Following a busy couple of weeks, things at the Mississippi Legislature slowed down a little this week. After finishing their first round of action on general bills, the House of Representatives and Senate have begun the initial work on appropriations and revenue bills. The deadline for floor passage of all the money-related bills is Wednesday, March 27th. There is no committee deadline for these bills, but the request for introduction is Monday, March 25th.
The House and Senate are well ahead of this next deadline passing all their respective appropriations bills already. Appropriations bills are divided, half starting in the House and half starting in the Senate. Both chambers passed versions of appropriations bills that included numbers from the Legislative Budget Recommendation (LBR) that came from the Legislative Budget Office. It is customary for appropriations bills to go to conference as the Legislature works out how much revenue the state will have to spend and what priorities they can agree on. Speaker of the House Jason White (R-West) stated at the beginning of the session that he intended for the House to be completed with their work on the budget by April 15th, about two weeks before the actual deadline. The Senate has not officially agreed to this timeline.
The major issues that dominated discussion at the Legislature this week are the same three main issues that have been dominating the entire session. The House has sent the Senate legislation on a version of Medicaid expansion, a formula rewrite for funding public education, and a bill that reorganizes the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) board to help find a solution to the unfunded liability within the system. It is unclear if the Senate has the votes or desire to pass any of these. The Senate also has passed tweaks to public education funding, worked on their own version of Medicaid expansion, and held a hearing this week on PERS. However, both chambers are continuing to dig their heels into passage of their own plans.
The Senate finally unveiled their version of Medicaid expansion this week. There are a few main differences between the House and Senate plans. The Senate version would be contingent on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approval of a work requirement while the House version would go into effect either way. The House plan provides for full expansion up to 138% of the federal poverty level, while the Senate version only expands up to 99%. The estimated number of the population that would receive coverage under the plans is also very different. The House version would expand to somewhere in the 200,000 range and the Senate plan would be less than 100,000. However, exact numbers are extremely difficult to estimate.
If disagreements continue on these major issues, it could affect the outcome of some general bills and the state’s budget. The billion-dollar surplus is heavily impacted by these discussions in two ways. If there is agreement on these policy issues, each of them has a multi-hundred million dollar budget impact and the surplus could be depleted. If there is not agreement, then it is likely that the Legislature holds off on spending the surplus in case there can be movement on these issues next year.
Last week the House passed House Bill 1590, authored by Chairman Hank Zuber (R-Ocean Springs), which would reconstitute the board of PERS and pause the scheduled increase in the employer contribution. The bill passed the House by a vote of 85 – 34. It has been received in the Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Government Structure chaired by Senator Chris Johnson (R-Hattiesburg). On Wednesday, Chairman Johnson held a hearing to discuss the House bill. Presenters from across the state were brought in to discuss their concerns about dilution of the PERS board and the effect that raising the employer contribution could have on cities and counties. No action was taken on the bill, but the committee was able to hear a range of opinions.
Also of note this week, for a third year in a row a bill to resurrect the ballot initiative process died on the Senate calendar. Senate Bill 2770, authored by Chairman David Parker (R- Olive Branch), would allow only the Legislature to amend the state constitution, but allow the people of Mississippi to amend or repeal existing law through the ballot initiative. The bill initially passed the Senate by a vote of 26-21 but was held on a motion to reconsider. On Monday, the bill died when it did not meet the deadline to dispose of the motion to reconsider. There is a House bill that is currently in the Senate and Chairman Parker technically has until April 2nd to move it out of the Senate. However, he has stated that he does not feel he has enough of the Senate on board to pass it.
Looking ahead to next week, since both the House and Senate are ahead of schedule on revenue bills, committees likely will start meeting to take up general bills that originated in the opposite chamber. The deadline for those bills to move out of committee is Tuesday, April 2nd.