Legislative session policies sometimes predictable, sometimes not

*First appeared in the Dec. 26 edition of the Laurel Chronicle

It’s two days before Christmas as I write this final column of 2013. C-SPAN is on the tube, and I’m suffering from the seasonal cold…which reminds me that today is my last day to sign up for Obamacare and be covered at the start of the new year.

Bah-humbug.

Healthcare is going to be one of the big items in the 2014 Legislative Session: Should we expand the Medicaid program? How much money does the Division of Medicaid actually need? And so on.

Education issues have already bubbled up, with some calling for across-the-board teacher pay raises. One article I saw said teachers haven’t gotten raises in seven years, but that’s not true (unless someone isn’t following the law…and then we’ve got another problem). Mississippi law (§37-19-7) requires teaches to get a bump in pay every year, and you get more based on tenure and education level.

According to the Miss. Dept. of Education, the base salary for an entry-level teacher (that is, with a bachelor’s degree and no full-time teaching experience) is $30,900. Compare that amount to the average entry-level salary for all occupations in Mississippi - $17,730, according to the Miss. Dept. of Employment Security. In addition to base pay, public school teachers get state health insurance and a pretty sweet state retirement.

I’ve heard rumblings from others about pay raises for regular state employees coupled with refrains that “state employees haven’t gotten raises in five, six, seven years.” I guess these folks have turned a blind eye to the fact the Legislature and individual state agencies authorize pay raises for employees every single year. For example, about $12 million worth of pay raises were given this year, and nearly double that, or $23 million, were given last fiscal year.

(By the way: I am not against pay raises. I am simply for a full presentation of facts.)

It remains to be seen whether gun laws or a focus on mental health issues will arise in 2014, as a result of the Newtown shootings.

What is not a mystery, though, is that the T1 Coalition will make a splash as it advocates increasing the gas tax as a way to generate more revenue to maintain Mississippi roads and bridges. To my knowledge, no statewide elected official has endorsed raising taxes in 2014.

Last week, a study committee released recommendations on ways to cut costs in the state’s correctional system without jeopardizing the safety of law-abiding citizens. It’s hard to see a scenario in which the 2014 Legislative Session doesn’t at least consider several of those proposals, if for no other reason than to identify savings and redirect those funds to other priority areas like education (see also, “pay raises”).

Of course, all of these issues relate back to my personal favorite issue: The state budget. Teacher and/or state employee pay raises; Medicaid expansion; actual Medicaid costs; corrections reform; and even mental health reform comes with a major price tag. It will be interesting to see these policies shape up within the context of a limited state budget and a restrained appetite for bonding.

This is just a snapshot of issues to be discussed and, as any seasoned session-watcher knows, is by no means all-inclusive of the topics du jour. There will be issues that arise during the session that no one is thinking about today (and no one will care about tomorrow). That’s why legislative sessions are always exciting ways to ring in the new year.

Merry Christmas, y’all, and see you in this space next year.