Speeding the flow of Hurricane Katrina relief money to the state is one of this year’s priorities for Warren County’s delegation to the Legislature.

Matching funds from the state will be needed to receive its full share of the $29 billion relief package passed by Congress Dec. 22.

Rep. Chester Masterson, R-Vicksburg, noted that Congress waived the Mississippi’s obligation to pay for part of its Medicare program. That waiver represents a savings to the state government of about $650 million to $700 million, Masterson said.

Masterson said the relief money earmarked for Mississippi will require matching funds from the state government but that he expected that amount to be relatively small.

Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, said that if restrictions on federal relief funds allow, he hopes to explore allowing local people to be reimbursed for hurricane-damage expenses.

&#8220Some of the money has not been turned loose yet,” Flaggs said.

The chairman of the Mississippi Senate Education Committee, Rep. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, said his top funding priority will be funding for K-12 public schools, community colleges and colleges and universities. Chaney said he wanted &#8220to be certain to take care of the schools, not only on the Gulf Coast but throughout the state.”

He said congressional funding for hurricane relief together with a statement by the U.S. Department of Education could be good news for the Vicksburg Warren School District, which has enrolled about 200 to 250 students. The VWSD could receive reimbursement of about $1.4 million for those students’ attendance, Chaney said.

In a Katrina-related proposal for a new law, Chaney also said he would support statewide building codes at least for the Gulf Coast. Chaney said greater strength in building codes paid off for coastal counties in less hurricane damage, especially to homes farther inland. The law would resemble ones in place in Florida and Louisiana, Chaney said.

Flaggs said he would not support statewide building codes because as a former member of the Vicksburg zoning board.

&#8220I don’t want to take away local authority,” in such a matter, Flaggs said.

Flaggs, the delegation’s senior member and chairman of the House Juvenile Justice Committee, has outlined his proposal in that area. He has said he plans to file a bill that would focus the state’s juvenile-justice system more on prevention and community-based programs and less on incarceration.

In non-Katrina-related measures Chaney also said he planned to propose changes to a law that has subsidized commercial developments like those including KMart in Vicksburg. The change would close what Chaney called a loophole for such businesses that are closed before tax revenue local governments anticipate collecting from them is collected, he said.

Masterson said he would support adjustments to new Medicaid rules that cut profits on pharmacies’ dispensings of generic drugs to unreasonably low levels, he said. Masterson also said he would support a state law loosening restrictions on the construction of broadcast towers for amateur-radio operators. Communications using such radios proved their value during Katrina, Masterson added.

As the lawmakers head back to Jackson, they usually take with them a load of requests from their home districts.

However, this year, City of Vicksburg officials said they have no plans to ask state officials for anything in particular.

&#8220Most of our projects here have been funded for some time” through grants, South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman said.

Beauman said he has been told little money, if any, will be available and city officials are not counting on any.

He said the city is using previously awarded grants to widen the Yazoo Diversion Canal and rebuild the Adams and Cherry street bridges.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina will likely put a damper on other projects across the state.

&#8220I feel that with the issues they’ve had to face in the last four months are going to make it very hard to get anything from the state in the next year or two,” Mayfield said.

Mayor Laurence Leyens, too, said he would request nothing from the Legislature.

Warren County officials, on the other hand, have a wish list. Supervisors said they will ask the county’s delegates to seek the legislation through local and private bills.

Their requests: