Highlights of Legislation passed During 2004-2007 Term

2004

--Provided funding for the next increment in a 5-year plan to bring the average Mississippi public school teacher’s salary up to the Southeastern average -- an 8 percent raise for the 04-05 school term.

--Passed civil justice reforms in SPECIAL SESSION that set caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice at $500,000 and $1 million in general business cases. Also revises venue and other provisions.

--Passed measure for the formation of drug courts in each county to be funded through a variety of penalty increases on traffic, DUI, game and fish and litter offenses.

--Revamped the state's workforce training program for employers and employees to create a "one-stop" center for information on these programs.

--Brought Mississippi into compliance with the federal "Help America Vote Act."

-- Created a plan for rural hospitals to enter into cooperative purchasing agreements to help keep these health-care facilities viable.

--Approved funding to open some mental health crisis centers.

--Included funds for another round of the fire truck program.

--Approved a plan to open up drilling for natural gas in the Mississippi Sound.

--Created the Mississippi Blues Commission to promote that authentic Mississippi music and established the Mississippi Holocaust Commission.

--Passed tax incentives to lure more movie-producing companies to Mississippi.

--Used bill originated in the House of Representatives two years ago to bring an Atlanta Braves minor league team to Rankin County.

--Approved giving trusty inmates 30 days off their sentence for each 30 days they enroll in a work or study program. Should help reduce high cost of incarcerating prisoners.

--Created a criminal offense of fleeing law enforcement officers and established training programs for officers involved in such chases.

--Passed the "Drug Kingpin" law to set up a task force to prosecute drug dealers for tax evasion.

2005

--Provided incentives to bring SteelCorr plant to Lowndes County, the largest economic development project in North America this year.

--Limited access to pharmaceutical ingredients used in the making of crystal amphetamine, the illicit drug scourge sweeping Mississippi.

--Created a commission to study the K-12 funding formula to make certain all districts are being equitably funded. Will look at all facets of K-12 funding, including local contributions.

--Reduced unemployment taxes for employers and provided $20 million annual funds for training of workers.

--Strengthened penalties for the use of commercial vehicles without the proper commercial vehicle license.

--Restored Medicaid coverage for PLADs through the end of December 2005 and instituted millions in cost savings for the program for FY 2006.

--Reenacted the Department of Human Services.

--Enacted tax credits and incentives for development of abandoned brownfield sites, for businesses operating in economically disadvantaged areas and for companies engaged in the repair and maintenance of aircraft.

--Created system where local tourism agencies can enter into regional contracts for promotional purposes.

--Allowed casinos to move onto more permanent structures while mandating no inland gaming.

--Redistricted Mississippi's lower court system with nine new judges to be elected by 2010.

--Required sexual offenders to register in person and prohibited them from owning or working in child care settings.

--Increased limits for liability insurance coverage and permitted law officers to set up roadblocks to check for mandatory liability coverage.

--Permitted the posting of the Ten Commandments, "In God We Trust" and the Beatitudes in public buildings.

--Established panel to study the state's charter school law. Only one exists.

--Allowed optometrists to prescribe some low-level oral medications.

--Set in place a plan to overhaul the juvenile justice system with more community-based programs and less incarceration, especially for first-time offenders.

--Created a disability trust fund for law officers and firemen injured in line of duty.

SPECIAL SESSIONS, 2005

> March 12-13, Medicaid funding for remainder of FY 2005, appropriating $240 million from the Tobacco Trust Fund with repayment through a 1-percent set aside from the GF starting in FY 07 of about $38 million per year.

> May 18-28, Set GF budget for FY 2006 of $4.623 billion.

> June 28 - July 2, Pass "Momentum Mississippi," including the "At Risk Industries Act" to help companies stave off foreign competition.

> July 15, Pass $14 million bond for Baxter Healthcare of Cleveland.

> Sept. 27 - Oct. 7, Move gaming 800 feet inland, readjust tidelands leases, pass small business loan program, help school districts and local governments deal with aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

2006

-- SB 2604 to phase in full funding of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the main funding vehicle for the state's K-12 public school districts, over a 4-year period.

-- Provided for a pay increase for about 31,000 state employees of at least $1,500 annually.

-- Provided a 5 percent pay increase for university and community college personnel.

-- HB 1406 to require certain counties to enforce new building code standards and created a council to revise the codes for use by other counties as desired.

-- HB 1324 to provide a study of Hurricane Katrina's emergency first responders.

--HB 565 continuing the homestead exemption for property on Coast even if destroyed by Katrina.

-- HB 1323 to allow the reconstruction of residential structures destroyed by Katrina on original site regardless of lot size.

-- HB 1316 toughens the penalties connected to the crime of home repair fraud to help prevent it from occurring to Katrina victims.

-- HB 409 to make the non-use of seat belts in automobiles a primary rather than secondary offense.

-- HB 1215 to allow slightly darker post-factory tinting of automobile windows.

-- HB 210 to provide full funding of the state's seven mental health crisis centers.

