BOBBY HARRISON:Special session date?

JACKSON - Various media reports have identified May 21 as the date of the special session Gov. Haley Barbour has said he would call.

But as late as Thursday afternoon, Barbour had still not publicly given a date for a special session. Barbour did indicate last month a day before the 2008 regular session ended that he would call a special session to deal with the re-authorization of the Department of Employment Security, which will cease to exist on July 1 unless new legislation is passed, and to deal with a $90 million shortfall in the budget for the Division of Medicaid.

Commonsense indicates that Barbour will call the special session before the new fiscal year begins on July 1 and May 21 might be a good as any date.

The governor also has indicated that he might include other non controversial topics on the special session agenda. He recently cited legislation dealing with toll roads as a possibility. Apparently, a private company is willing to build a toll road from the Jackson-Evers International Airport in Rankin County to downtown Jackson if changes are made to the state’s toll road law, which was enacted in recent years, but has never been used.

BOBBY HARRISON: Medicaid …

JACKSON - The Medicaid appropriations bill approved by the House and Senate and pending the signature of Gov. Haley Barbour includes a performance measure of having the number of recipients reduced to 550,000 during the upcoming fiscal year.

The average monthly enrollment for fiscal year 2006, which ended on June 30, 2007, was about 605,000, according to the Mississippi Division of Medicaid web site. For December 2007, the enrollment was 563,000, according to Rims Barber, of the Mississippi Human Services Coalition.

Medicaid is, of course, a state-federal program that provides health care for the elderly, disabled and poor pregnant and poor children.

As Barber - not Gov. Haley Barbour - points out, the performance measure for Medicaid should be to provide health care for those who are eligible. It should be the goal of the state to enact policies that move people off Medicaid because their station in life improves.

Medicaid’s purpose is to provide health care for those who qualify. Its performance measures should be items such as providing decent health care as efficiency as possible, reducing administrative costs, eliminating fraud, and yes, that includes ensuring that the people on the program are eligible.

But in the poorest state in the country, the problem is not so much that there are people on Medicaid who should not be, but that there are people - especially children - who should be on the program who are not.

The only way for Medicaid to realistically reduce the number of people on the program is to make it difficult for people to sign up.

That should not be a goal. If a person is eligible, it should be a goal of Medicaid to get them on the program.

Read more from Bobby Harrison on the Capitol in the Daily Journal newspaper.

BOBBY HARRISON: Holiday at Capitol

JACKSON - Many years on the last Monday in April I have driven up the state Capitol to start my day to be stunned to seed an empty parking lot.

In Mississippi, the last Monday of April is Confederate Memorial - a state holiday. Today, the Capitol is empty except for a few law enforcement officials, some people putting new filters in air conditioning units, your humble scribe and a lone tourist - who as I write this has somehow finagled his way into the building and is taking photos.

Good for him. Everyone should visit the Capitol and appreciate its beauty.

If the Legislature had not ended the 2008 session early, many state employees, especially legislative staffers, would not have been able to take advantage of Confederate Memorial Day and have a paid day off.

When the Legislature is end session, it meets on Confederate Memorial Day. But the Legislature ended the 2008 session in 102 days - earlier this month - instead of the 125 days allotted by the Constitution.

I am at my desk at the Capitol today, because the Daily Journal, like most private businesses, do not provide Confederate Memorial Day as a paid vacation.

BOBBY HARRISON:Bill signing

JACKSON - Gov. Haley Barbour went to a Rankin County School earlier this week to sign the appropriations bills for public education.

Barbour was touting the fact the legislation fully funds the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, provides a pay hike for teachers with more than 25 years of experience, provides funds for Superintendent Hank Bounds’ plan to combat the state’s high dropout rate and funds a host of other programs.

The $2.5-billion proposal approved by the Legislature and endorsed at the Rankin County school by Barbour is about $9 million more than the plan the governor submitted to the Legislature. But the difference in a budget of that size is miniscule and the governor should be credited for embracing the larger amount for public education.

