Mississippi governor finds success in 2007 legislative session
BYLINE: By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press Writer
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour got most of what he wanted during the 2007 legislative session, from strengthening the state's budget reserves to getting quick approval for a multimillion dollar incentive package for a Toyota plant.
He also used his influence with one of his allies Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Robertson, R-Moss Point to squash a "tax swap" plan. It would've cut the nation's highest grocery tax in half, from 7 percent to 3.5 percent, and increased the nation's third-lowest cigarette excise tax from 18 cents a pack to $1.
Barbour is running for a second term this year, and he's already facing sharp criticism over the death of the tax swap.
"Gov. Haley Barbour is selling out the people of Mississippi on behalf of the special interests that have lined his pockets with millions of dollars while he was a lobbyist for Big Tobacco," said Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Arthur Eaves.
Barbour, a Yazoo City native, led a high-profile Washington lobbying firm before unseating Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove four years ago. While Eaves and others use "lobbyist" as a dirty word, Barbour can point to his own success in the 2007 legislative session and say his lobbying skills are helping him shape public policy in the state.
In his Jan. 15 State of the State address, Barbour outlined his legislative agenda:
Insurance: "In this session, I ask you to act to stabilize the state's insurance market with respect to the state-sponsored wind pool," Barbour said.
Legislators later approved a plan to shore up the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association, the insurer of last resort that's also known as the wind pool.
Barbour also said in the State of the State that he had asked HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson for $30 million to bolster the wind pool. That request was approved, and state Insurance Commissioner George Dale said it will help mitigate the commercial rate increases caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Education: "I am confident that in March, you will send me and I will sign an appropriation that fully funds the MAEP formula for next year," Barbour told lawmakers.
MAEP is the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, a formula designed to ensure each school district receives enough money to meet midlevel accreditation standards. It was put into state law in 1997 and phased in over several years. It has been fully funded only one time until now in the last state election year of 2003.
Lawmakers did fully fund MAEP for the budget year that starts July 1, but the big fight about the issue was over before the session even started.
Barbour said in November that MAEP was an "artificial formula." Then, during an interview with The Associated Press in December, the governor said publicly for the first time that he supported fully funding MAEP. His remarks came a week after the state Board of Education met and shaved millions of dollars off its estimate of what would be needed for full funding.
Budget: Barbour called on lawmakers to resist the election-year pressure to spend too much money. A law enacted in the early 1990s says only 98 percent of projected revenues should be used to write a budget. That was suspended for a few years when economic times were tight, but officials say it's back in place now.
And the rainy day fund, which provides a financial cushion for state government, is projected to grow by millions of dollars in the coming year a certain bragging point for Barbour and legislators as they run for re-election.