Action this week in the Mississippi Senate was decidedly pro-business.  We passed several pieces of legislation designed to create more jobs for Mississippians by providing tax incentives for businesses.

Senate Bill 3201 will exempt from certain taxes a portion of Mississippi Power Company’s planned 582 megawatt, lignite burning power plant to be built in Kemper County.  Our passage of that bill helps to secure the plant which will create 260 new jobs when the plant becomes operational in 2013. Construction will start in 2010 and, at its peak, will see about 1,000 workers involved in the building process.  Mississippi Power Company’s $2.2 billion total investment should have tremendous spinoff effects including an increase in school taxes that will give local officials the option of lowering the millage rate, providing citizens some needed tax relief.

The senate also passed Senate Bill 3270 this week.  This legislation will exempt from sales tax carbon dioxide reclamation used in the injection recovery of crude oil. The process allows for recovery of additional oil from existing wells, resulting in more barrels of crude oil being gathered from old oil wells that were once thought to no longer be productive. The increase will mean millions of dollars more for the state and could also be considered “green” energy as it doesn’t require new drilling to produce oil.

Our passage of Senate Bill 3227 will give the Department of Public Safety $2.6 million more that will be used to boost the salaries of our 154 entry level State Troopers who must work a certain amount of overtime annually. Their pay will go from $37,359 a year to $39,793- a modest but much-needed increase.

The adoption of Senate Bill 3272 - the Inventory Tax Reduction Act – once implemented will help businesses to gradually reduce the level of tax they pay in this category. This authorizes the state to begin giving the deduction only after we have had three consecutive years of positive revenue growth of 5-percent or more. It will be phased in over a five-year period.  Importantly, this measure has a component that requires any loss of revenue to local governments to be replaced by the legislature.  This pro-business measure will almost certainly be a recruitment tool for new businesses.

The senate also passed a measure that increased the amount of money available for our rural and volunteer fire departments to purchase trucks.  Senate Bill 3179 provides the additional funding for these purchases.

Also approved this week was Senate Bill 3280 that puts aside $20 million for bridge repairs across the state and $1.7 million to upgrade classrooms at the State Fire Academy, where our firefighters are trained.

All of these bills will now go to the House of Representatives where we hope they will be looked upon favorably.

Finally, of great importance to us locally, yesterday Governor Barbour announced approval of funding for additional Ground Zero projects as follows:

Bay St. Louis - $200,000, Former City Hall Annex Improvements

 

Hancock County - $1,325,000, Storm Preparedness Facility

 

Hancock County - $375,000, Bayou Phillips Community Center

 

Hancock County - $600,000, Lakeshore Community Center

 

Hancock County - $2,000,000, Pleasure St. Commercial Harbor Repair

 

Hancock County - $2,200,000, Pearlington Library & Gym

 

Hancock County - $1,500,000, Bayside-Lakeshore Rec Facility

 

Hancock County - $300,000, Clermont Harbor Community Center

 

Hancock County - $500,000, Hancock County Arena/Emergency Staging

 

Hancock County - $2,500,000, Stennis Airport Terminal

 

Total awarded this phase: $11,500,000

Total awarded to date: $154,661,922 (includes $25 million for wastewater projects to DEQ)

 

 

This week in the Mississippi Senate we passed Senate Bill 3233, which increased funding to the state Tax Commission.  Included in the increase was $25 million for the Ad Valorem Tag Reduction Fund which will help keep the cost of car tags at or near current levels. We expect to earn this money in Fiscal Year 2010 through increasing the tax on cigarettes.  We also appropriated money to help with upgrades to the Tax Commission’s computer system, which we have been told will pay for itself once completed through more efficient data gathering that will generate increased tax revenues.

In other appropriations actions the Senate amended House Bill 865 and restored $409,000 in funding to District Attorneys across the state as a way to prevent layoffs of key court personnel.  Some preliminary budgets for agencies were approved, but because we do not yet know all details on what Mississippi will receive in federal economic stimulus incentives those numbers could change drastically. Therefore, those amounts remain sketchy until we learn next week how much money we will get.

Our passage of Senate Bill 3197 will offer a job tax credit for employers who manufacture upholstered household furniture. Hopefully, this will be a an incentive for existing businesses in this sector to retain employees and to hire new employees since it gives employers a $2,000 per employee job tax credit for a 10 year period.  Over the past decade we have seen the textile industry and its spinoff trades relocate to areas where cheap labor existed. Hopefully this measure will help these Mississippi businesses and their employees.

