Sen. Billy Hudson, R-Purvis, right, talks with Senate Appropriations Chairman Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo,
JACKSON – Setting deadlines for where legislation must be in each step of the process serves a useful purpose.
Legislative deadlines help curtail one of the most basic human traits – procrastination. Deadlines spur legislators to act. In essence all deadlines are built around constraints placed on the Legislature by the Mississippi Constitution. For years, the deadline for the leadership to agree on a budget, followed by the deadline for the full membership to pass that budget have in effect served the purpose of being an enemy to open government.
The turnaround between those two deadlines is so quick that the legislative staff does not have time to develop in a readable format an overall budget picture. Instead, the members vote on more than 100 budget bills individually – often packed with little gems – and the full membership and the public really cannot ascertain the full budget picture as those votes occur.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, wants to extend the time between the two deadlines to give the members and the public time to digest the budget. While it may seem like an inside-baseball type of issue, Nunnelee’s proposal at its core is an open government issue.
Good for him.
