A committee substitute for House Bill 1597 reduced District 37 Rep. Gary Chism’s Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District-Mississippi State University partnership school-funding request from $10 million to $1 million ahead of what the lawmaker described as a possible battle with Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves over numerous funding requests.
Chism’s original bond bill called for the issuance of $10 million across two years to construct the rural education center at MSU’s campus, but the House Ways and Means Committee passed a stripped down version Wednesday that only allocates $1 million for the project.
The House approved the substitute later in the day, but a motion to reconsider was entered by three Republican lawmakers.
District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said the motion to reconsider will likely be tabled Thursday.
Chism confirmed lawmakers were reducing many bond bills down to the arbitrary $1 million mark as House lawmakers approach a period of negotiations with the Reeves-led Senate.
Both Chism and Roberson said they’re hopeful to secure the full amount of funding, and the reduction was a way to keep the bill alive as it likely will head to a joint House-Senate conference committee.
“In the past, we’ve sent our full amount to the Senate, and the lieutenant governor then says it’s too much. We’ve decided to put every bond bill at $1 million so he won’t get on his soapbox and criticize us for trying to address our needs,” Chism said. “(The partnership school-funding bill) will be done at the end of the session.”
Two other House bills calling for bonds to fund partnership school construction efforts – HB 984 and 993 – both died in committee last month, while SB 2392, penned by District 9 Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, was approved by the Senate and sent to the House.
Unlike the House bills, Tollison’s legislation does not call for specific funding streams for the school’s construction. Rather, it amends existing code to allow SOCSD and MSU to enter into agreements for “designing, constructing, maintaining and operating” the model rural education school and to transfer and expend funds for the project.
This legislative session, local lawmakers have emphasized the Senate’s – specifically Reeves’ – power with approving spending measures.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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