We also passed Senate Bill 3188, which will empower county boards of supervisors, mayors and city councils or boards of aldermen to give certain ad valorem tax exemptions to military service members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. The amounts of the exemptions vary. As typical with tax breaks, local school district taxes would still have to be paid. But we see this as a way of helping those who have given service to our country.

Some of us have recently received letters from the Mississippi Development Authority regarding Katrina Homeowners grants.  The letters appear to be an effort to collect an overpayment based on a miscalculation and have understandably upset those receiving them.  I met this week with individuals with the MDA in charge of the grant program to obtain more information and to express my concern over the letters.  I also met with Governor Barbour about the issue and he assured me that he would look into the matter.  I hope to provide more information in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, I encourage everyone who receives such a letter to respond promptly and provide an explanation if you believe the matters set for the in the letter are incorrect.  

Next week in the senate we will begin to debate bills sent over from the House of Representatives and possibly begin meeting conference committees to reach compromise on various bills.

This past week was a deadline week in the Mississippi Senate with all bills originating in this chamber requiring action lest they die.  It was a busy week and over 200 bills were debated and voted on.  Some highlights of the week include 4 votes taken Wednesday.  While the action on these measures didn’t receive much press coverage, they are important and should be considered.  Wednesday morning the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee brought up the Balanced Budget Reconciliation Act.  I joined 19 other Senators in co-authoring an amendment that would have taken $76 Million from the $365 Million Rainy Day fund to cover the shortfall in education funding for 2009 created by the governor’s budget cuts.  After over 2 hours of debate the amendment failed by one vote.  That same morning we took up a bill that would remove virtually all state employees from the protections of the State Personnel Board.  In support of the bill a PEER report that clearly stated that the action attempted was ill-advised was read, but apparently it did not carry the day.  Wednesday afternoon we debated a bill that would have made it easier to obtain public records from state agencies.  The bill was recommitted to committee (thus killing it) on a very close party-line vote. 

Finally, the Omnibus Ethics bill which I have discussed here previously was debated and defeated Wednesday.  This bill would have eliminated the procedure whereby state agencies have used taxpayer funds to hire contract lobbyists.  The bill would also have created a mechanism to open to the public the process of hiring lobbyists and required contracts to be approved by the Personal Services Contract Review Board.  It was also recommitted to committee on a very close vote.  You can read a Sun-Herald article on the bill here: http://www.sunherald.com/pageone/story/1137535.html

On a better note, Friday we passed SB 2843 which reauthorized the Hurricane Damage Mitigation Program.  Along with Senator Billy Hewes and Senator Michael Watson, I offered an amendment requiring the wind pool to offer premium discounts for “Fortified Homes” and for those who take steps to improve the wind resistance of their homes.  I am thrilled to tell you that the amendment passed and so did the bill as amended.  This legislation will now become the property of the House of Representatives where I have high hopes that it will pass as well.

In summary, actions in the Mississippi Senate this week presented a mixed bag.  On Wednesday the Mississippi Senate voted against fully funding education, to remove employees from the protections of the State Personnel Board, against open records improvements, and against ethics in lobbying reforms.  However, on Friday there was finally a breakthrough in terms of insurance reform which I think will have real tangible benefits to residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

 

 

Here is a link to an article appearing in the Tupelo newspaper about our attempt to fully fund public education for fiscal year 2009.

http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=285843&pub=1&div=News&ct=ga&cd=ImsQa89tK_0&usg=AFQjCNFey3kgGNNzr4lybs3FdRvyzLtDRQ

Here is an editorial that appeared in the Sun-Herald last Sunday, February 8, 2009.

http://www.sunherald.com/editorials/story/1123105.html

This week in the Mississippi Senate we passed a number of voting related bills, including another version of Voter ID. The highlight was passage of Senate Bill 2548, this year’s Voter ID bill, which after 3 hours of sometimes heated debate passed by a vote of 32/17, and will require photo identification to be presented when voting. We had passed a bill virtually identical to this legislation two weeks ago and I voted for it then once again.  The major difference in the former versions and SB 2548, and the reason why I voted against this version is that the exception for over-65 voters was removed.  I have no problem with voter ID.  However, I can see no good reason why we should require our 65 and older voters who have been voting for decades, and some of whom may have experienced Jim Crow firsthand, to show a photo ID to continue to exercise a right they have held for so long.  It seemed to me to be a reasonable compromise to allow an exception for over 65 voters.