The funny part of the bill signing is that it wasn’t a bill signing. The true appropriations bill for public education had not reached the governor’s desk at the time of the Rankin County ceremony. When it was rushed to his desk later that day by legislative staff at the request of his office, he signed it. It other words, the signing earlier at the Rankin County school was a little symbolic and a lot political.

But that is not a big deal. The important thing is the bill was signed. Barbour is not the first governor - nor will he be the last - to make such politically calculated moves.

He is a politician and that is what politicians do. They stage events that put them in a good light. It is good the governor thinks education is important enough to make such a political statement. It is obvious that while some politicians complain about public education - and granted there is reason to complain at times - they recognize that the vast majority of Mississippians want the schools adequately funded and on a par with schools in other states.

Looking at Mississippi schools from strictly the measuring stick of how much is spent on them, they are not yet on a par with schools in other states.

Read more from Bobby Harrison in the Daily Journal.

BOBBY HARRISON: All quiet for now

JACKSON - It’s surreal how fast the state Capitol can go from a building bustling with activity to one where someone can roam the halls of the massive, ornate structure without seeing another person.

That transformation occurs when the legislative session ends. The session ended Friday and now the Mississippi Capitol is quiet.

Poke into one of the offices and there staffers will be busy at work. But all of the legislators, lobbyists and others that flood the building during the session are gone.

It won’t be long, though, before the building is a beehive of activity again. Gov. Haley Barbour is expected to call a special session before July 1.

He has said that the session will include legislation to re-authorize the Department of Employment Security and to plug a hole of at least $90 million in the budget for the Division of Medicaid.

On the pure speculation part, Barbour also might include legislation dealing with illegal immigration for the special session agenda.

During the regular session, Barbour signed into law legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants and the businesses that hire them. The legislation was pushed by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant.

Barbour signed the illegal immigration bill, but urged legislators to fix provisions in the proposal opposed by the business community. The Legislature did not act during the regular session on Barbour’s suggestions. As late as last week, Bryant was insistent that there was no problems with the illegal immigration legislation, which goes into effect on July 1.

BOBBY HARRISON:Medicaid budget bill

JACKSON - Monday’s night deadline for passing a bill to fund the Division of Medicaid the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, came and went Monday night with no agreement between the House and Senate.

It should be pointed out that if the Medicaid budget bill had passed the Legislature there still would have been at least a $90 million shortfall in the health care program. The startling fact is that the Senate has yet to vote on any proposal to plug the shortfall in the Division of Medicaid.
       
The House passed the cigarette tax and liquor tax that would have more than plugged the hole. The Senate leadership and Gov. Haley Barbour spoke of taxing hospitals to fill the gap. But the fact of the matter is that it appears the Senate leadership will allow the session to end without displaying the fortitude to take up a proposal on the floor of the chamber to plug the hole.

Read Bobby Harrison’s coverage from the Capitol in the Daily Journal newspaper.

Miss. lawmakers pass resolution honoring MLK

JACKSON - Mississippi lawmakers are remembering the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

A resolution that unanimously passed the state Senate designated Friday as “Martin Luther King Jr. — The Dreamer’s Day” in Mississippi.

The civil rights leader was slain by a sniper in Memphis.

Mississippi state Sen. Willie Simmons of Cleveland noted that when King was killed, Mississippi only had one black representative in the 122-member state House and no black members in the 52-person Senate.

Now, there are 37 black members in the House and 12 in the Senate.

Mississippi’s population is about 60 percent white and 37 percent black.

The resolution is Senate Concurrent Resolution 652.

BOBBY HARRISON:Holland stays on the job during race

JACKSON - Perhaps state Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, would have lost the District 1 U.S. House Democratic primary to Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers under any circumstances. No doubt, Childers ran an outstanding campaign.

