Legislative Update 12

April 06, 2008

Dear Friends,

I hope you are all doing well and that you were able to escape this weekend’s storms with minimal damage. I had the opportunity to drive through Madison shortly after a tornado made landfall there on Friday and it was pretty nasty. As of this writing, 33,000 are still without power and Governor Barbour has declared counties along the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers as disaster areas. Please remember those who are dealing with the loss of their homes and other properties in your thoughts and prayers.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 4, 2008

Does the Legislature Get It?

This morning, I woke up to two editorials criticizing the Mississippi Legislature for spending too much time on “insignificant” issues and not enough time on more important matters. In making their points, both writers argued that while the House and Senate have spent a considerable amount of time arguing over whether or not we should allow hunters to hunt deer over bait, neither has come up with an agreeable solution to the state’s Medicaid woes.

The truth is, while the deer baiting bill (HB 1089) has garnered considerable attention from editorial columnists and talking heads, the time spent on the baiting bill pales in comparison to the amount of committee time, negotiation time, study time, and, yes, floor time given to Medicaid. On Friday, while storms blew across central Mississippi, the House argued for three hours over whether or not to suspend the rules to allow another bill to be entered to address the Medicaid funding shortfall. Eventually, the resolution got the necessary 2/3rds votes (81 to be exact) and included an amendment allowing the Senate and House to once again consider levying a tax on tobacco and alcohol to help fund Medicaid.

While the Legislature does not always reach conclusions that voters or individual representatives agree with (see my letter to the Mississippi Press Editor regarding Insurance Reform), this is rarely for lack of putting in the required time. At the end of the day, I’d have to answer my own question by saying that whether or not the Legislature gets it depends on the issue. I have seen us give some creative and seemingly helpful answers to tough questions and I have seen us fall miserably short in answering what seemed like an easy problem.

Whatever your opinion on the outcome of the issues we have addressed, I have learned in my short time as a representative that most of the folks making the laws in Jackson work hard. And no, we haven’t forgotten about Medicaid.

Select House Committee on Utility Cost Recovery

Last week, I and twelve other House members were named to a committee that will study Senate Bill 2793, a controversial bill that would allow electric companies to raise rates for new plants before they are built. One of the main concerns that has been raised regarding the Senate’s plan is the fear that ratepayers could be stuck with high costs even if a power company does not go through with expansions.

Our first hearing will be held tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Jackson. If you are among the hundreds of people who have sent me e-mails about this issue, thank you. If I haven’t heard from you, I hope to in the days ahead.

Deer Baiting Bill (HB 1089)

Since the papers seem to think that deer baiting is all we legislators think about, I thought it might be time to bring you all up to speed. On Monday, the House concurred with the changes that the Senate made to a bill allowing hunters to “harvest” deer over bait. The Senate made the following changes to the original bill: 1) The Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks "shall regulate the taking of deer with the aid of bait"; 2) The Commission "shall" allow the taking of deer with the aid of bait on private lands; 3) Feeders may be placed no closer that 100 yards from any property boundary; 4) Feed may only be provided from aboveground covered feeders or stationary spin-cast feeders; 5) "baiting" was added to the list of items that the Commission shall study and analyze and 6) a violation under the section will be considered a Class II violation (reducing the penalty amount from $500 to $100-$500).

The bill now sits on the Governor’s desk and his aides have indicated that he will veto the bill shortly.

State Revenues

Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee which produces the revenue (through taxes and bonds) needed to fuel the state budget engine, heard a report on current state revenues. Although revenue growth for the current fiscal year over the previous year has been predicted at 3 percent, the increase is slightly below that mark with three months left in the year. This comes after two years of double-digit growth we had in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when federal funds were pouring into the state.

This slower revenue growth was considered one of three budget “challenges” we faced in preparing the next fiscal year budget. Other challenges were the loss of almost $190 million in non-recurring funds that were utilized in the FY 2008 appropriations and increasing General Fund costs in several key state agency budgets. Among the agencies expected to cost us more General Funds are K-12 education, higher education, Medicaid, corrections, debt service and mental health. The Joint Budget Committee recommended $17.608 billion in state spending for FY 2009, which would be $61.5 million less than the FY 2008 appropriations.

During this hearing, we also learned that the balance in the Health Care Trust Fund (from the tobacco lawsuit) is about $250 million; over the past 30 years, sales tax growth has been our bellwether revenue source with growth up to the almost $3 billion annually; and we have personal income growth of $1.5 billion in collections now and corporate income growth of $500,000 in collections. Also, our sales tax collections once were about 58 percent of total collections, now they are about 43 percent.

Some more notes about our sales tax system: Mississippi has the oldest continuously enacted sales tax in the country. It was enacted as an emergency act in 1932 and made permanent in 1937. The original sales tax rate was 2 percent and it grew to 3 percent in 1955, 3.5 percent in 1964, 5 percent in 1968, 6 percent in 1983 (with the new “penny” covering the Educational Reform Act of 1982) and 7 percent in 1992. Here are our current sales tax rates: regular retail = 7 percent; autos and light trucks = 5 percent; farm tractors = 1 percent; farm implements = 3 percent; aircraft = 3 percent; semi-trucks and trailers = 3 percent; manufactured, modular, panelized and pre-cut homes = 3 percent; manufacturing machinery and port facility equipment = 1.5 percent; sales to electric power associations = 1 percent; and railroad track materials = 3 percent.

Here are just some of the items we exempt from sales taxes: boxes, crates and packing materials sold to a manufacturer; pollution control equipment; the value of natural gas used in oil production; income from storage of perishable goods; raw materials and processing chemicals used in manufacturing; commercial fishing boats; repairs to vessels and barges in interstate commerce; production items used in making motion pictures; machinery to non-profits to clean up oil spills; sales of feed, seed and fertilizers for agricultural purposes; sales of livestock, poultry, fish or other products of the farm, grove or garden in their original state by the producer; sales of mules and horses; income from grading, ditching or dredging for farmers; sales to U.S., state, county or city governments or school districts and schools; sales to the Band of Choctaw Indians; sales to non-profit hospitals; sales of newspapers and subscription for magazines; sales of prescription drugs; Girl Scout cookies; sales to domestic violence shelters; sales of motor fuel; sales of food bought with food stamps; sales to a wide array of non-profits; and many, many more.

House Webcasting

Don’t forget that you can follow floor debates by going to www.mpbonline.org and clicking on “House video.”

How to Contact Me

If you have any questions or concerns, I invite you to call me on my cell phone at 228-326-7649 or e-mail me at bjones@house.ms.gov. Please feel free to forward this report to folks in our district and let me know if I need to add someone to my list.

I will also be posting my updates and House related news on my campaign website at www.electbrandonjones.com.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Brandon