noway
07-19-2005, 03:47 PM
Gov. Haley Barbour needs to call a moratorium on special sessions of the Mississippi Legislature for the rest of the year.
He's already called four in 2005 - a record - and may be contemplating a fifth (for his "Upgrade" education reform plan).
Enough is enough. At a cost of $34,951 a day, taxpayers are weary of footing the bill for these additional legislative gatherings.
And, come 2006, state lawmakers - who dislike special sessions almost as much as taxpayers dislike paying for them - can help their cause by using their time more wisely during the regular session.
House leaders often gripe about Barbour's alleged overuse of special sessions. Case in point? House Speaker Billy McCoy, who said last week that "The governor loves special sessions better than a pig likes slop."
McCoy is probably right about Barbour's love affair with special sessions. After all, the governor gets to set the date and the agenda.
But one fact McCoy conveniently overlooks is that, in most cases, the governor has called legislators back to Jackson to finish work on pressing issues they failed to adequately resolve during the regular session.
Lest we forget, it took a special session of the Legislature to finalize the fiscal 2006 budget. Another special session was required to pass the governor's Momentum Mississippi economic development package - elements of which couldn't wait until the regular session convenes in January.
The fourth special session - completed in less than two hours on Friday - was needed to approve $14 million in bonds for the expansion of Baxter Healthcare Inc. in Cleveland.
True to form, the Legislature had an opportunity to address this issue three weeks ago - during another special session - but failed to do so.
This is getting old.
And expensive. If lawmakers want to play politics with important issues, they should use their own money, not ours
Glory Glory
He's already called four in 2005 - a record - and may be contemplating a fifth (for his "Upgrade" education reform plan).
Enough is enough. At a cost of $34,951 a day, taxpayers are weary of footing the bill for these additional legislative gatherings.
And, come 2006, state lawmakers - who dislike special sessions almost as much as taxpayers dislike paying for them - can help their cause by using their time more wisely during the regular session.
House leaders often gripe about Barbour's alleged overuse of special sessions. Case in point? House Speaker Billy McCoy, who said last week that "The governor loves special sessions better than a pig likes slop."
McCoy is probably right about Barbour's love affair with special sessions. After all, the governor gets to set the date and the agenda.
But one fact McCoy conveniently overlooks is that, in most cases, the governor has called legislators back to Jackson to finish work on pressing issues they failed to adequately resolve during the regular session.
Lest we forget, it took a special session of the Legislature to finalize the fiscal 2006 budget. Another special session was required to pass the governor's Momentum Mississippi economic development package - elements of which couldn't wait until the regular session convenes in January.
The fourth special session - completed in less than two hours on Friday - was needed to approve $14 million in bonds for the expansion of Baxter Healthcare Inc. in Cleveland.
True to form, the Legislature had an opportunity to address this issue three weeks ago - during another special session - but failed to do so.
This is getting old.
And expensive. If lawmakers want to play politics with important issues, they should use their own money, not ours
Glory Glory