First line of Bill deadlines coming fast

Housekeeping 

By 

Representative TOM MILES COLUMN FOR FEBRUARY 25

We just passed the seventh week of the session, and we are in the crunch of getting bills out of committee so that they can be considered by the full House. The deadline for getting measures out of committee is Tuesday, March 3. Those who don’t make it will die for the session. That is, unless they get resurrected in an amendment or a conference committee.

 As you read this, we are working hard in committees to support the bills we think are important.

 Between committee meetings we took up a few bills on the floor last week. The one that means the most to our area is House Bill 741, which I co-sponsored. This is very important to local governments because it allows municipalities and counties to receive infrastructure repair funds from the internet tax that we passed a few years back. The original measure limited returns to local governments. If House Bill 741 becomes law, it will provide more money for repair, maintenance, construction and reconstruction of county and municipal bridges as well as drainage system improvements. Importantly, it will allow more money to be allocated from the State and also allows counties and cities to take up to 75 percent of those funds to go toward bonds and grants for these projects. In other words, they can use the internet tax monies to help draw more federal grants for vital transportation and drainage projects.

We were anxious to meet with MDOC Commissioner Tommy Taylor to hear his recommendations on what we need to do to address the prison crisis. It looks more and more that we are moving toward putting Walnut Grove to use. It will hold around 1000-1500 prisoners.

We also discussed regional prisons. The State spends about $50 per day to house a prisoner at Parchman. It costs less than that for our regional prisons to house inmates, and we would realize other benefits in terms of prisoner rehabilitation and work training at those facilities. I also suggested that we should seriously consider relaunching the system of county sheriffs housing inmates. Many of our counties invested taxpayer money to upgrade their jail facilities to house state inmates. The state inmates were then able to help support the communities on work crews and were more likely to be rehabbed and learn other life skills. The system saves money, helps our local law enforcement, encourages work ethic in inmates, and, importantly, it saves money. It’s a win win for everyone.

These double-referred bills were also considered:  HB1117 is an interstate compact bill which will expand health insurance across state lines; HB 736, allows our counties to authorize Medicare eligible employees the option of buying private Medicare insurance. This bill would save our counties and cities thousands of dollars each year and give our eligible state employees better coverage, in my opinion.

I was very proud to attend the celebration of Dr. Clyde Muse of Hinds County Community College. He is a Scott County native from Sebastapol who has been in public education for 68 years. There will never be another like him, May God Bless You, Dr. Muse.

I also had the honor of meeting with our local FFA students from Forest/Scott County Chapter and Pelahatchie Chapter at the annual FFA Legislative breakfast. These young men and women are the future leaders of our State. 

Feel free to contact me at (601) 469-7886, email me at tmiles@house.ms.gov or Message me with any concerns or issues you may have.