Mississippi lawmakers moved Monday to settle a $3.4 billion K-12 education spending plan while filing a resolution to extend the regular legislative session “on paper” to April 15, House Speaker Jason White filed Monday evening, House leaders said.
The education bill, part of a nearly $7.4 billion overall budget, earmarks about $108 million for teacher and assistant teacher raises and represents a $121 million increase over the current fiscal year, lawmakers said. Both chambers have approved the education budget, but the bill was held on a procedural motion that could invite more debate, lawmakers said. The House has until Tuesday to table the motion before the bill would go to the governor.
After months of competing proposals, lawmakers said the Senate’s original $2,000 pay raise prevailed for this year. Rep. Robert Johnson III, the House Democratic leader from Natchez, unsuccessfully tried to stall the education bill to revive the House’s $5,000 raise plan, lawmakers said. Rep. Karl Oliver, a Republican from Winona, defended the compromise and said, “we’ll come back and look at it another year.”
Lawmakers also approved changes to the Public Employees’ Retirement System, rejecting a Senate proposal to add $1 billion over 10 years. A near-unanimous agreement would reduce the service requirement for full retirement for new hires from 35 years to 30, let retirees return to state work after 30 days instead of 90, base retirement payments on an employee’s highest four years of salary instead of their highest eight, and allow state employees to contribute to catch-up plans such as Roth IRAs, lawmakers said.
Other measures adopted Monday include a compromise on House Bill 1444 requiring the Department of Corrections to provide protective equipment to prisoners using raw cleaning chemicals. The bill was authored by Rep. Justis Gibbs and was prompted by the case of Susan Balfour, who developed terminal breast cancer after contact with industrial chemicals while on cleaning duty; a federal lawsuit tied to her care remains pending, lawmakers said. Lawmakers also approved a $41 million allocation from the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund for 19 projects along the Coast, though a state auditor’s report published in March raised concerns that some legislative picks did not follow Mississippi Development Authority recommendations or submit required applications, the report said.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
