This was the tenth week of the 2022 Legislative Session. Wednesday was the deadline for the House to discuss general Senate bills. Any Senate bills that did not make it off the calendar and before the House died. The deadline to discuss Senate appropriations and revenue bills was Tuesday, March 15. More than 120 Senate bills were discussed on the floor.
The calendar also included several House bills that were passed earlier in the session, sent to the Senate and are now back before the House. With this process, the representatives will vote on whether to agree with the changes the Senate made, or to invite conference for possible further revisions before becoming law or dying. Many House bills have already been sent to conference.
One such bill that came back to the House with changes from the Senate was House Bill 530, or the START Act. The House submitted a conference report to the Senate on Thursday morning. In the $226 million plan, average teacher pay would increase by $4,850 and assistant teachers would get a $2,000 raise. The average starting salary of teachers would increase to $41,638, which is higher than both the regional and national averages. The plan also includes a proposal similar to the Senate’s teacher pay raise (SB 2443), which would provide salary increases of at least $1,000 every five years and $2,500 at 25 years. If approved by the Senate and signed by Governor Reeves, the plan will be implemented in the upcoming school year.
I was also glad to see House Bill 779 signed into law. Now, that may not ring a bell for you, but it surely did for the families of our law enforcement officers and firefighters who lost their lives from Covid-19 acquired while they were helping others.
This measure, which I co-sponsored and worked hard to bring attention to, makes sure that these families will receive full state death benefits for their heroism.
Those of us who pushed for this measure brought attention to the fact that contracting Covid-19 in the line of duty was worthy of consideration as is any other kind of fatal encounter. House Bill 779 provides that $5 million from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund will be transferred to the Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters Death Benefits Trust Fund for this purpose.
The Department of Public Safety will make a $100,000 payment when a law enforcement officer or firefighter engaged in the performance of official duty perishes from contracting the virus. Also, the benefit payment will be made in addition to any worker’s compensation or pension benefits and exempts it from claims and demands of creditors.
We fought hard to bring awareness to this tragic issue, and I am so proud that the bill is now law. As a matter of fact, the bill was passed unanimously by both the House and Senate. That is something you rarely see happen. Now, some of us are moving forward to try to provide similar benefits to other Healthcare workers and first responders’ families who have lost loved ones from Covid-19, contracted while doing their jobs that aren’t covered under this bill.
It looks that we will have several busy weeks left in the session as it comes to end and it’s rumored that Governor Reeves may call us Into a Special Session within the Session of the House and Senate doesn’t come up with a compromise on the Income tax bill.
