Mississippi lawmakers approve $7 billion budget in special session marred by political fighting

Associated Press

a day ago

Mississippi lawmakers on Thursday finally passed a $7.1 billion state budget to fund government agencies, but it wasn't a master class in legislative statesmanship.
Senators complained about their House counterparts, House members fought bitterly among themselves about budget details and lawmakers knowingly passed a bill that conflicts with federal Medicaid regulations.
The public display of bickering took place during a special legislative session because lawmakers couldn't agree on a budget during their regular session earlier this year, which was also mired in Republican infighting. Gov. Tate Reeves called them back to Jackson this week to pass a budget before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
'Yes — this should have been completed in regular session,' Reeves wrote on social media. 'But once clear that was no longer an option, the two sides worked diligently to find an agreement that met my specific criteria and passed it while minimizing costs of a Special Session.'
The Senate wrapped up its work Thursday evening, after debating whether it should approve the state Department of Health's budget, after lawmakers realized it contained a provision that could jeopardize $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid money for Mississippi.
The 52-member chamber approved the budget and said they had a guarantee that Reeves would veto the provision out of the agency's budget.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann thanked the senators for their work, but he accused House leaders of working in bad faith by renegging on some prior budget agreements and by filing bills that were outside Reeves' parameters for the special session.
'There were three more significant bills that came from the House, which were not on the governor's call and did not reflect the agreement of the House, the governor and the Senate,' Hosemann said.
Senate Democrats opposed almost all of the budget bills in the special session because they complained they did not receive any advance drafts of the bills ahead of the session.
Hosemann told Mississippi Today that he shared a budget summary with all senators on Sunday and encouraged them to ask questions about the budget to Senate leaders ahead of the special session.
Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, a Democrat from Greenville, attempted to replace agency funds frozen by the federal government with state funds, but Republican senators used procedural tactics to defeat the measures.
The House finished its work on the budget in the early hours of Thursday morning after working all Wednesday night to approve, debate, and question the spending bills.
House leaders struck a more conciliatory tone with Democratic members late Wednesday, after the two factions, earlier in the day, butted heads over the budget process and House Speaker Jason White threatening to remove a member from the chamber.
Like their Senate colleagues, House Democrats grew frustrated that they were largely kept in the dark about the specifics of the budget and used a constitutional provision to force the reading aloud of lengthy budget bills.
Irate at the filibuster tactic, White, a Republican from West, and his leadership team refused to answer any questions from Democrats if they continued to request that bills be read.
White posted on social media that he shared a digital copy of a budget summary with House members on Tuesday and placed a physical copy of the summary on their desks on Wednesday.
'When I was elected Speaker, I stated my goal was to bring more order and timeliness to the budget chaos while allowing all House members time to read and review the spending bills before they are asked to vote on them,' White said. 'While we may not have perfected that process yet, as Speaker, I will maintain the goal of transparency and working in an orderly fashion.'
It appeared the House would continue to bicker over the budget after Republicans refused to allow members from both parties to ask questions in a House Appropriations Committee meeting, prompting further outrage from Democrats.
'So, we're not allowed to debate any piece of legislation in this process, is that correct?' Democratic Rep. John Hines of Greenville asked.
'That's correct,' House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Read, R-Gautier, responded.
Read and other appropriations leaders cited the Democrats' earlier filibuster tactics as the reason for not allowing them to ask questions.
But even some Republicans complained that the committee moved too fast for them to understand what was being proposed.
Rep. Becky Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, during the committee meeting, said she didn't understand an explanation of an amendment to the budget for the State Auditor's Office.
Rep. Sam Mims V, a Republican from McComb, declined to repeat his explanation of the amendment and continued to speed through the budget.
The committee meeting showcased how, in recent years, rank-and-file lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, have complained they aren't provided budget details in time to vet and debate the bills and how individual members have virtually no input in the budget process.
But longtime lawmakers said the special session this week was one of the worst budget-making cycles they've seen in roughly a decade.
'I understand that we're in the minority, and Republicans are in a supermajority, but there's just no dialogue taking place,' Rep. Bryant Clark, a Democrat from Pickens, said. 'This is the straw that broke the camel's back.'
Despite the chaos from the committee meeting, Democrats on the House floor stopped asking for bills to be read Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and Republicans chose to answer their questions.
The most substantive debate on the House floor occurred over the Mississippi Development Authority's budget, the agency responsible for economic development.
Rep. Robert Johnson III, the Democratic leader, offered four amendments to the agency's budget, but the GOP majority voted against them mostly along partisan lines.
Johnson, a Democrat from Natchez, tried to amend the legislation to reduce the amount of money counties are required to contribute to economic development projects in areas with extremely high poverty rates or failing school districts.
Rep. Karl Oliver, a Republican from Winona who leads an appropriations committee, opposed the amendments because he said he did not want the new proposals to jeopardize earlier agreements he reached with Senate leaders.
Most agencies in the proposed budget will see flat funding with no major increases or decreases. But many agencies will see a drop-off starting July of millions of dollars in 'one-time' money, either federal pandemic funds that are drying up or state cash for projects that lawmakers are withholding this year.
Under the budget agreement, lawmakers are planning to leave about $1 billion unencumbered. Some legislative leaders say this is prudent, given federal cuts and uncertainty in Washington. Others question whether state agencies will suffer, and contractors go unpaid on already started projects, from not having capital expense money allocated in the coming year.
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This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.