2023 Legislative Disappointments

You are our only hope!

The 2023 legislative session ended on April 1 with the passage of the final bill of the legislative session. At approximately 1:00 am the final vote was cast for the last bill of the session. Never mind that the extended deadline had been exceeded and at midnight of March 31 all appropriation bills were dead. The Mississippi legislature once again ignored the law, the constitution and the good of the people and passed a bill that appropriated millions of dollars to “member projects”.

Actually that was a fitting end to a disappointing year in the Mississippi legislature. The Mississippi legislature has been run by majority Republicans since 2012 and has had a super majority for the past 8 year. But even with a super majority of Republicans, Mississippi politicians have continued to spend record amounts of the people’s money.

This year was no different. The final count was a budget of over $7.6 billion, the largest in our state’s history. The state is ending the 2022 fiscal year with over a $1 billion surplus. That means the state of Mississippi and it’s Republican lead government has taken from the people of this state over a billion dollars more than it needed.

But, even with a billion dollar surplus Republicans in the legislature refused to return any of the money, opting instead to spend every dime of your hard earned money on their pet projects to ensure their re-election.

Earlier in the session during a Republican Caucus meeting Speaker Gunn brought up the idea of eliminating the state income tax. With a billion dollar surplus it would have been an easy task and one most would expect a group of Republicans to embrace. But that was not the case. At least 12 Republicans stood and begged the Speaker to kill a bill that eliminated the income tax. They expressed concerns that were drawn directly from the Democrat Party play-book and ultimately killed any chance of returning money to the people.

One Republican actually stood up during the meeting and asked if he had somehow entered a Democrat party meeting.

But the disappointments didn’t end there.

The majority Republican legislature continued its Democrat Party look-alike session by passing a bill that makes it difficult for Mississippians to purchase an Electric Vehicle. I’m not a huge fan of EVs but it is your decisions, not mine, if you want to buy a Tesla or an F450. But the Mississippi legislature decided to protect car dealerships my eliminating competition. Once again, you lose and the politicians gain campaign donations.

One good thing the legislature did was attempt to fix a 2022 law that required a contractor license to do any work on a home. This misguided 2022 legislation was sold as “consumer protection” but in reality it made it technically illegal for you to work on your parents home. The legislature attempted to fix its 2022 error this year by repealing a portion of the bad law, but our Governor, who seems to have also decided the Democrat way is the best way, vetoed that bill because the Contractor Licensing Board urged him to protect them instead of the citizens. Once again, you lose and the politicians gain campaign donations.

In a third strike our Governor, Lt. Governor, Speaker and a majority of Republicans decided to adopt the Democrats way of thinking and expanded medicaid. But wait, they say don’t worry it was only a little bit! Medicaid expansion is not “free” money as the Democrats and their newly converted Republican friends call it. Medicaid is money from the federal government and a bunch of money from the state government. So is the federal money free? NO, it is money the federal government takes from you. So now we expand bad insurance, that will make rural healthcare worse and we do it for able-bodied adults who could get a job but choose not to work, and we make you pay for it twice!

But guess what? You lose and the politicians gain campaign donations.

This year was a disappointing year and one that is the beginning of the end for the Republican party in Mississippi. If Republican’s can’t govern on the principles of the Republican Party why would anyone continue to vote for them. I hate to say it but the Democrat party of Joe Biden is poised to take over our state.

So prepare yourself for a fast ride into the ditch because if the democrats have proven anything it is they know how to destroy a city, a state and a nation and the Mississippi Republicans are handing over the keys because of their own personal selfishness.

The only hope for our state is you. The conservative people of Mississippi must take a stand and vote out the Republicans who have adopted the Democrat philosophy of government.