JACKSON, MS – Constituent Report
Week 5 – February 1st – 5th
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, the legislature in conjunction with Governor Bryant’s 1.5% budget cuts, has voluntarily elected to reduce the legislative budget. Thus we have pushed up our Sine Die date to April 24th from May 8th.
On Thursday February 4th, the legislature convened a special session in order to authorize Mississippi’s largest economic development project to date. The House first took up the bill and after several hours of discussion pasted the bill 118-3. The bill then came over to the senate finance committee, of which I am a member. We heard nearly three hours of testimony from Mississippi Development Authority Director Glen McCullough, Jr. and his staff. After passage in the Finance committee, the Senate passed the bill 48-3.
In one project, German tire and auto parts maker Continental AG will invest $1.45 billion in a plant that will be located in Hinds County. Continental AG has been in business 145 years, has 208,000 employees in 53 countries and over $42.5 billion in sales. Mississippi will provide them with a $263 million bond issue along with tax incentives. The company projects to hire 2,500 people with an average salary of $40,000. Net return to the State is projected to occur after 7 years.
In the second project Louisiana based Edison Chouest will invest $68 million to expand its operations in Gulfport at the Topship shipyard. They have been in business 55 years and plan to hire 1,000 people at an average salary of $40,000. Mississippi will provide Topship with $11 million in bonding authority as well as tax incentives. Net return to the State is projected to occur after 2 years.
Within the bill there are “clawbacks” such that if Continental AG and Topship fail to meet certain investment and job expectations the state can recoup incentives and bond money.
Week 6 – February 8th – 12th
Shortening our session moved up the deadline to introduce general bills and constitutional amendments to Monday, February 8th. Believe me when I tell you, this had senators and staff scrambling and working late hours into the night to meet the deadline.
I submitted several bills at the request of our Board of Supervisors, the Secretary of State, our Election Commissioners and others. One of the bills I’m most pleased to submit is SB2607, which allows Mississippi to establish an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act. SB2607 in conjunction with the ABLE Act of 2014 as passed by Congress will allow individuals with disabilities to create tax-free savings accounts. The bill aims to ease financial strains faced by individuals with disabilities by making tax-free savings accounts available to cover qualified expenses such as education, housing, and transportation. You can go to http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2016/pdf/senate_p_authors/blackwell.xml to see the other bills on which I am the primary author and http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2016/pdf/senate_authors/blackwell.xml to see all the bills where I am co-author.
This week we also passed some of our first bills out of the Education Committee. Of interest to many is SB2438 which provides for the position of county/district superintendent to be appointed by the local school board effective after January 1, 2019. It passed the senate in a bi-partisan vote of 40-9.
Moving to appointed superintendents is absolute common sense. And, let me add, this change was supported by State Superintendent Carey Wright and her Board, the Mississippi Economic Council and the Parents Campaign.
There are 3 states in the country that have elected superintendents. We are one of them, and of the three we have the most elected superintendents, and we trail the other two in education. Mississippi has 82 counties and 144 school districts. Of those school districts, 55 are elected and 89 are appointed. Of the 8 schools that the state has had to take over, 6 of them had elected superintendents.
There are a number of problems with electing superintendents. The pool of candidates who qualify to run for office is shallow. The candidate must live in the district and meet a defined set of qualifying criteria of which only a few can meet. Elected superintendents are politicians and as such are more likely to concentrate on politics. They are accountable to no one.
When a high school needs a football coach they are not limited to the school district, or the state. If they want they can conduct a national search. But elected superintendents must come from the district. If we can do a nationwide search for a football coach, why can’t we do the same for the superintendent?
In the past election for superintendent, DeSoto County was fortunate to have four excellent candidates. Other counties are not that fortunate. Any of the three that lost would be top candidates for a superintendent position elsewhere in the state if we were not limited to elected superintendents. I have no doubt of Superintendent Uselton’ s capabilities and believe with his abilities that I saw while he was at DeSoto Central, he will be our appointed superintendent should this bill pass.
With respect to this issue, there are other bills that have been filed that will result in additional positive changes such as: having all school board members being elected, increasing the qualifications of school board members, and decreasing the number of school districts down to 82 from 144.
Visitors to the Capitol included the DeSoto County Middle School Student Council and the DeSoto County Economic Councils 2016 Leadership Class.