Completing a second phase of pay raises for Mississippi’s public school teachers and finding money for two more museums in downtown Vicksburg — including a second attraction dedicated to the city’s role in the Civil War — is tops on the minds of local officials heading into the 2015 session of the Legislature, which begins Tuesday.

Schoolteachers in the state are in line to receive the second piece of a two-step pay raise lawmakers passed in 2014. It kicked in an extra $1,000 for the 2015 budget year that starts July 1. Teachers received an extra $1,500 for the current budget year.

State Sen. Briggs Hopson III, R-Vicksburg, was confident the cost of the raises — estimated at $100 million over two years — wouldn’t weigh down education funding since it’s a separate program from the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The larger balancing act continues to be education and health care, Hopson said.

“We’ve got to come back and put more money into teacher pay raises,” Hopson said. “It’s not part of MAEP, but the thing is try to balance the budget and adequately fund Medicaid, which seems to keep going up exponentially.” Mississippi is among 16 states that have decided against expanding Medicaid eligibility. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal Affordable Care Act couldn’t compel states to do so, leaving the situation optional for now.

State Rep. Oscar Denton, D-Vicksburg, said his vote for any additional money for teachers is a given.

“I was for a raise before we broke it up,” Denton said. “We have an excess of money for it.”

On other topics, Hopson and Denton will focus on items figuring to come out of their respective committees. Redrawing the state’s circuit and chancery court districts is job one for the Senate, Hopson said, after the job was left undone in 2014. Unlike political boundaries for legislators or members of Congress, other factors besides population are taken into account.

“We look at that, plus the workload of each court district,” Hopson said.

Denton, elected in 2013 to fill the seat held by Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. for 25 years, said he’d support another attempt to pass a specific ban on texting while driving. A bill to do so had passed both chambers in 2014, only to die on the House calendar at session’s end. Texting and driving is already banned in 44 states, including Mississippi, which is among four states that also ban it for novice drivers. However, the state is among 32 that have no ban on the general use of handheld devices while driving, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

“Teenagers aren’t the only ones texting and driving,” Denton said.

State Rep. Alex Monsour, R-Vicksburg, mentioned the Common Core education standards as a topic that’ll have his attention in 2015. The standards have been adopted by 44 states, including Mississippi. He offered no specifics, but didn’t rule out taking a second look.

“It’s one of those hot-button issues people are on,” Monsour said. “There’s things we need to address in Common Core.”

Local government is taking different tacks to reach out to the Legislature to fund their wishes for 2015, one formal and one laid-back.

In a letter in October to House Speaker Philip Gunn, local legislators and others, Flaggs asked for $1.1 million from the state to kick-start three projects.

One is the Vicksburg Interpretive Center, the brainchild of local businesswoman Linda Fondren. Housed at the corner of Jackson and Washington streets inside the former Monte Carlo building, the center is being promoted as a cultural museum for all things Vicksburg, including the city’s music and food heritage.

The project needs $500,000 and “would introduce a viable and sustainable cultural heritage experience that showcases the unique and diverse aspects of Vicksburg,” read part of Flaggs’ letter to Gunn.

A second project is a study on the feasibility of building a “Siege Museum” downtown. Such an attraction would complement Vicksburg National Military Park, motivate the park’s 600,000-plus visitors each year to “explore downtown”, and extend hotel stays citywide, Flaggs said in the letter. The concept was the choice of 26 percent of business and civic leaders who were asked which of five cultural heritage concepts should be completed first during a planning forum Oct. 22. Another 28 percent said certain major landmarks should be restored, a list that included replacing missing monuments at VNMP, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Beulah Cemetery and other places.

A final $200,000 in the city’s legislative wish list involves expanding the concept of the Vicksburg Farmer’s Market to include Mississippi State University and Alcorn State University. Flaggs has talked up the idea of building a pavilion on the market site, along Washington Street between Grove and Jackson streets. The letter only specifies the two universities being involved in developing a market downtown.

Warren County supervisors’ wishes are simple for legislators, according to Board President Bill Lauderdale.

“Number one on my agenda is for them to not pass anything that causes us to raise taxes on people,” Lauderdale said.

Meetings on issues in the legislature that affect counties typically happen in late January, when deadlines for filing bills loom. No specific agendas beyond supervisors’ Jan. 5 formal meeting have been set.

Lauderdale said supervisors would track anything that would affect reimbursements for homestead exemptions or keeps in place so-called “Section 42” housing developments. The designation allows low-income, multifamily complexes to be appraised at lower rates than traditional, market-rate apartments. Counties have lobbied for its repeal since it went into effect in 2005.

Committee chairmanships are expected to remain the same for the upcoming session, the last of the current term. Hopson chairs the Senate Judiciary A Committee and sits on Judiciary B. Other assignments include seats on the Appropriations, Environmental Protection, Conservation and Water, Ports and Marine Resources, Public Health and Welfare, Tourism and Universities and Colleges committees.

Denton sits on the House Corrections, Municipalities, Workforce Development, Youth and Family Affairs committees.

Monsour chairs the House Ports, Harbors and Airports Committee and talked up the need to pass more tax incentives for the Port of Vicksburg. He also sits on the Constitution, Gaming, Judiciary B, Public Property, Tourism and Ways and Means committees.

 

Staff reporter John Surratt and The Associated Press contributed to this report.