Lengthy Momentum session predicted

Published 5:00 am Monday, June 27, 2005

Local legislators do not think Tuesday’s special session will goquickly or smoothly.

“I’m really afraid we’ll be tied up for days,” said District 92Rep. Dr. Jim Barnett. “We can do it in two days if we would, but Ithink that’s unrealistic.”

Gov. Haley Barbour called the special session for one reason -to pass his $27 million Momentum Mississippi plan. The legislationhas already failed to pass in the regular session that ended inApril and again during a recent special session called to pass thestate’s budget.

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According to Barbour, the state is out of economic developmentincentive money at a time when 84 at-risk projects could create$1.9 billion in private investment and create 10,000 new jobs.Without Momentum Mississippi, the governor says, those projects andtheir jobs will go to other states.

The economic plan was defeated in the last special session whenit mushroomed from the initial $27 million price tag to more than$123 million with the addition of 35 projects the governor hascalled “pork projects.”

Locally, $20,000 for sidewalks in Bogue Chitto, $25,000 for anamphitheater in Brookhaven, $20,000 for the restoration of a woodenwater tower in Roxie and $20,000 for a bike path at Percy QuinnState Park in Pike County helped boost the total bond bill.

Barnett said the modified $123 million economic development planwas “ridiculous.”

“Some of those are good projects if we had the money. We justdon’t have the money,” he said.

District 53 Rep. Bobby Moak, who sits on the House Ways andMeans Committee, defended the projects and said many of them willappear again on the bill this session.

“I’m going to try to keep them in there,” he said. “Nothingshould be denied the opportunity to be talked about. If it’s up tome, they will (be in there). I think they’re all deserving and needto be looked at.”

Moak said he could not predict how long the session will last,but he did not look for it to be a quick one.

The governor, he said, is determined to pass MomentumMississippi and has called all the additional projects “pork,”meaning they benefit only certain regions and politicaldistricts.

However, Moak said, “the governor is calling other projects hehas supported in the past pork now. He may extend the session toinclude his pork but no one else’s.”

Projects that have received the governor’s support in the pastinclude incentives to Northrup-Grumman and Baxter Pharmaceuticalsand the Infinity project for NASA. Those projects alone would add$76 million to the bill, Moak said.

According to Moak, “$95 million of the total $123 million werefor projects he had asked the Legislature to fund at one time oranother.”

District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said if the Legislature couldkeep the bill limited to Momentum Mississippi it would be a quicksession, but the odds of that were slim. She predicted the specialsession would last a minimum of two weeks.

“I hope it’s a quick process,” she said. “It should be if we canget past the animosities. But I think they’ll be a stumbling block.I am not going to be in favor of it going extremely high.”

Hyde-Smith said she has several projects she would like to seeincluded in the economic development package, but she is willing towait for the regular session in January.

“I’m willing to back off any additional things, even those Ithink are very important to the district, including the armory inMonticello. I understand it will not make things go smoother inthis special session to try to include them now. It’s not anythingthe regular session can’t take care of in January. That’s whatregular sessions are for.”