Jackson Free Press

The House agreed with the Senate in a 120-to-0 vote to roll the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi into the Health Department. Former tobacco lobbyist Haley Barbour killed the Partnership last year, suing to cut the annual $20 million funding to the smoking cessation program, which former Attorney General Mike Moore called "the most successful program of its kind in the country."

Moore, who successfully sued tobacco companies in 1997, questioned the wisdom of assigning the $20 million to the Health Department for a new cessation program.

"Come on, man. They can't even inspect restaurants," Moore said after a March 26 argument before the Supreme Court. The court heard opinion from attorneys for both the Partnership and Haley Barbour on why the court should or should not overturn a May 2006 order from a Jackson County chancery judge to halt the $20 million funding.

The Battle Over Schools
Members on both sides of the capitol couldn't work out an agreement on Sunday allowing extra funding for at-risk students, or students with dyslexia and other challenges.

Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Hinds, and other House members believe that the state's almost 300,000 at-risk students need an extra leg up. They pushed for extra money to fund tutoring programs and learning materials for students with learning problems in kindergarten through 3rd grade, citing that these were the initial years that many at-risk students begin to fall hopelessly behind their peers.

"If we can spend millions on a Toyota plant, why can't we help ensure that we have an educated work force to work for it?" Brown demanded. "We don't know where that Toyota plant is going to be in 50 years, but we have a pretty good idea where our failing students are going to be. They're going to be right here, going nowhere."

Barbour accused the House of playing politics for offering to shelve their request for the $13 million at-risk program if the governor shelved his own education pet programs, including a $2 million mentoring program and a $5 million early childhood education program. Barbour told The Clarion-Ledger that he was "flabbergasted" at the offer.

Brown said Barbour was being disingenuous, bemoaning the death of the programs while telling House members off camera that he had no intention of funding any new educational programs, including the $5 million and $2 million programs.

"The governor, through his staff, told us there wasn't enough money for new programs. Heck, we'd proposed the dyslexia program ourselves. That was something that came out of the House, but the governor said he didn't want any new programs, so we killed it. Early childhood was something we had worked on with the governor, but again, the governor told us he didn't want any new programs, so we took that out. The third one was this mentoring thing. That was a $2 million program, but late Monday they were threatening to cut an additional $3 million out of K-12, so that had to go, too. Barbour's great at attacking us for taking those programs out but he's the one who told us that he will veto anything that spends any rainy-day money."

The Legislature will have to suspend its rules to continue to debate the issue. The stalemate could easily linger until the April 1 session end-date.

Lobbyist Overload
Lobbyists for the state's environmental movement were working overtime Sunday, trying to stomp dead legislation back down into the grave. Supporters for the development of state parks managed to insert language supporting their cause into House Bill 1185, a bill leasing the old Mississippi School for the Blind to developers.

Mississippi Sierra Club Chapter Director Louie Miller said he managed to kill the language, championed by Sen. Lynn Posey, D-Union Church and Rep. Warner McBride, D-Courtland, which would have allowed developers to mine or build in the state's parks.

"There was an amendment on the Senate floor that opened up Hugh White Park to all kinds of development. It was loose language. It could've allowed anything," said Miller, who had been working to kill similar language in a House bill looking to allow strip mining in some parks. "I swear, everything you killed all year keeps coming back to life."

Lobbyists for oil companies were working just as hard over the weekend. Legislators tried to insert language into an unrelated bill that would have taxed bio-diesel burning off-road engines. Agricultural diesel is not currently taxed, but Sen. Tommy Robertson, R-Moss Point, introduced SB 2371, which would tax soybean farmers who generate their own diesel using 2,000-gallon diesel distilleries and soybeans. Almost 100 percent of agricultural engines use diesel, but Miller said lobbyists for the oil industry noticed when the farmers stopped buying gas.

"They were trying to tax bio-diesel, so it would be more expensive than the regular stuff," Miller said, adding that he managed to convince legislators to kill the language.

Previous Comments

ID

67600

Comment

Looked for a toyota thread. This is a study from the Kauffman Foundation on economic development state by state. It will corroborate alot of what is posted here on JFP about how states should get away from the smokestack chasing model and focus on other means of developing industry. It makes some interesting points. http://www.kauffman.org/item.cfm?item=766

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-04-04T23:54:08-06:00