Jackson Free Press

Ah, spring—the season when a state lawmaker's mind turns to money. The Mississippi Legislature spent most of last week considering appropriations bills; lawmakers had until Friday to concur or invite conference on appropriations or revenue measures for the upcoming 2011 fiscal year.

Budget negotiators will have a fresh set of dismal revenue numbers to use, courtesy of the state's economists, who predicted March 17 that 2010 state revenues will fall 6.3 percent below those of 2009. Gov. Haley Barbour responded to the fiscal news by announcing $41 million in additional budget cuts, bringing state agency budgets almost 10 percent below their original 2010 appropriation levels.

The Senate struck a noticeably forceful pose March 18, when nine Republicans joined Democrats in amending an appropriations bill to give K-12 education $30 million more than Barbour and Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant called for. The bill matches the figure proposed by the House and just barely averts disaster, said Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who sponsored the Senate amendment. "If it gets any lower, it's going to be even more terrible," Bryan said.

The appropriations bill now heads to conference. Also due for a reckoning between the two chambers is a massive bond bill that would authorize the state to issue hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds for projects across the state. The version passed by the Senate March 17 includes provisions for several projects in Jackson, including $2 million for Jackson State University to continue improvements in the Lynch Street corridor and $2 million for converting Capitol Street into a two-way street. The House version of the bill offers even more, including up to $6 million in loans to the Jackson Redevelopment Authority for repairing and upgrading the city's water infrastructure and an increase in the amount of money available for loans to developers in the Farish Street Historic District. The Jackson City Council requested the water infrastructure provision following a rash of water main breaks in January.

Also included in the Senate version is $16 million to fund relocating the state Departments of Revenue and Public Safety from their offices in Jackson to Rankin County.

Not all the bond provisions will survive negotiations between the Senate and House, however. Even after passage, the state bond commission—composed of Barbour, State Treasurer Tate Reeves and Attorney General Jim Hood—must approve bonds before they can be issued.

"There are wide-ranging differences between the bills," said Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson. "You go to conference to work out the differences, and not everything's going to make it.

Jackson won a significant legislative victory on March 18, though, when the House gave final approval to Senate revisions on three bills relevant to the city. The first, House Bill 637, authorizes the state to sell the old School for the Blind property east of Interstate 55 to a private developer.

Jackson businessman Ted Duckworth has sought to purchase the property for a mixed-use project he calls the District at Eastover, but his talks with the secretary of state's office to lease the property stalled. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, would circumvent the secretary of state.

Another, House Bill 1412, allows municipalities to assess the costs of maintaining dilapidated and abandoned properties to property owners by adding the costs to their property taxes. City spokesman Chris Mims has said that the city currently loses money mowing lawns and performing other maintenance on dilapidated properties, without any means of recouping its costs beyond placing a lien on the property.

The third bill, House Bill 1153, gives Jackson an additional two school-board members for Jackson Public Schools. The additional members would come from the wards not currently represented on the board, Wards 2 and 6.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant as a member of the state bond commission. State Treasurer Tate Reeves serves on the commission, with Gov. Haley Barbour and Attorney General Jim Hood.