After two weeks of the 2022 Mississippi Legislative session, nearly 1,000 bills and 43 resolutions have been introduced in the state’s two chambers.

Lincoln County residents want to keep track of what their senator and representatives are working on during this session. Here are the bills introduced or co-authored by Representative Vince Mangold of Brookhaven.

So far in the 2022 Mississippi Legislative session, 637 House bills have been introduced, including three authored by Rep. Mangold.

Mangold’s bills are as follows:

• HB437, to establish the Teaching Racial and Universal Equality (TRUE) Act, to prohibit schools and teachers from including or promoting divisive concepts as part of curriculum or instruction, to prohibit censorship of American or Mississippi history/heritage based on religious references and to provide for withholding of state funds for violations. Rep. Becky Currie of Brookhaven is one of this bill’s co-authors.
• HB530, to create the “Strategically Accelerating the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers (START) Act of 2022,” f or the purpose of providing for an increase teacher salary scale and increased minimum pay for teachers and teacher assistants. The act would also delete the cap on the number of National Board-certified nurses and speech-language pathologists and audiologists employed by school districts which are allowed to receive National Board Certification salary supplements. And to require an annual salary supplement to state-licenses athletic trainers employed by districts who have acquired National Board Certification. This is one of four bills engrossed in the Legislature, with the affirmative vote of Rep. Currie.
• HB555, to create “The Mississippi Healthy Food Access and Incentive Program,” to require the Department of Agriculture and Commerce to distribute funds to Mississippi Farmers Markets and retailers for the purpose of providing matching dollar incentives for eligible fruits and vegetables to develop “a nutrition incentive program to double the purchasing power of Mississippi residents with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables” while supporting Mississippi’s farmers and local economy.

 

Other House bills of interest:

• HB618, to declare the second Monday of each October as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
• HB563, which would authorize funds to assist the Town of Bude in paying costs associated with relocation, repair, etc. of The Bude Depot and The Depot Caboose.
• HB548, to exempt motor homes and trailers from ad valorem taxation.
• HB525, which would reduce motorcycle sales tax from 7 percent to 5 percent.
• HB588, to create The Mississippi Horse Racing Act of 2022, creating the Mississippi State Racing Commission and related purposes.
• HB206, to establish the Mississippi minimum wage at $10 per hour, and to exempt employers with tipped employees.
• HB417, to provide penalties for any person who intentionally or negligently causes a dog to bite, wound or inflict injury upon another person, with enhanced penalties for death or mutilation.
• HB423, to abolish the “A” through “F” accountability system for the Mississippi Department of Education, replacing it with a percentage designation rating.
• HB301, to authorize counties and municipalities to establish Summer Youth Work Programs to facilitate employment of high school students in summer jobs.
• HB580, which would make it a felony to willfully cause an abortion and that anyone who does so is guilty of murder, and to increase penalties for advertising medicine or tools that can be used in an unlawful abortion.