Jackson Free Press

The Mississippi Legislature ended the $330,000 special session this week around 10 p.m. Friday night with a final package of bills intended to help rebuild the Coast. Lawmakers managed to agree on several difficult issues, including moving casinos to land, but along the way many of them made surreal departures from the political norm, especially over whether to increase fees and taxes.

In particular, the battle over HB 44, or the Tidelands bill, caused splits within each party. Democrats like Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, wanted to waive tidelands fees for casinos that will no longer border state tidelands. Those fees are used for coastal upkeep and projects, such as building new docks, and for promoting tourism on the Coast. Hard-lined Republicans like Amy Tuck, normally in lockstep with Haley Barbour on reducing every fee and tax possible, wanted to keep the fee intact.

The Tidelands chaos followed a successful bill earlier in the session allowing formerly water-bound casinos to come on land with more stringent adherence to building codes. The earlier bill passed by a narrow margin Monday, Oct. 3, in the Senate and on the previous Friday in the House, as anti-gambling and religious forces clashed with those who felt the state needed the revenue.

But before the prior bill allowing casinos to make landfall went to Gov. Haley Barbour, Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and Senate leaders like Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Gordon, D-Okolona, held it while the House and Senate wrangled over the need to keep the Tidelands Fund filled.

Secretary of State Eric Clark was one of the first to voice concern over the bill. Clark warned in an Oct. 3 statement that an earlier version of HB 44 would gut the Tidelands Fund, which has generated about $60 million for improvements on the Coast to help promote tourism and attract new residents. The bill would have allowed any existing or new casino locating on land to avoid paying into the fund. The fund has taken in about $7.5 million a year from casino leases of the public trust tidelands.

The House bill sought to retain the casino tidelands leases in their current form, but make them long-term, with increases dependent on changes in the Consumer Price Index. A point of contention was that new casinos would not have to pay the state for a lease if they could find property close to but not bordering state tidelands. Senate negotiators, on the other hand, proposed a 1 percent fee, with some exceptions, on gaming revenue.

Republican Gov. Haley Barbour—who had refused to consider a cigarette tax increase during the regular session, despite polls showing that a majority of Mississippians of both parties approved the tax—said the fee smelled like a tax and promised to veto the Senate version if it made it to his desk.

Moak, chairman of the House Gaming Committee, has been at fierce odds with Barbour on countless issues. Mere weeks ago, before Hurricane Katrina leveled the Coast, Moak had opposed gas drilling within sight of the Mississippi Barrier Islands—a move Barbour largely supported. Last week, Moak stood with Barbour in opposing the fee, which he called a "back-door tax."

"It sent the wrong message. It's a tax, and it's not good for future development in the state," Moak said. "But we held the line."

Despite differences, the special session ended with lawmakers in agreement. Casinos will now pay between $400,000 and $750,000 a year to the fund, depending on the size of their investment.

Legislators also approved a $25 million small-business loan program that allows business owners to qualify for about $25,000 in low-interest loans that would have to be paid back in three to six months.

Moak, who had authored the gaming bills, called the session a success.

"I think we moved along the process to recovery," Moak said, "although I wish it could have been faster, and I wish we could have done more."

House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, said in a statement that the session ended without accomplishing the goal of getting hurricane-devastated families back into their homes.

"It was my intention for this session to not end without us having done something that would be of great help to citizens with demolished homes," McCoy said. "On my trips to the Coast area, not a single person asked me when we would be able to get the casinos back up and running. They asked me how we could help them rebuild their homes."

Sen. Gray Tollison, D-Oxford, said the state Legislature was waiting to see how much money the federal government was prepared to give the state for home reconstruction before putting any state figures in writing.

"We're waiting to see what the feds do and how much money they provide, and my understanding is we may come back into special session in December and plug some holes left by federal money," Tollison said.

Previous Comments

ID

64751

Comment

H.B. never was or intended to waive tidelands trust lease payments. What the house did not want to do is charge a person a lease fee that did not lease tidelands in the past. That is, if someone did not rent from the state they did not pay a lease payment to the state. There never was a move by the house to waive any fees on tidelands, but to maintain the system as it had been. A position held by the Senate was that these lease payments should be a percentage of gross gaming revenue. It appeared to be a back door tax. Now, I have voted for tax legislation, but this was one looked at by wall street and the gaming industryvery closely. they watched in order to make a determination as to how stable a market our state is for future development. To allow a percentage be used would have put the market on notice that ms was a more volitile market after the storm. A position that was pushed by the house and adopted in the bill was that any new casino that did not lease from the state paid an in lieu payment based on investment, the same way we do other government fee payments. The house also added a new subsection that makes it harder to raid the tideland funds. during the past couple of sessions this has been done. the house curtailed the efforts of those that wanted to continue to raid the fund for purposes other than what the money has historically been used for.

Author

bmoak

Date

2005-10-23T08:38:27-06:00