacle to a clean debate on
Voter I.D. (The flawed nature of the House version of SB 2821 was well-known
to all sides in the House, but no timely point of order had been raised as
long as the compromise had held).
Once
Speaker Tim Ford
(D–Baldwyn) sustained the point of order, as everyone knew he must, the
parliamentary effect was to take all House debate back to the
original Senate version of SB 2821, which contained Voter I.D. provisions
substantially similar to those in the now-abandoned Denny/Flaggs amendment.
Rep. Tommy Reynolds
(D–Charleston), who chairs the House committee handling the bill,
immediately offered a
new amendment to the Senate bill which would strip out the Voter I.D.
provisions. (As an illuminating aside, although the amendment was a floor
amendment personal to Reynolds, and not that of his committee, he
nevertheless was immediately recognized to offer the amendment from the very
well of the chamber, which is contrary to the rule and practice of the House
requiring that a member must be at his or her own desk in order properly to
seek recognition to offer any floor amendment). Supporters of the Reynolds
amendment (i.e., opponents of Voter I.D.) denounced the Senate bill,
although it was obvious from the particulars of the debate that they largely
were unfamiliar (and perhaps willfully so) of the particular terms of the
Senate measure. Voter I.D. opponents falsely told the House membership that
in order to "keep the bill alive" and to save the $34 million they must
support the Reynolds amendment, when the exact opposite actually was true –
a vote against the Reynolds amendment and in favor of the original Senate
version of SB 2821 would have sent the bill directly to the governor’s desk
and preserved not only the reasonable Voter I.D. provisions already passed
by both chambers but also the hope of obtaining the $34 million in Federal
elections reform money afforded by compliance with the Federal "Help America
Vote" legislation.
In the end, the
Reynolds anti-Voter I.D. amendment
was carried by a vote of 68-51, a near mirror-image of the 67-51 vote last
week in support of the
Denny/Flaggs pro-Voter I.D. amendment. Nineteen House members, all
Democrats, who had cast votes in favor of Voter I.D. on March 6, evidently
had been persuaded by March 13 that Voter I.D. isn’t such a good idea after
all. Click here to review the
full legislative history of SB 2821 since its introduction.
Secretary of State Eric Clark, the senior state official in charge of
elections and himself a Democrat, immediately denounced the House flip-flop,
and made it very clear that Rep. Flaggs’ initial move on Thursday to derail
last week’s compromise was not something Clark had either suggested or
approved. A release from Secretary Clark’s office immediately following the
vote said: "The Secretary of State, Eric Clark, was very disappointed that
the House removed the Voter ID amendment. He had worked personally to see
the amendment added and he hopes that the Voter I.D. amendment will be put
back in the bill in conference." The Secretary of State went on to say that
he favors a biracial, bipartisan compromise that would require voter
identification for all voters in all elections.
The most likely scenario now is that the Senate will not concur but
rather will invite conference on SB 2821, and that three Representatives and
three Senators will try to hammer out yet another compromise. If no
agreement is forthcoming, the $34 million in "Help America Vote" money will
be lost, at least for this session. Given the pattern of recent House
obstinacy in conference committee involving matters having decidedly
partisan overtones, such as with Congressional redistricting in 2001 and
tort reform last year, it is entirely possible that the bill indeed will die
in conference. If this happens, the Democrat opponents of Voter I.D. who
reneged on the biracial, bipartisan Denny/Flaggs compromise justly must
shoulder the blame for the unnecessary death of this promising legislation.
In other action in the House this week, state employees received a dose
of temporary good news, at least, with passage of a bill by the House of
Representatives that would prohibit an increase in the cost of their health
insurance plan during FY 2004. The House Appropriations Committee and the
full House approved language in state agency funding bills that would keep
the state workers' costs at current levels for at least another year. That
would mean no increase in premiums, no increase in co-payments or
deductibles, and no reduction of services. If this sounds too good to be
true; it is. The truth is that because the state insurance plan is
self-funded, this election-year rate cap is largely artificial; healthcare
costs for state employees continue to rise, and a one-year unilateral cap on
premiums simply serves to diminish the integrity of the insurance fund
itself, and also will make future rate hikes more dramatic. As with many
other of the unorthodox measures undertaken by the Legislature this year in
order to get through the election cycle, the ultimate day of reckoning is
merely being delayed, and unless significant unforeseen improvements are on
the horizon, sizable premium increases and/or benefits reductions will be
required for state employees (including legislators), teachers, and retirees
beginning in FY 2005.
