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Week of March 18, 2024
By Representative Price Wallace
This was the twelfth week of the 2024 legislative session. Next Wednesday, March 27 is the deadline for original floor action on House appropriations and revenue bills. Members will then continue to work on general bills from the Senate. The House did discuss two of these Senate bills this week despite the deadline being a few weeks away.
On Wednesday, the House took up Senate Bill 2453. The bill would authorize the Public Service Commission to cancel a municipality’s certificate to provide utility services upon findings of inadequacies. The City of Holly Springs Utility Department (HSUD) currently provides power to almost 12,000 customers not only in the city limits but also to customers in Marshall, Benton and Lafayette Counties in Mississippi and Fayette and Hardeman Counties in Tennessee. Customers of HSUD have experienced frequent outages for years, including 133 outages in 90 days. After much debate, the bill passed as amended by the House by a vote of 78-32. SB 2453 has been held on a motion to reconsider.
House Education Chairman Rob Roberson (R – Starkville) introduced Senate Bill 2332, which would revise the funding formula for MAEP. The House adopted Strike-All Amendment 1, inserting the House’s INSPIRE Program (HB 1453) into the bill instead. Strike-all amendments are commonly used when taking up bills from the other house. SB 2332 passed as amended 94-18, and it has been sent back to the Senate.
Visitors this week included Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Delta State University, Jackson State University, the Mississippi Down Syndrome Advocacy Coalition, the Brain Injury Association of Mississippi, Tomorrow’s 25 and the Mississippi Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs.
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