Legislation for local projects survived a critical Tuesday deadline in the Mississippi Legislature for moving general bills from committee to the full House and Senate.
In Lowndes County, three bills affecting revenue remain in play — including a bill that would allow the city of Columbus to collect an additional 1 percent on restaurant sales above and beyond the 2-percent sales tax Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law on Tuesday, a bill that would allow the county and its school district to again collect taxes from companies located on airport property and a bill that would change the valuation date of the county’s hospital trust fund to bring more accuracy to the supervisors’ budget process.
In Starkville, a bill to increase the city’s hotel tax by 1 percent to fund improvements in the city’s parks and recreation department — including funding for a new sports facility at Cornerstone Park — remains alive.
Bills to fund drainage improvements in Starkville, improvements to a community center in Crawford and a roads bonding project in West Point are considered appropriation bills and have a later deadline.
“I think all of the local bills affected by Tuesday’s deadline made it through,” said Rep. Jeff Smith (R, Columbus). “The airport bill was one we were really keeping an eye on. We’ll take it up (Wednesday) or Thursday and hopefully move it through the House and into the Senate.”
While the local delegation was largely successful in getting local bills through the committee process, their success was far more limited in advancing statewide legislation they sponsored, although Smith noted that a bill to raise the pay of county officials and a bill that raise teacher’s pay are alive. The teacher’s pay raise, originally proposed as $1,000 over two-years, has been amended.
“I’m not sure what the raise will wind up being. That will probably be worked out in conference, but it will be a lot more than the $1,000,” Smith said.
Rep. Kabir Karriem (D-Columbus) said Tuesday was a frustrating day. No fewer than 11 bills Karriem presented failed to survive Tuesday’s deadline — measures from requiring a special prosecutor to handle officer-involved shooting cases to ending the Robert E. Lee state holiday to pay raises for state employees and assistant teachers.
“It really comes down to two people, the speaker (of the House) and the lieutenant governor,” Karriem said. “Not even the chairmen have the ability to move legislation out without their approval. That makes things very difficult.
“There are a lot of things that people talk about, things that would make Mississippi better,” he added. “But we don’t do things the right way. There are just basic things we could that never get a fair hearing.”
Another statewide measure that did advance from the local delegation was House Bill 1322 — which calls for children to receive an eye exam when they first enter the school system.
Rob Roberson (R-Starkville) was the bill’s author.
“I’m really pleased this got through,” Roberson said. “This was something the medical community really got behind and promoted. When we started doing the research on this, we found that up to 80 percent of the children who failed the third-grade reading gate testing, had vision issues. So I think this is something that’s really going to help.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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