Another group getting a bit of good news from the House of
Representatives this week were the state's military veterans who reside in
the four veterans' nursing homes located in Collins, Jackson, Kosciusko and
Oxford. A bill was unanimously amended on the House floor to provide $2
million in additional funding for the State Department of Veterans Affairs,
with the lion's share to go toward operation of the nursing homes. This
bill, SB 2953, now goes back to the Senate for further consideration. The
nursing homes had a 95.9 percent occupancy rate last year, providing 210,130
days of nursing home care to Mississippi's military veterans. The average
length of stay in the homes was 21.5 months. The male residents' average age
is 74 and the females' average is 84. Mississippi has a veterans' population
of 245,472, according to the state agency.
The House also approved funding bills for more than 40 state
agencies this week, as work continued on the state's $3.5 billion General
Fund Budget for FY 2004, beginning July 1, 2003. These bills and other
appropriation measures will be finalized later in the session. Some of the
agencies and their tentative budget amounts include: Mental Health, $465.1
million; Department of Corrections, $236.2 million; Mississippi Development
Authority, $169 million; Emergency Management, $4.5 million; Secretary of
State's office, $9.4 million; and Military Department, $4.2 million. Several
of these agencies have been knowingly underfunded, most notably the
Mississippi Department of Corrections. The inevitable downside to the early,
priority funding of education (now representing 62% of the General Fund
budget) undertaken early in the session is that there now simply is not
enough money left to operate the remainder of state government at
appropriate levels. Not every important function of government can be made a
"priority," and the harsh reality for FY 2004 is that non-educational state
agencies are being required to operate on considerably less money than they
maintain is the minimum necessary for normal operations.
The House also gave the okay to the Senate version of more than a dozen
revenue-generating bills, such as bonds for repairs at various state-owned
facilities; bonds to finance improvements at the Northrop Grumman (Ingalls)
Shipyard on the Coast; and bonds to repair dozens of deficient rural bridges
around the state.
A host of state and county officials, from the highest statewide elective
officeholder to local law enforcement personnel, would receive raises next
year under a plan passing the House of Representatives during the week.
Under the House proposal -- which differs from earlier Senate action -- the
governor's salary would go to $125, 500, up from $101,800; the attorney
general's to $124,500, up from $90,800; secretary of state's to $115,500, up
from $75,000; the treasurer, auditor, insurance commissioner and agriculture
commissioner to $105,500, up from $75,000; and transportation and public
service commissioners to $95,500, up from $65,000. Various judges, district
attorneys and their assistants, sheriffs, county clerks and others would
also get pay raises starting in January, 2004. Because the Senate passed
bills with different salary amounts, the pay bills will be finalized later
in the session. Although the raises proposed by the Legislature seem (and,
indeed, are) sizable, it should be borne in mind that many of these
positions have received no raises at all for a number of years, and if
history is any guide, it will be several years again before any further
raises are given. Legislative salaries, which contrary to popular belief
have not been increased for a great many years, are not included at
all within the proposed raises, but will remain the same as at present.
The House also passed several bills this week that are of a "local and
private" nature, meaning they affect only one city or county. Examples
include HB 1461 to allow Perry County to donate to the Pearl River Valley
Opportunity Inc.; HB 1463 allowing the City of Hattiesburg to donate to the
Hattiesburg Downtown Association; HB 1580 allowing Lafayette County to
contribute to its Youth Baseball Association; and HB 1622, authorizing
Tunica County to donate to the Headstart organization.
Of special interest to East Mississippians, Governor Musgrove on
Wednesday signed into law a bill designating a portion of the Chunky River
in Newton, Lauderdale, and Clarke counties as a scenic river. This
designation places the Chunky River into a statewide program designed to
protect the state’s most scenic and least altered waterways. Under the
program, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks works
with landowners to preserve streamside forests and to protect waterways and
the life systems they support.
Also of local interest, both the House of Representatives and the Senate
honored this week the 2002 State Games of Mississippi Athletes of the Year
in separate ceremonies held in each chamber. The State Games is an
Olympics-style sporting festival drawing athletes from all around the state,
held each year in Meridian, with participation increasing every year. The
2002 Male Athlete of the Year is
William Calvert of Gulfport,
and the 2002 Female Athlete of the Year is
Lydia Rice of Tupelo. The respective legislative delegations from
Harrison, Lee and Lauderdale counties escorted the honorees into the House
chamber where a commending resolution was read for each.
In other ceremonial action this week, the House honored Greenville native
Steve Azar, who has moved to the top of the country music scene with a
topselling record; Dr. James H. Meredith on the 41st anniversary of his
historic entrance into the University of Mississippi; South McComb Baptist
Church on its 100th year anniversary; and several top athletic teams and
other individuals.
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.
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