Jackson Free Press

Adam Lynch

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and power industry watchdogs suspect power companies shut down a state regulating agency expressly to remove a new means of regulation from the table.

"If you watched the debate on the Senate floor, it should have been sickening to you. It's just like what happened with Wall Street in Congress," Hood said at a Thursday press conference. "The CEO's have thwarted the attempts of the people to regulate an industry, and you see what happened with the nationwide financial collapse. Well, the same scenario played out on the Senate floor over here, where you saw companies like Entergy using their muscle. All the Republicans voted to take the staff away from the Mississippi Public Service Commission. They had an agreement, but then Gov. (Haley) Barbour told the lieutenant governor to pull the plug on the agreement."

The Legislature managed to complete a $6 billion state budget last Tuesday that did not fund the Mississippi Public Service Commissions, or the Public Utilities Staff, which has handled audit and limited investigative work for the PSC since the two agencies split in 1990 after Public Service Commissioners David Snyder and Lynn Havens were convicted of extortion, bribery and conspiracy in 1989.

Sen. Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, said Senate negotiations on PSC funding were shut down expressly because of the 11 proposed new employees, who he said represented "a duplication of government."

"These new employees are an effort to expand the PSC and duplicate what the Public Utilities Staff does," Nunnelee said.

The House and Senate agreed to add new employees to the PSC to scrutinize reports and fee change requests, because PSC commissioners like Brandon Presley claimed PUS were merely rubber-stamping audits and reports submitted by utility companies instead of analyzing the numbers.

The Tuesday debate on the Senate floor featured Republicans arguing that that the state should not have to fund new positions during these hard financial times. Commissioner Lynn Posey and Hood pointed out that the staff positions are fully funded by utility companies through user fees, however, not taxpayers. On Monday, senators friendly toward the power companies revised the reason behind their opposition, claiming the money will still be coming out of Mississippi residents.

"Ultimately they're paid for by the ratepayers of the state," said Nunnelee. "Ultimately all costs of regulation are paid for by consumers."

Posey said ratepayers bills would have gone up no more than seven cents per month with 11 employees.

"We felt with that additional staff we could save them far more than that," Posey told the Jackson Free Press.

Nevertheless, Nunnelee, who is one of the Senate negotiators over the issue in the upcoming special session, said the new employees would have to come off the table if the House and the Senate are to agree on a PSC funding bill.

Previous Comments

ID

149334

Comment

As Marvin Gay said: "Makes me wanna holler, throw up both my hands.--- This ain't living"

Author

dd39203

Date

2009-07-06T12:45:20-06:00

ID

149352

Comment

As soon as I heard the PSC was left unfunded I smelled something rotten. Public utilities are too critical to be left to the whims of an unfettered market and lack of transparency. If you don't think so, just consider Enron's manipulation of California electricity crisis of 2000-2001. I sure hope Hood keeps a close eye on things. Meanwhile, the rest of us should demand the immediate reconstitution of the PSC staff.

Author

gwilly

Date

2009-07-07T11:08:12-06:00

ID

149355

Comment

Is there a library of webcasts of the state House and Senate sessions? I'd like to hear the arguments for myself. How much money are we talking about (not that it should make a difference)?

Author

annyimiss

Date

2009-07-07T11:34:34-06:00

ID

149392

Comment

I totally disagree it was the PSC's fault on holding up the budget. I DO need to do some research, but it is my understanding the budget should be wrapped up in regular sessions. I have only followed politics the last few years; it seems to be the politicians refuse to do their jobs in a timely manner. What is worse, the State of MS allows it to continue. If I don't do my job in a timely manner, I am replaced. Why should it be different for these elected officials? Had they done their jobs in that afore mentioned timely manner, the PSC would not be in question at this time - it would have been handled earlier and at no extra cost to taxpayers. I do not understand our Legislature refusing to save us money in doing the jobs they ran for and were elected to do.

Author

roofrabbit

Date

2009-07-07T18:45:22-06:00