The Senate concluded work at the Capitol late on July 1. This concludes legislative work until the federal government releases additional COVID-19 funding or until the governor calls the legislature back into special session.
The legislature sent nearly 200 individual bills to the governor for his signature. Of those bills, the governor vetoed at least 4 bills. Those bills include two criminal justice reform bills that the governor considers went too far. Senate bill 2123 and House bill 658 both were aimed at reducing the population of our overloaded prison systems.
The Senate Corrections Committee worked diligently at finding a balanced bill that would help alleviate some of the problems faced by the corrections. Unfortunately, the final version of that bill did not satisfy the governor’s requirements.
Governor Reeves also vetoed two educational bills. The first is the bulk education budget bill. With this veto, the entire education budget has not been passed. The bill provided $2,513,131,906 in K-12 funding. That number is 2.36% less than the FY 2020 estimated figure. Most other agencies took a near 5% cut in funding. It was clear on the Senate floor that the funds would be moved from the School Recognition Program into MAEP in order to avoid further and deeper cuts to teacher salaries.
Going into this session, the state was aiming to give teachers a pay increase and to level fund MAEP at the least. After the deep cuts to the state revenues, certain action had to occur in order to keep our teachers paid. Though this bill was vetoed, the funding for voucher programs was moved along by the governor.
With our communities facing the first of school in mere days, it is crucial to get this funding fight over quickly. The second educational bill vetoed was an alternate route skills training method instead of the traditional education route. The governor claims that this bill can be tweaked to correct one small issue to avoid any federal conflict.
While discussing education, I believe that it is time to discuss the return to the classrooms. Our state and local districts have all adopted soft opening schedules with classes resuming on August 17th. The districts will do everything possible to have children follow CDC guidelines and having temperature checks each morning.
Many of you have expressed concerns about the move into the classroom. While there will be no easy transition back to school, it is crucial to get our children back to avoid falling even further behind. I encourage you to work with the teachers and administrators as they work to keep our schools as safe as possible.
In other budget business, the legislature remained deadlocked on the funding for the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. The concerns there are that the traditional funding mechanism allows for certain projects to go through the governor’s office. The House position is to earmark funding for certain projects.
With the legislature leaving before passing the funding for DMR, the agency has been left operating under direct direction of the governor with emergency funds. It is expected that the governor will bring the legislature back to address this funding lapse.
In conclusion, many of you heard about the COVID-19 outbreak at the Capitol. As of yesterday, there have been more than 20 lawmakers and countless staff members who have tested positive for the virus.
Of those, you have heard of the both legislative leaders having the virus. I have been fortunate to test negative for the virus.
Please continue to pray for your legislature and Capitol staff as some are having serious complications from this virus. As always, I thank you for allowing me to serve you.
