[News] Barbour: What’s the Hurry?
The Clarion-Ledger reports:
Gov. Haley Barbour told a business group today there’s no need allocate most of the state budget during the first week of the legislative session.
The Republican spoke to more than 1,000 members of the Mississippi Economic Council. But his remarks were aimed at Democratic House leaders, who tried unsuccessfully to get votes on education funding and pay raises for teachers and state employees on Tuesday, the opening day of the three-month session.
“I would suggest that if you ran your business that way, you wouldn’t have enough money to pay your MEC dues,” Barbour said to the business people, who were in Jackson for an annual day of lobbying.
http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070104
Posted by admin at 04:16 PM on 01/04/07. Discuss (0)
[Release] NFIB Urges ‘No’ on Minimum Wage
Small Business Urges Legislators to Reject Minimum Wage Bill
House Labor Committee Passes Harmful HB 237
JACKSON, Jan. 4, 2007 ? The National Federation of Independent Business, Mississippi?s leading small-business advocacy group, today criticized passage of HB 237 by the Mississippi House Labor Committee and urged legislators to defeat the harmful bill. If passed, the bill would establish a minimum wage in Mississippi, set a rate of $6.25 per hour by July 1, increase it to $7.25 per hour on Jan. 15, 2008, and then index future increases to the U.S. inflation rate.
?Evidence overwhelmingly shows the market forces that are working in Mississippi should not be abandoned for damaging public policy,? NFIB/Mississippi State Director Ron Aldridge said. ?Small-business owners understand minimum wage increases cause job losses at the entry level and artificially increase the wage scale, putting further pressure on the labor market and causing prices to rise for all consumers. NFIB will encourage our elected officials to pause and look long and hard at concrete evidence that supports these facts.?
Posted by admin at 03:16 PM on 01/04/07. Discuss (0)
[News] Barbour: No Minimum Wage Increase
Barbour said today House Bill 237 will drive businesses out of Mississippi to surrounding states. Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana must be ?laughing up their sleeves? at the state, he told business leaders at a Mississippi Economic Council gathering.
http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070104
Posted by admin at 12:45 PM on 01/04/07. Discuss (0)
[News] House Votes for Eminent-Domain Changes
The House today passed an eminent-domain bill looking to limit the power of the state government to snatch private property for the use of non-government purposes. The language in House Bill 300 rings familiar to readers who recall the state?s eminent-domain issue with landowners like Madison County resident Lorenzo Archie, who in 2001 battled the state of Mississippi for his family?s right to retain a one-acre plot coveted by the incoming Nissan plant, near Canton.
FULL STORY: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=12196_0_27_0_C
Posted by admin at 09:48 PM on 01/03/07. Discuss (0)
[Release] 42 House Members Delay MAEP
[Verbatim Release] The 2007 Session of the Mississippi Legislature convened today (Tuesday, January 2, 2007). As promised by the House leadership, the Mississippi House of Representatives took up bills that call for full funding of the MAEP (House Bill 238) and funding for a 3% teacher pay raise. The House leadership had vowed to show that providing our children a quality education was their number one priority by passing out a full funding bill the first day of the session.
Posted by admin at 12:33 PM on 01/03/07. Discuss (0)
[Opinion] Ledge Says It’s ‘Issues, Not Elections’
Noting that both the House and Senate are Democrat majorities, a C-L editorial spells out some challenges given that the House remains independent of the Governor while the Senate does not. Lame-duck Amy Tuck may or may not be “at the reins” of Governor Barbour, who has called for spending bills to be passed in March; House Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) has to shore up his leadership position as he attempts to cram Mississippi Adequate Education Funding through.
The major money issue is education, with the House supporting full funding of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program and some wanting to spend less.
In the cauldron of competing interests, it’s anyone’s guess what lawmakers will produce after 90 days. But the test will be staying focused on issues not elections.
Posted by admin at 10:42 AM on 01/03/07. Discuss (0)
[Web] House to Pass MAEP Today?
It’s the second day of the session and the House Republicans will, reportedly, not have a procedural block to fall back on against MAEP funding. MAEP may well pass the House today and head to the Senate. More as it develops…
Posted by admin at 10:40 AM on 01/03/07. Discuss (0)
[News] A House In a Hurry
by Adam Lynch
Jan. 2, 2007
This story will appear in the print edition on Jan. 3.
Within hours of the Legislature convening on Jan. 2, the House Appropriations Committee approved a total of seven money bills seeking attention with little dissent. H.B. 238, a bill seeking to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program for more than $2.2 billion easily passed the committee, although Rep. Bill Denny, R-Jackson, complained that the budgetary figures for the session were not recent enough to be a reliable gauge upon which to base a vote. He added that other priorities such as the Department of Corrections and Medicaid needed more immediate attention.
?The people elected me to a $13 billion fiduciary,? Denny argued. ?Now how can I go out in the public and vote on one of these bills, and somebody says ?Bill, tell me about that MAEP,? and I say, ?Well, I don?t know anything about it. I walked into the chamber, it was hanging on the hoof, and we voted on it???
Posted by admin at 10:20 PM on 01/02/07. Discuss (0)
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