Mississippi Speakah of the House Phillip Gunn issued the following statement.
Speaker Philip Gunn: Bond Bill Fails During Negotiations
Included in the bill was a conservative funding plan for IHL, community colleges, roads and bridges and various other projects
Jackson, MS—Today, negotiations between House and Senate conferees took place to help craft the
budget for fiscal year 2018.
In
yet another attempt to provide a starting point to address
Mississippi’s roads and bridges need, the House offered the Senate a
proposal to begin repairing
the state’s roads and bridges in the annual bond bill. Included in the
bond bill, among other projects, was $47 million for IHL and $25 million
for community colleges to spend as they see fit on needed projects, two
issues the Speaker and the House support.
“IHL,
community colleges and roads and bridges are all priorities to the
House,” said Speaker of the House Philip Gunn. “The House has repeatedly
demonstrated its devotion to universities
and community colleges. Our history shows our support.
“Furthermore,
we have been working tirelessly to find a solution to help start
addressing the needs of our roads and bridges,” he continued. “The
bottom line is that the House has prioritized
this issue time and time again. We have not been provided with any
solid policy reasons for not moving forward on our bill for funding IHL,
community colleges and a roads and bridges solution.
The House has changed and recrafted its legislation numerous times to avoid previous concerns expressed by the Senate.
26 comments:
Great news for taxpayers. Can't continue to borrow for ongoing expenses.
Mississippi has too much debt already. We give huge tax breaks to out of state businesses and then saddle the debt on the people of Mississippi. Add in the unfunded pension plan that covers every public worker in Mississippi. I don't think they intend on funding it and will try to get out of this obligation in a number of years.
Luke warm about Reeves due to his connections to Boss Hogg but his stance on limiting bond debt is right on the money.
@9:38, Really??? Just look at the bond bill that Reeves pushed through in last year's session. It was and is a pork-laden, big-spending, big-government program that all of a sudden he is now preaching against.
I do not understand the logic of Mississippi conservatives, better known as the GOP Super Majority. You want to borrow money to maintain your house, while at the same token you are eliminating all revenue streams to cover those costs?
While at the same token, you are trying to maintain a dilapidated house?
If you live in Mississippi and travel to other places - especially the states that border Mississippi; can you honestly say to yourself they are not in better shape than Mississippi?
@10:18 AM, Net-net during his entire time as Lt. Gov Reeves has been a bond debt hawk. His record on bond debt is without dispute.
Bind bill did not fail. False headline.
There was no bond bill filed. Which is a win for the state.
Over half of what was proposed was the annual payoff to the community colleges (one of the biggest lobby in the state) for them to use as the choose plus the usual 50 mil to the Sr colleges. Not even identified projects.
Phil Gunn is a big disappointment. Time for a new Speaker.
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Tate is a champion fighting debt when it is convenient or he thinks it will inflict political pain upon the House. Left to his own devices, he's the same as every other before him - sliding in projects here and there because no one really reads the fine print except for McDaniel and not enough people who matter listen to him anyway.
@ Kingfish
You staying mum on the budget battle, huh?
How can a state that cannot even pay its current bills afford to take on more debt?
I fully agree with 10:52. 110% in agreement. Tate's "record on bond debt is without dispute." He pushed through a real whopper last year and "without dispute" established him as a big-spending bond-debt liberal.
The state of Mississippi needs new revenue streams - fact; but we can't get a lottery. Let's send all that money to bordering states. No wonder Mississippi is last. Thank you Mississippi Baptists.
Why cant the state just reduce the money spent on higher education (community colleges and state universities)?
Going to college is a choice, and as a consumer, you should be willing to pay market value.
In-State Tuition Rates
Ole Miss: 8370
Alabama: 10,470
Penn State: 17,900
UCLA: 13,254
If each undergraduate student at ole miss would pay just 2k more a year, that would raise 34,000,000+ (just undergraduates) Just count all the other schools, and we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars...
there's no reason to underfund k-12--there's no way to raise revenue there. higher education: whole different ballgame
Remember that one time when the anti bond Lt. Gov. included bond funding to repave a section of road--to his own house. Good times.
@12:37 imagine if ole miss didn't pay a coach $4mil a year. Or have to pay all those legal fees their athlete is department is incurring at the moment? Or if they didn't have to pay for all the snowflake counseling or diversity training or...that hospital college? Think about all the money Ole Miss is costing the state currently.
I don't think the vast majority of Mississippi voters care/ know about this issue.
Our in state tuition should match surrounding states. The Feds pay it anyway thru grants and loans so why not raise tuition?
Election coming up. I expect a mega whopper bond bill next year to be followed by a MOAB in two years
@ 2:10pm
Trust me - Ole Miss and Mississippi State do receive funds from the state. But those institutions DO NOT DEPEND on the meager appropriations they receive from the state. Those funds are strictly supplemental.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State survive off of their alumni donations.
I am not even an Ole Miss alum - but I keep an eye on their alumni donations. The university wanted a study center for the athletes and they projected the design to be @ $75 million and set out a 4 year goal. They collected $250 million in a year and a half.
So trust me - Ole Miss pays for their athletics via alumni donations, not via the appropriations from the legislature and the IHL.
Speaking of Ole Miss and State...the word is that under the 4-year bond plan that was agreed to last session (a good idea BTW), they had larger projects funded last year and had nothing in this year's bond bill - unlike the others. So, no loss for them.
3:01 Just keep on buying your university's koolaid about funding. They love to keep their alumni in the dark and can get away with it as long as the sports teams are winning. They are state entities and as such all money becomes public once in the greedy hands of the administrators. And, they rely substantially on state general funds to fund university operations.
2:00, that applies to MSU too.
Community Colleges (HINDS MGCCC) and IHL (MSU OLE MISS)are two different things. Community colleges are about access and job training. MS needs an educated workforce trained in highly technical fields. It does not need more lawyers. Community Colleges partner with local industry and produce graduates that can perform the jobs they are desperately needing. Ingalls, Chevron, need welders, pipefitters, ship fitters, industrial maintenance.
Nissan needs welders, painters, mechanics, forklift operators, and automation maintenance skills.
These are all highly technical fields that industry is begging for. Community Colleges meet those needs. IHL does not touch these jobs.
Please be careful about lumping these 2 together. 1 puts people to work in their field, the other puts kids in their parent's basement for years with unmanageable debt.
941, if your description was correct, then I am sure you can explain why the Community Colleges all duplicate the Senior Colleges in their extra activities: football, basketball, etc? Are those all needed for your vocational training? Those welders and auto mechanics all need to be running track meets? The access should be provided so that their folks don't have to drive as far to see their football holding pens while they get thru their remedial classes?
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