-- HB 229 to provide temporary transportation to group of end-stage kidney disease dialysis patients.

-- HB 191 to fund the 8th round of Rural Fire Truck Acquisition Program.

-- HB 1034 to create a panel to establish a strategic economic development plan for the Mississippi Delta region.

-- Provided $15 million for a coal plant in Natchez, producing 1,500 construction jobs and 200 permanent high-paying jobs.

-- HB 562 to authorize bonds for the purchase of about 1,800 new voting machines to be used across the state.

-- HB 199 to provide for a more efficient and humane juvenile justice detention system, ensuing offenders of educational opportunities and health-care coverage.

-- HB 733 establishes a statewide system to automatically notify a crime victim when an offender housed within the Department of Corrections is released, assigned to another facility or released on temporary leave.

-- HB 123 to create the state's Clean Indoor Act by banning the smoking in any public building or university or college building.

-- HB 1121 establishes some "home rule" provisions for high-level school districts and exempts them from certain requirements of the State Board of Education, including the setting and closing of school year dates and holidays and development of parts of the curriculum as the local school board deems proper.

-- HB 1634 to provide bonds to fund a host of improvements and economic development projects, including the Rentech plant in Natchez that will bring more than 1,000 construction jobs and about 200 new high-paying permanent jobs.

-- HB 1250 to create a new sales tax incentive program for tourist-oriented enterprises.

-- HB 929 authorizes a wildlife enforcement officer to request the taking of a blood alcohol test from hunters who kill or cause bodily harm. If the BAC is .08 percent or higher, hunting privileges can be revoked for two years. If the hunter refuses the test, hunting privileges can be revoked for four years and the test refusal is admissible in court in any action arising from the incident.

-- HB 1141 to allow employees to keep a firearm in their vehicles as long as the area where they park is not gated or protected by security guards. It also provides immunity from civil lawsuits to companies or government buildings where a shooting occurs.

-- HB 1549 to allow an income tax credit against expenses for adopting a child.

-- Gave motorcyclists and trailer owners a tax break on their vehicle tags.

-- Cracked down on cell phone usage by state employees and directed state agencies to better manage their fleet of vehicles and to use alternative fuels when available, such as ethanol and biodiesel products.

-- SB 2021 to allow a property tax break on motorcycles and most trailers.

-- SB 2943 to create the Mississippi Gulf Coast Region Utility Board to coordinate water, wastewater and storm sewer issues to assist in the redevelopment of the area in the wake of Katrina.

-- SB 2947 to allow state, county, municipal and airport authorities located in the six southernmost counties to renegotiate certain loans for up to two years to help in redevelopment of the region.

-- SB 2718 to establish a commission to create a curriculum on civil rights and human rights education to be taught in the K-12 system.

-- SB 3086 to put $20 million into the local bridge replacement fund to provide safe travel for school kids and the public at large.

-- SB 2472 won't allow for the expiration of a professional licensed issued by the state to any member of the Mississippi National Guard or U.S. Armed Forces Reserve while the member is on federal active duty. The license must be extended for up to 90 days after the member's return from active duty.

-- SB 2865 and SB 2527 to strengthen the registration requirements of persons convicted as a sexual offender. It also creates a study of the use of electronic monitoring devices.

-- SB 2426 to create a presumption of the right to use defensive force and immunity from civil liability when a person feels threatened by an intruder to a home, place of business or employment or occupied vehicle.

-- SB 2942 to study the potential use of biodiesel and other alternative fuels.

-- Passed $382.8 million in general obligation bond issues for various state facility improvement projects and measures that will boost the economic development of the state. Included are $10 million for the Economic Development Highway Act, $5 million for the Rural Impact Act, $5 million for the Small Cities and Counties Fund, $25 million for construction and repairs for the State Public Health Lab, $56 million for the Northrop Grumman Shipyard, $14.2 million for repairs to the Old Capitol Building, $28 million for Department of Public Safety improvements, $30 million for the Department of Marine Resources to help with Katrina damage, $20 million for the Local Bridge Replacement Program, $2 million for the B.B. King Museum, $35 million for university and community college projects, $18 million for the Sillers State Office Building, $51 million for FEMA match, $4 million for the Arts and Entertainment Center in Meridian, $6 million for the Stennis Space Center's Infinity Science and Tourism Project, $9 million for the NASA Shared Services Project, $15 million for the Rentech coal project in Meridian, $2 million for state arts projects and $4 million for the Community Heritage Grant Fund.

2007

> Fully funded the Mississippi Adequate Education Program for the 2007-08 school term, and awarded teachers a 3-percent across-the-board pay raise and set the minimum pay for teacher assistants at $12,500 per year. $190 million more than for the current year.

> Provided state universities with $85 million additional funding and community colleges with $35 million more for the next fiscal year. Enhanced salaries at both.

> Provided state employees with a pay increase of at least $1,500. State troopers awarded $2,500 pay increase and budgeted for new "trooper school." Nursing professors to draw $6,000 pay raise to help ease nursing shortage.

