Jackson Free Press

House Democrats caved in to pressure the first day of the special session, passing a bill to temporarily reauthorize the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. Democrats had tied a bill re-authorizing MDES to language demanding more oversight in how departments spend taxpayer money on advertising, but Republicans fought the oversight language as the regular session ended in a stalemate.

A 2007 Performance Evaluation and Expenditures Review report shows Mississippi Department of Human Services Executive Director Don Taylor orchestrated an exclusive sole-source contract with TeleSouth Communications in 2006, with no oversight assuring the contract reached the intended audience. TeleSouth carries the conservative talk-radio format SuperTalk Mississippi. Democrats compared the $1.2 million that Republican agency heads steered to TeleSouth to the state funding of the Republican propaganda format.

Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Charleston, said he opposed the lack of oversight, complaining that not all the advertising was reaching the targeted audience under the good ole boy scheme currently in use.

"I can't say (SuperTalk's) JT & Dave Show is the best way to reach unwed mothers with advertising devoted to unwed mothers. I more think JT & Dave might be good for advertising the importance of checking for prostate cancer, considering how many middle-aged white males listen to it," Reynolds said.

Reynolds added, however, that he felt it was improper to threaten the existence of MDES over regulation legislation. "Maybe that will be done in the regular session," he said, "but the special session is for doing things that have to be done right now."

Recent history suggests Reynolds will not get his wish. The Republican-dominated Senate has consistently killed legislation enforcing more oversight concerning anything involving TeleSouth and conservative talk radio.

The House bill only keeps the agency open for the next year; however, meaning the possibility of tying the agency with the oversight language could ensue again during the 2009 regular session. Senate Republicans don't like the temporary nature of the re-authorization and removed the language before approving the bill on the Senate floor. The bill will now go to conference.

Despite disagreement over MDES, the House and Senate did agree on a toll-road issue during the first week. Both approved a bill that would increase the maximum term of contracts for companies looking to install a toll road between the city of Jackson and the Jackson-Evers International Airport in Rankin County.

The Senate also changed a metal-theft bill that Gov. Haley Barbour vetoed a few weeks ago. The old bill would have forced metal recyclers to tag and hold what recyclers considered an impossible amount of purchased metal. Utility companies are actively pushing the old bill because of financial losses the companies suffer from metal theft, but lobbyists for metal recyclers say the old bill was intended specifically to fix the metal theft problem by putting all metal recyclers out of business. The Senate changes to the bill make it necessary for business owners to tag and hold only a sample of purchased metal, rather than the entire amount.

The Senate also gave the go-ahead to the casino containment bill, which is primarily aimed at halting the expansion of Native American-operated casinos, though House Gaming commission Chairman Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, said on Wednesday that he has no plans to let the Senate bill out of his committee. Another bill likely to die on the House side is a voter ID bill that the Senate passed last Friday. House Democrats say voter ID will complicate the voting procedure, particularly for minorities and senior citizens, many of whom vote Democratic.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to raise the state's $210-a-week unemployment pay by $15 by July this year, and another $10 by July 2009. The House will debate the $15 increase, though many House members feel the increase needs to be higher.

Pete Fleming, director of the office of state systems for the U.S. Labor Department in Atlanta, told a Mississippi House subcommittee this month that Mississippi's unemployment pay is the lowest in the nation. Nevertheless, Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, told The Clarion-Ledger that he didn't advocate a higher increase because he didn't want the state giving people incentives not to work.

The first week of the special session did not address the $90 million Medicaid shortfall, though Barbour added the item this week.

Democrats had ended their work May 21, complaining that the $40,000-a-day session was pointless if it did not address Medicaid. Barbour unveiled the agenda item after the Mississippi Hospital Association agreed to tax hospitals to fill the shortfall, though some Democrats warned during the regular session that the Barbour and MHA plan would mean a fee increase on hospital beds. The House wanted the shortfall plugged with a cigarette tax, a plan that Barbour—a former tobacco lobbyist—does not support.