Sen. Briggs Hopson III of Vicksburg said Thursday he was disappointed with the lack of progress Mississippi lawmakers made before taking a recess in the legislative session earlier this month.

“It was, in some ways, a frustrating session,” said Hopson, first-term Republican legislator for Warren, Issaquena and southwest Yazoo counties. “Last year, I felt like we got a little more done.” 

Hopson spoke to the National Active and Retired Federal Employees in Vicksburg at the group’s monthly meeting. The largely unfruitful session — which left dominant issues such as the 2010 budget, cigarette tax, car tag tax and health care on the table — was due in part to wrangling over the rules for spending Mississippi’s estimated $2.8 billion cut of the $787 billion economic recovery stimulus package, said Hopson.

“We can’t finish our business until they finish their business,” said Hopson of those regulating stimulus package spending in Washington, D.C. “Hopefully, in three weeks or so, we’ll have a better understanding of how we can spend those funds.” Meetings were held in Jackson Thursday to begin sorting out rules for the money and how it will be apportioned. The recess is expected to end in either May or June.

Hopson said he was pleased by the passage of the Children First Act, which will allow the state to take over any school district that does not meet performance standards for two straight years, among other things. Hopson praised the bill, but said more reform within the state education system is needed.

“We have too many school districts in Mississippi,” he said, noting there are 155. “I can’t help but think we’ve got some waste in these areas and some of the school districts could be combined to reduce some costs.”

Hopson said he was “shocked” that a bill requiring Mississippi voters to present identification at the polling place was killed in a Senate committee, and was disappointed a bill to raise the homestead tax exemption to $100,000 from $75,000 was not passed.

Hopson also said he hopes the highly controversial cigarette tax will be passed this year. It was snuffed out during last year’s session and several before. An agreement on the exact amount of the tax, currently at 18 cents per pack, has not been reached. The tax was originally to be about $1 per pack, however, a 62-cent federal tax increase earlier this year has caused many lawmakers to rethink how large the state increase should be. The Senate and House recessed about 12 cents apart on a compromise with 70 cents as the mid-point.

Passing the cigarette tax is vital to another proposed tax hike on car registration tags, he added. The 1994 Legislature created car tag discounts by increasing the sales tax rate on new vehicles from 3 to 5 percent. However, lagging car sales have allowed the car tag fund to dry up, meaning motorists will have to pay more for their annual tags unless money can be found elsewhere — such as by establishing a new car tag fund with additional revenue created by a cigarette tax. 

“If we don’t get a cigarette tax fund, there’s no other funds available unless we dip into the rainy day fund,” he said. “So, unless we do something with the cigarette tax, we’ll probably have an increase in car tags on July 1.”

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com