MS 2004 legislative session: "the worst I've ever seen it." (Haley Must be doing something right)

ANALYSIS JACKSON - Veteran state lawmakers offered the same refrain over the last few weeks about the 2004 legislative session: "This is the worst I've ever seen it."

Some were referring to the budget: The state kitty is ending the current budget year $44 million in the hole, and lawmakers were faced with a huge shortfall, $400 million to $700 million, depending who you asked or how you looked at it, for the 2005 budget they set Sunday night. By law, they had to cut and rob to cover both numbers.

Some were referring to partisanship. While Democrats retain a majority in both House and Senate, Republicans captured the governorship and lieutenant governorship and have increased their numbers in both legislative chambers. The Senate, through GOP Lt. Gov. Tuck's choice of leaders, came mostly under Republican control and helped push Gov. Haley Barbour's agenda. The House, under Democratic Speaker Billy McCoy, became singularly obsessed with sparing public education cuts and moved to block almost every GOP initiative throughout the session.

Some weren't sure what they were referring to but were frustrated about budget gridlock that lasted for weeks.

Normally, the end of a legislative session would be the time to list winners and losers. But in the 2004 session, just fighting to a draw marked the closest thing to victory.

Note these ringing endorsements on the final versions of major pieces of legislation:

"If I were a dictator, I would draw the hide off your faces to do more," said Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, as he urged House members to adopt a compromise Medicaid bill that would remove about 65,000 disabled and poor people from Medicaid to federally funded Medicare, an effort to save $110 million.

"But we are at the twilight of this 2004 session, and we have not been able to find more revenue. Nobody has won, won, won with this bill, but if you don't like it, you certainly will not like the alternative."

Or, "It's worth voting for, but if it's all we do on this issue for the next four years, we will not have done our jobs," said Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Charleston, referring to a compromise campaign finance reform bill in which much of the reform had been stripped.

Still, some issues and agendas, people and places appear to have fared better, or worse, than others. They include:

Taxpayers - For the first session after statewide campaigns in which most running for office pledged not to raise taxes, there sure seem to be a lot of tax increases coming down the pike.

Granted, most aren't coming directly from Jackson, but local counties, cities and schools are likely to be hitting up their residents as a result of legislative decisions.

A $45 million cut in state spending for K-12 education is expected to be passed on to taxpayers by many local school districts.

And lawmakers approved an expansive, nearly 20 percent on average, pay raise for county elected officials that local governments will have to fund. Some counties can absorb the costs; others will have to raise taxes.

Lawmakers approved a bevy of "local-option" sales tax increase plans for cities and counties, including one for Harrison County that would increase the tax on hotel rooms by 2 cents on the dollar to pay for a Coast Coliseum expansion, and one for Pascagoula that would allow 3 percent on hotel rooms for economic development and tourism. After intense debate, lawmakers required an "upfront referendum" for most of these, meaning 60 percent of local voters must approve the taxes.

Even Barbour, whose mantra is "increasing taxes is the enemy of controlling spending," got in on the action, something his political opponents harp on.

His Operation: Streamline plan for Medicaid included a $2 bed tax increase for nursing homes. But Barbour notes most nursing homes wanted the increase, because it will allow them to draw down more federal money, resulting in a gain.

Barbour - The governor of Mississippi is constitutionally weak and his budget proposals are usually tossed in the trash bin early by legislators.

That didn't happen to Barbour in his first term. He proposed his Operation: Streamline plan early and masterfully worked the few tools his office provides - a bully pulpit, party loyalty and political and business alliances - to push much of his plan through.

Lawmakers failed to meet one of his major objectives, passage of tort reform "to put an end to lawsuit abuse," but Barbour plans to haul lawmakers back to Jackson soon for a special session, one of the few strong constitutional powers he has, to tackle the issue.

For the first time in a while, Mississippi's governor is a major player in budget and other matters.

House Speaker Billy McCoy - For most of the session, populist Democratic worm farmer Billy McCoy from the tiny town of Rienzi appeared to have everybody else, Barbour included, out-thunk and out-worked. Easy to underestimate because of his folksy style, McCoy was out of the gates early in his first term as speaker, a position that's arguably the first or second most powerful in the state.

