From Your Capitol - Week of February 18, 2019
The Mississippi legislature slowed down this week once we passed the deadline for general House Bills. The House began working on House Appropriations Bills, which will determine how much money is given to various state agencies.
The House was responsible for looking at the preliminary budgets of about 50 state agencies, including the Departments of Education, Transportation, Health, Medicaid and Human Services. These bills represent half of the state’s budget; the other half is currently being considered by the Senate and will be sent to the House for consideration later in the legislative session.
Budgets included reverse repealers, a clause which ensures that a bill cannot become law before going to a conference committee for further revisions. A conference committee consist of three Senators and three Representatives, who work out any differences between the House version of a bill and a Senate version. When I first learned of this process I was disappointed to learn how little discussion takes place between conferees, in fact many times the senate and house members never meet. A copy of the legislation is simply passed back and forth with changes which are generally made by House and Senate leadership.
The House Ways and Means committee was busy this week. In just one week your Mississippi House of Representatives voted to borrow over $177 million for everything from parks, hospitals, new buildings for state universities, and millions going to some of the largest businesses in our state.
So hurry up and get those taxes done and write those checks to the State of Mississippi because we are borrowing money and sinking you deeper and deeper in debt.
Here are some facts about the State of Mississippi reported by truthinaccounting.org;
Mississippi has $5.7 billion available in assets to pay $14 billion worth of bills.
The outcome is a $8.3 billion shortfall and a $11,300 Taxpayer Burden.
Despite reporting all of its pension debt, the state continues to hide $596.4 million of its retiree health care debt.
Mississippi's reported net position is inflated by $1.4 billion, largely because the state defers recognizing losses incurred when the net pension liability increases.
I voted against every bond bill and will continue to do so until the legislature begins to act more fiscally responsible with your money.
If you have any questions, concerns, or request, please email me at criswelldana@yahoo.comor give me a call on my cell phone at (901) 275-4191.
It is an honor to serve you, and I humbly ask for your prayers as we seek to make decisions that help the people of our state.
Dana
To learn more about me or my campaign visit my website, www.DanaCriswellforMississippi.com.