But Holland put himself behind the eight ball so to speak when he accepted the appointment as chair of the Public Health Committee from Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi.
       
There was no way for Holland to be on the ground campaigning in person in District 1 in north Mississippi and carry out the numerous duties as Public Health Committee chairman. There is probably not a more demanding chairmanship in the state Legislature.
       
Holland made the decision to hold on the coveted committee chairmanship and run essentially a media campaign from Jackson before the March 11 first primary. Childers ran an equal media campaign, but also had an extensive grassroots campaign. Before Tuesday’s second primary, Holland was able to break away from his duties in Jackson at
the Capitol and campaign in person in north Mississippi, but it was too late. He had too much ground to make up. Predictably, Childers won and will be a tough candidate against Republican nominee Greg Davis, who is mayor of Southaven.
       
Holland returned to the Capitol Wednesday and received a warm reception from both Democrats and Republicans.

Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville, said, “I’m glad to have you back. I am kind of glad you didn’t win. We need you down here.”

Holland gave a response that probably is not suitable for a family blog.
    
McCoy praised Holland for not neglecting his legislative duties while campaigning for Congress.

Read Bobby Harrison’s coverage of the Capitol each day in the Daily Journal.

BOBBY HARRISON:Hopsital fee

JACKSON - While the Democrats hold a slim 27-25 advantage in the state Senate, they are essentially the minority party because Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, who presides over the chamber, and his key lieutenants are Republicans.

The Senate Democrats either have not learned to or do not want to use their numbers to the same extent the Republican minority in the House uses its power to exert its will on the Democratic House leadership.

The Republicans in the House make the Democratic leadership work to carve out its position. For instance, the House Democratic leadership was successful in passing legislation to state the chamber’s position is to fund the current Medicaid shortfall by raising the cigarette tax. But Republicans who oppose that position made the leadership work to pass the tax.

The position of the Senate leadership is to fund the shortfall through cuts in the program and a tax/assessment on hospitals.

On Tuesday when the Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, was taking up the Medicaid funding bill it was explained part of the shortfall would be dealt with through the hospital fee. Many Democrats in the Senate have gone on record as opposing using the hospital fee at the total exclusion of the cigarette tax to deal with Medicaid.

Yet, with only limited opposition, the Democrats joined the Republicans in approving the Medicaid funding bill that included the hospital fee, but not cigarette tax. If the bill is later approved by the full Senate, the leadership can rightfully say it is the chamber’s position to partially fund the Medicaid shortfall through the hospital fee and not cigarette tax.

Republicans in the House would have fought tooth and nail under similar circumstances. They recognize that in the negotiations process that comes at the end of the session, the position of a chamber, determined by the vote of that chamber, is important. For instance, if the Democrats could garner the votes to block the funding bill with the fee, that would place Senate leaders in a weaker position and might force them to consider the cigarette tax, which the Democrats say they support.

Generally speaking, there is more collegiality in the Senate and less of desire to be seen as rocking the boat. That is not to say the House is not civil. Members are just more prone to take sides on key issues.

Read Bobby Harrison’s coverage from Jackson each day in the Daily Journal.

BOBBY HARRISON: Good Friday at Capitol

JACKSON - The Mississippi Legislature is dealing with less controversial bills this year.

The process is moving so smoothly that both the House and Senate left early Thursday and is taking off Good Friday. No complaints here. Nobody should complain that the Legislature is
taking off a Friday.

But at some point soon, the Legislature is going to have to address the about $90 million shortfall facing the Division of Medicaid. Many believe that sometimes as early as in April Medicaid will run out of money unless a funding source is found to make up the shortfall.

So, the Legislature should enjoy the long holiday weekend with family and friends.

While the controversy has been limited thus far, legislators will face some tough decisions this term. And in the political process, tough decisions spur controversy.

Read more of Bobby Harrison’s coverage in Jackson each day in the Daily Journal.