> SB 3215 Passed $300 million incentives package to bring Toyota to Northeast Mississippi where it will operate a manufacturing plant with 2,000-plus jobs.

> SB 2764 reorganizes the State Board of Health. The new Board of Health will consist of 11 members and five of these members must be currently licensed physicians with at least seven years of experience. The other six members of the new Board must be persons with a background in Public Health who are not currently licensed physicians. The Office of Tobacco Control is created with an appropriation of $20 million annually from the tobacco settlement installment payments. Its duties will include tobacco education, prevention and cessation.

> HB 1500 bolsters the state's "Wind Pool" insurance association, providing a stable market for both insurance consumers and companies to continue operations on the Mississippi Coast. We put $20 million annually into the fund for the next four years from the taxes on insurance premiums.

> HB 753 defines the exemptions to building codes for hunting and fishing camps. Also, members of the Building Codes Council must be Mississippi residents; counties and cities adopting or amending codes may adopt those established by the Council; and creates a hurricane damage mitigation program that could offer grants to encourage single-family, site-built, owner-occupied, residential property owners or commercial property owners to retrofit their properties to make them less vulnerable to hurricane damage. Green lumber cannot be sold under the bill.

> HB 1142 enhances a state tourism sales tax incentives program, with the incentives being based on the amount of investment of qualified projects.

> SB 2825 prohibits registered sexual offenders being present within 500 feet of a school building. When such permission is granted, the offender must make known at all times his or her whereabouts.

> HB 1015 will strengthen the registration of sexual offenders with an improved Internet website that permits the public to obtain relevant information for each offender by a single query for any given zip code or geographic radius set by the user, such as a municipality or county.  The Department of Public Safety shall participate in the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Web site. The act also conforms the state law to the federal Adam Walsh Act.

> HB 247 to raise the tax on cigarettes and to reduce the sales tax on groceries died in a Senate committee, despite repeated outcries by the public and media to enact. House of Representatives easily passed tax measures.

> SB 2391 will ban most abortions in Mississippi if the federal Roe v. Wade law allowing abortions is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

> Several bills encouraged the construction of a burn treatment facility at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Currently, burn victims must go outside the state for treatment. Funding was not provided, however.

> SB 2997 strengthens state's rebate incentives for the movie industry to help bring filmmakers to the state. Each project is capped at $5 million of state funds.

> HB 351 authorizes the construction of toll roads by state or private entities, but only in places where an alternate un-tolled route exists. Also, toll goes away with the road's debt and the road can be used for emergencies with no toll to be charged.

> SB 2863 creates a task force to study the state's trauma care health system.

> HB 528 makes technical changes to the Medicaid program, including enhancement of fees for dentists treating Medicaid patients. The bill also directs PEER to study the non-emergency transport system of Medicaid patients. It also contains a morbid obesity study and enhances the at-home based services, the so-called "money follows the person" doctrine. Total Medicaid budget of $3.995 billion, of which only $515 million is state general funds.

> SB 2369 directs schools to provide 150 minutes of physical education for students each week, along with 45 minutes of health education. The state agency is to create an advisory council to help enact rules for healthy lifestyles.

> HB 898 enhances penalties against employers who willfully refuse to withhold child support payments from an employee.

> SB 2454 requires completion of the state's alcohol safety program before the reinstatement of a driver's license that was suspended for a DUI offense.

> HB 423 allows the State Wildlife Commission to choose areas of the state for a study of deer hunting over grain.

> HB 1271 providing for enhanced penalties for taking the property of vulnerable adults.

> SB 2688 increases the death benefit from $40,000 to $65,000 for fallen law enforcement officers and firefighters in Mississippi.

> HB 475 establishes a scholarship program to encourage family protection workers employed by the Department of Human Services to obtain the college education necessary to become licensed as a social worker, master social worker or certified social worker and become a family protection specialist.

> HB 1465 creates the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program for the purpose of recruiting students from rural areas of the state for medical or osteopathic school.  The program will consist of three phases, including: Undergraduate premedical education; Medical or osteopathic school and residency; and Post-residency entry into practice in a rural or underserved area.

> HB 617 authorizes the state Adjutant General to pay the tuition, room and board for any active member of the Mississippi National Guard who is enrolled or may enroll in an accredited institution of higher learning, vocational education school or junior college. To be eligible for the room and board grant, an individual must also be in an officer program and be selected by the Adjutant General. 

> SB 2117 protects a professional license issued to any member of the Mississippi National Guard or the United States Armed Forces Reserves from expiration while serving on federal active duty and will be extended for up to exceed 90 days after his or her return from federal active duty. 

> SB 3199 provides bonds to finance a loan program for dairy farmers to help offset fuel transportation costs, in an effort to save the state's dairy industry.

> HB 1390 changes the Small Enterprise Development Finance Program so more small-to-mid-sized businesses can qualify for low-interest loans of between $350,000 and $4 million to finance the construction and renovation of buildings or the purchase of new equipment.

> Approved major bonding bill for improvements to state agency, university and community college facilities. Provided $20 million funding for continuing local bridge replacement program.

--House Information Office