Sine Die
On the Governor’s call for a Special Session, the Mississippi Legislature convened at 10:00 a.m. on July 10th to fund the Mississippi Public Service Commission and Mississippi Public Utilities Staff. Yesterday’s post gave a brief explanation of how the PSC went unfunded during the June 28th Special Session.
This morning, after much debate, the House passed a bill by a vote of 72 to 41 which added three new positions to the PSC staff. In the Senate, this bill was amended to remove the new positions, but to provide additional funding (some $280,000) to fund three existing but un-filled positions. Another provision of the bill is that the PEER Committee will conduct research into best practices for public utilities regulators and report back to the Legislature with recommendations, if any.
All three Public Service Commisssioners agreed with the Senate amendments to both the PSC and Public Utilities Staff bills, and the House concurred in the amendment. Thus, the Special Session that began this morning was concluded by 3:45 p.m. this afternoon, and the House of Representatives adjourned Sine Die.
As a sidelight, one interesting development today: a bill was presented in the House to take $8.2 Million from the Health Care Trust Fund to pay matching dollars for mental health crisis centers around the State. This issue had not been included in the Governor’s call for a Special Session. However, on point of order made by Rep. Jim Ellington, the Speaker made a ruling from the Speaker’s stand that the bill was properly before the House. Ultimately the bill passed the House with 65 votes; however, there were 57 members who did not cast a vote as they felt the bill was not properly before the House. In the Senate, the bill was not taken up as it was not included in the Governor’s call.
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