A 24-year veteran legislator, McCoy knows every in and out of lawmaking, and he quickly gathered a team of top committee chairmen and advisers whose loyalty and respect for him borders on fanaticism. During one rally at the Capitol, his cadre started a loud chant, "McCoy! Part the waters! McCoy! Part the waters," that a Jackson radio talk show co-opted for its intro.

McCoy vowed to fully fund K-12 education, the former teacher and Education Committee chairman's passion, but in the end had to bow to fiscal and political reality.

McCoy appeared to oppose almost every thought the GOP governor had this session, and he used his power as speaker, his committee chairmen and House rules to block or stall many proposals and prevent a full House vote on Barbour's tort reform plan.

But a growing number of the 122-member House started to chafe at McCoy's control, especially the 43 Republicans, and complain that he was preventing them from voting on key issues, including tort reform. Toward the end of the session, key votes on McCoy agenda issues were still going his way, but the opposition was creeping toward the 60s.

The looming tort reform special session, with each day of gridlock costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, will be a key test of McCoy's will and his control of the House.

MDOT - The state Department of Transportation really took it on the chin from the new state budget, to the tune of about $150 million raided from its coffers to balance other budgets. Toward the end of the budget session, MDOT ended up having the only cash the Legislature and governor could capture to make ends meet. But much of that cash was already earmarked to pay bonds, perform highway maintenance and start new projects.

After seeing $50 million raided last year as well, some predict dire consequences for Mississippi's roads.

"It's critical that the general public and members of the Legislature understand the crippling effect this will cause," MDOT director Butch Brown said. "We were told last year, after they took $50 million from us, that they would never touch our money again, because they knew what it would cause."

When campaigning for office, Barbour criticized his predecessor, Ronnie Musgrove, for raiding MDOT. But in the end this session, Barbour and others said they could find no other monies to cover expenses.

South Mississippi - The region, which has long complained that it gets short shrift in Jackson, despite its growing population and economic base, increased its legislative clout this session, with area lawmakers being picked to chair some powerful posts and committees, including Senate Finance and Transportation and House Education.

But some of the old paradigm held: Lawmakers tend to fight among themselves, particularly the Coast delegation. Feuding among Coast lawmakers killed a toll-road proposal many saw as the only hope for getting a north-south connector highway to the port at Gulfport built. The discord threatened some other proposals and resurrected jokes among upland lawmakers. Coast lawmakers proved once again they have trouble coalescing, much less creating an alliance with other areas in South Mississippi as many business and community leaders would like.

Some view another development as a downer for South Mississippi: offshore drilling legislation.

A proposal to open state waters to oil and gas drilling appeared to move on greased skids, with the powerful oil and gas lobby pushing it hard and key lawmakers already sold while Coast delegates claimed to be caught unaware.

While some concessions were gained - the final legislation limits most drilling to beyond the barrier islands - environmentalists, casinos and local government leaders are worried oil and gas exploration will harm the Coast ecosystem and tourism industry.

The issue pointed up that the environmental lobby in South Mississippi is slow and weak.

In last week's poll, we asked readers how satisfied they are with their cable provider. Most people were not. The results:

I think the recent Legislative session has been a big, big win for Haley Barbour.

He set the tone for the next four years. If he didn't stand his ground now, in this first session of his term, he find it next to impossible to push his agenda going forward.

This whole notion about unfunded mandates regarding the pay increases at the county level, especially as pushed by that taxaholic asshole David Hampton with the Clarion Ledger, is just pure BS. Those positions have always been funded at the county level.

What Haley has done is exposed many county supervisors in our state for what they truly are -- politicians who are unable and unwilling to root out inefficiences and streamline county government to deliver the same, or more, services for the same ad valorem tax buck. The people of Mississippi want fiscal restraint. Haley is leading the way at the state level and he has now put the wheels in motion at the county level to expose those supervisors who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.

As for Ed Blackmon. The Democrats and liberal media like to paint him as some master legislator. Well, I've got news for them all. Multi-millionaire tort abuse attorney Blackmon made a huge mistake by not, at the minimum, proposing a compromise on the caps.

He didn't come back and say, 'I've offered to meet the Governor half-way by lowering the caps to $375,000'. No, dumb shit Ed stood his ground and now will get himself a special session where the Governor will call the shots and use the media opportunity to expose Blackmon's Bentley driving behind statewide for the hypocritical fat cat butt that he truly is.

Make no mistake about it, the big winners in this legislative session are Haley Barbour and Mississippi taxpayers.

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