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Mississippi House of Representatives It should be fairly obvious to everyone why we in the Mississippi Legislature are on the brink of a special session to craft a budget for state fiscal year 2006. Governor Barbour and the Senate wanted it like that! That way, they could control the agenda. Throughout the 93 days of the regular session, there was word from the Governor's Office and the Senate that they would not consider the measures proposed by the House of Representatives to create the new revenue that we felt would be required to fund state government for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2005. The House passed revenue enhancements through a 50-cents per pack cigarette increase and through an increase in some user fees charged by state agencies for services they provide. Mississippi has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation. Recently, even Kentucky -- a state you might think would oppose such taxes because that's where much of the nation's tobacco is grown -- increased its per pack rate by 17 cents. Surveys have shown that an overwhelming majority of Mississippians support the idea of raising cigarette taxes -- by a full dollar! Even a majority of smokers are for it, surveys showed. Furthermore, an Associated Press survey of the State Senate taken during the session showed that exactly half of their members (26) favored the 50-cents increase on cigarettes. Actually, the House of Representatives by session's end had proposed several other measures that would have generated enough new revenue to compile a budget -- and, therefore, negate the need for a special session. The estimated $175 million that would have been generated from a 50-cents per pack cigarette hike and the increase in state agency fees would have been plenty to reach a compromise. The House of Representatives, however, didn't just talk about new revenue. We had a lot of discussion about cuts to state government. We had the knife out and were ready and willing to use it, but the Senate was reluctant to make the cuts that the House deemed necessary. The House passed several resolutions to extend the regular session to continue work, with the Senate finally acting five minutes before the session was scheduled to end at midnight on April 5, but it only gave us 24 more hours to work, not enough time as it turned out. While the House leadership remains open to suggestions from the governor and Senate over the '06 budget, the base premise for funding public education, health care and public safety remains key to any agreement. We believe new revenue is the best way to reconcile our differences -- in addition to additional cuts. If there is no additional revenue, then the House's priority remains fully funding K-12 and appropriating the remaining pool of money. We contend that any shortfall in K-12 funding will ultimately require a tax increase at the local level on property owners for homes and automobiles. Gov. Barbour has proposed using budget figures based upon revenue growth over the previous year's spending levels, but the absolute necessity of funding such programs as public education and Medicaid will more than use up any revenue growth that occurs. --Rep. Joe Warren of Mt. Olive is chairman of the House Rules Committee.
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