Continuing our focus on voting in the face of so many other critical issues, we also passed Senate Bill 3035 that requires persons who assist the elderly or disabled voters in casting a ballot to identify themselves in writing, and Senate Bill 3041 that empowers the Secretary of State to revise or purge voter registration books.

This past week also saw the senate pass several needed criminal laws.  We passed Senate Bill 2807 to give film processors and computer repair persons the duty to alert authorities if they find child pornography while carrying out their jobs.  In recent years we have seen children victimized by adults via the Internet.  Savvy sexual predators oftentimes use computers as a means of transferring illicit images of children.  Computer repairpersons may stumble upon child pornography in computer memory while conducting repairs. Some offenders might use commercial film processors to develop pornographic images of children. This legislation will give these occupations the right to step forward without threat of being sued since it would be a law that mandates them to reveal to police any violations they discovered.

Along the same lines, the Senate adopted Senate Bill 2479 that makes it illegal to buy or sell children. Sadly, there have been reported cases where a parent has tried to sell a child or children, often in an exchange for drugs. This bill will allow the courts to issue up to a 10-year jail sentence and a $20,000 fine upon conviction of that specific offense.

Senate Bill 2032 makes it a felony for a retailer to misrepresent the grade of gasoline and increases the penalties for such conduct. In a case close to home there was an instance where low octane gasoline was deceptively sold as high octane at a higher price. This bill is a means of properly punishing those who are caught defrauding the public.

Two Senate transportation related bills took the safety of drivers into consideration. Senate Bill 2148 would require motorists to use their headlights when driving in the rain to increase visibility and reduce accidents, and Senate Bill 3066 would force operators of dump trucks to cover the beds of their vehicles to prevent cargo from falling onto the road where it could become a hazard or cause damage to trailing vehicles. This could serve to reduce the number of broken and cracked windshields in Mississippi.

Our passage of Senate Bill 2147 will make it a felony for persons sell a counterfeit controlled substance. Some persons have been arrested for selling what they claimed was an illegal drug, but turned out to be counterfeit. Now if caught, those persons would face up five years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine.

Finally, in the age of global terrorism our passage of Senate Bill 3100 makes official the state’s Office of Homeland Security, which will operate within the Department of Public Safety. There is no additional cost to the state, as the personnel are already in place.

No insurance reform legislation was considered or passed.

"

All private sector insurance reform bills died in the House of Representatives Insurance Committee, chaired by Rep. Walter Robinson, D-Bolton, and also in the Senate Insurance Committee, chaired by Sen. Eugene S. Clarke, R-Hollandale. Clarke says he believes the key to solving insurance problems here is increasing competition, rather than creating new regulations, to lower prices. Some insurance company representatives have told the committe they believe that new regulations might actually cause companies to leave the area.

“It’s price, price, price,” Clarke said.

Clarke said recently announced mitigation programs which give incentives to homeowners to build stronger homes could help the insurance situation here.

But others said policyholders need better protections in place should another disaster happen. Sen. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, filed several insurance measures again with Clarke’s committee, but they died when Clarke didn’t take them up. Clarke said Wednesday he believes that any strengthening of insurance regulation could be handled by the Mississippi Insurance Department.

But Baria wanted to end the “anti-concurrent causation” clause in insurance policies through Senate Bill 2073, which hasn’t been included in the MID’s new policyholders bill of rights. After the storm, some insurance companies used the clause to deny payment of wind damage claims in cases where they said water also played a role. Court cases and insurance law experts have said that the clauses don’t apply to hurricanes because the two weather events cause different kinds of damages. The insurance department has said court cases support the clause and any changes to it would have to come from the Legislature. "

To read the entire article click here:

http://www.sunherald.com/199/story/1117988.html

The Sun Herald reports:

"The Legislature has passed no major insurance bills since Hurricane Katrina. Sen. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, filed several insurance bills again this year to deal with post-Katrina problems. Last year, Baria filed seven bills aimed at reform, but they died without discussion, when Senate Insurance Committee Chairman Eugene S. “Buck” Clarke, R-Hollandale, didn’t take them up. Tuesday Baria’s bills also died after Clarke didn’t take them up"

"Among his reforms, Baria wanted to end the 'anti-concurrent causation' clause in insurance policies through Senate Bill 2073."

See the full story in the Sun Herald about my insurance bills.

http://www.sunherald.com/218/story/1114837.html

Contact:    David Baria; 601.750.5991

The Mississippi Senate last week amended and approved House Bill 364 to increase the tax on cigarettes to 49 cents per pack, bringing it in line with surrounding states.  The bill increases the state’s 18 cents per pack tax by 31 cents and will provide revenue for several things including a fund that will keep the cost of car tags from rising.  The total tax of 49 cents per pack was reached after a three-hour debate in which several attempts to increase the tax to a higher amount failed. 

If the House of Representatives agrees with the Senate’s action the bill will go to the Governor. If House does not agree, the bill could go to a conference committee which would  negotiate a compromise between the Senate’s $.31 per pack increase and the House’s $.82 per pack increase.
The Senate chose the lower increase because it was felt it was the best compromise given the pending federal increase in the price of cigarettes.  The argument was made that if we raised the tax too high there is a risk of creating black market conditions where cigarettes will be brought into our state from places with lower taxes and then be sold illegally, depriving both the state and legitimate businesses of much-needed revenue.

Of great significance to us locally, the Senate Insurance Committee held hearings last week on the issue of the recovery of the Gulf Coast.  The hearing room was packed with insurance representatives and sprinkled with members of municipal governments located along the Coast who were in town for their association’s annual meeting.  Also in attendance were key members of the Gulf Coast Business Council who were afforded time to address the committee.  I was also provided an opportunity to address the committee as were insurance industry representatives, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and State Treasurer Tate Reeves.

My testimony was focused on the need for legislative action on the proposed Insured’s Bill of Rights, the mitigation program with mandatory premium discounts for those who participate, and elimination of the anti-concurrent causation language found in many in policies.  Of course, the insurance industry representatives opposed all three bills that I addressed.  The Gulf Coast Business Council is supportive of the mitigation program and its representative also advocated an infusion of $20 Million into the wind pool for the purpose of buying additional reinsurance.  Hopefully, such an infusion would have the effect of reducing premiums.  Both Commissioner Chaney and Treasurer Reeves agreed with the concept and stated so publicly for the first time. I agree that this investment would be a good idea as the wind pool is the only option for most of us south of I-10.  The point was made that if something doesn’t happen soon to improve the insurance market on the Coast, our entire economy could crater.  We urged the committee to consider the effect that such a disaster would have on the entire state.

On Friday, I spoke with Senator Buck Clarke, chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee to ask him about the bills I have been promoting.  Unfortunately, he advised that he would not bring them up again this year. I will, nevertheless, continue to fight for insurance reforms to improve claims handling and to incentivize the building of stronger, more wind-resistant homes for our region.

Last week the Senate also passed Senate Bill 2664 that re-authorized the Charter School law. This affords parents the right to establish public schools that are free to experiment with different curricula or training techniques that could boost student achievement.  Unlike in conventional public schools where teachers have to be certified by the State of Mississippi, Charter Schools will be free to hire outside professionals to teach courses.

Also passing last week was Senate Bill 2353.  This bill would provide protection from lawsuits to restaurateurs and others who donate food to the needy, such as those who live in shelters. Our hopes are instead of tossing out the sandwiches that did not sell during breakfast hours, restaurants will be encouraged to make special efforts to donate that food to those in need, especially in these tough economic times.

The Senate also passed The Child Protection Act (Senate Bill 2472).  If it becomes law it would mandate the reporting of any sexual crime against a minor and the retention of DNA evidence to aid in the prosecution of suspects who either assault a minor or commit statutory rapes that result in the pregnancy of a child.

The deadline for committee action on bills is Tuesday at 5 p.m.  This week promises to be another busy one with many bills left to be considered.

Senator Buck Clarke has announced that the Senate Insurance Committee will hold hearings on the insurance climate on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  The hearings will begin Wednesday, January 28th at 3 p.m. in room 216 of the State Capitol.  Anyone may attend.  I have been invited to address the committee along with other individuals such as business owners and insurance industry representatives.

I consider this announcement to be a breakthrough and I remain hopeful that we will see some insurance reform passed by the Senate this year.