The 128th Mississippi Legislature adjourned April 4, introducing 3,087 bills and completing 2,760 of those bills in its legislative session.
The goal of all Southern Bancorp Community Partners’ (SBCP) public policy endeavors is to promote savings opportunities and family economic security. Although 2013 marked the first year SBCP’s policy team sought to proactively track and pass legislation in Mississippi, SBCP is not new to Mississippi. SBCP currently provides community development and family economic security direct service activities in the state. In its inaugural year, the policy team worked actively through coalition to support the Family Savings Initiative Act (SB 2027 and HB 101) and the Mississippi Affordable Housing Trust Fund (SB 2477). However, each bill died in committee.
Southern’s policy team also monitored all legislation having the potential to significantly affect family economic security and community development opportunities in the Delta region. One example of such legislation is HB 559, the Check Cashers Act. Now law, HB 559 deletes the requirement for policymakers to periodically review loan authorization.Hence, elected officials in Mississippi may never have to debate interest rates on payday loans again, which could ultimately result in further exploitation of payday loan customers. This is potentially detrimental to communities and low-income families because payday loans prevent household savings and economic mobility.
At the forefront of the 2013 legislative session was the issue of education. Several education bills (such as SB 2658, SB 2347, and SB 2188) comprised what may be the most transformational piece of education legislation in Mississippi’s history, often referred to as “Education Works.” In addition to the aforementioned pieces of legislation included in Education Works, Governor Bryant also signed into law HB 369 as part of the Education Works package, which created the Mississippi Charter Schools Act of 2013, establishing the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board as a state agency with exclusive chartering jurisdiction, which will authorize charter schools throughout the state.
The Mississippi Legislature ended the regular session without passing a Medicaid budget for the state fiscal year beginning July 1, or authorizing the program to exist past that date. Gov. Bryant had to call for a special session in late June to reauthorize the Division of Medicaid, as well as to debate and vote on Medicaid expansion. The session ended with the reauthorization and funding of the Division of Medicaid, but the legislature voted down both Medicaid expansion and the opportunity to implement a state-based health insurance exchange. Mississippi, like every state, has the option to expand Medicaid to people living below 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
To read the the full summary of legislations, please click here.