The 2016 Mississippi legislative session ended this morning.
As of July 1, churches will be allowed to arm themselves like para-military units, bakers and florists will be spared the indignity of serving the people God hates, and economy that is short on cash will have even less cash, thanks to a massive tax cut — most of it directed toward corporations — an affirmation of the state’s commitment to trickle down economics.
Apparently, the Legislature feels the real problem with our state economy is that Mississippians just haven’t been sufficiently trickled on.
So grab your umbrellas, the folks in Jackson are making it rain. Cuts to mental health services, schools and veterans services are on the way.
It was a busy session, so busy that some matters were left unaddressed.
While the lawmakers found time to arm deacons, they simply didn’t have the time to address our deteriorating highway system, which according to the state’s chamber of commerce needs an estimated $375 million annually in repairs and renovations. The Legislature wasn’t quite able to come up with that amount, so it compromised by setting aside the generous sum of zero dollars. Good roads are for sissies, you know.
Nor was the Legislature able to address a campaign finance system that allows legislators to use campaign contributions as personal piggy banks. A bill that would require legislators to provide a detailed account of how they spend those funds, including receipts for such expenses, was deemed to be “excessive” and “unreasonable.”
The bill died an embarrassing death Wednesday, when House Speaker Phillip Gunn called for a voice vote” on the matter. That was a particularly nice touch, of course, since the voice vote spared legislators the mild embarrassment of going on the record as being self-serving, bought-and-paid-for scum-buckets.
Those opposed to the doomed bill say that’s an unfair characterization, of course.
Their objections, they say, are based on the fact that providing timely, thorough and honest accountings of how they spend their campaign donations is just too difficult, too time-consuming.
Business owners must be shaking their heads at this point. How many of you find keeping your personal and business funds separate to be an unreasonable burden? Out here in the real world, a businessman who can’t manage that won’t be in business very long. And, of course, the IRS is always around to help make sure the accounting is on the up-and-up. See how easy that is?
But legislators cannot be expected to grasp all that, I suppose. Is it really fair to expect that people entrusted with a $6-billion annual budget should be able to figure out whether a new pair of cowboy boots, a $100 necktie or an RV is a personal expense or a legitimate use of campaign donations? It’s all so terribly complicated and confusing.
So the session ends and the matter of bribes disguised as campaign donations will have to wait until next year’s session. By then, maybe it will all blow over and we’ll have forgotten.
Just in case it doesn’t, I suspect that the millions of dollars currently tucked away in our legislators’ campaign accounts will have mysteriously disappeared by the time the Legislature convenes again to make more God/Gun/Gays laws.
I expect the lawmakers will go on a real spending spree between now and then, just to be on the safe side. Winnebago and Tony Lama probably have these folks on speed-dial, I bet.
It may be the first time in recorded history that Mississippi legislators have ever gone on a spending spree.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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