A bond issue that would fund a cultural museum in downtown Vicksburg is among a handful of bills from local legislators moved to committee amid many others dead for the session.

House Bill 1451, filed by state Rep. Oscar Denton, D-Vicksburg, would create the 2015 Vicksburg Interpretive Center Construction Fund and be filled by discretionary funds from the Department of Finance through June 2019. It moved Monday to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The money would help the city build and furnish a facility in the former Monte Carlo building at Washington and Jackson streets to promote the city’s music and food heritage. City officials in a letter to House Speaker Philip Gunn in December said the concept, furthered by local businesswoman Linda Fondren, needs $500,000 and “would introduce a viable and sustainable cultural heritage that showcases the unique and diverse aspects of Vicksburg.”

Not mentioned specifically in the bill are two other stated tourism goals for the city, a “Siege Museum” to compliment Vicksburg National Military Park and expanding the downtown farmer’s market.

Requests OK’d by Vicksburg and Warren County officials this month to raise sales taxes on hotel and restaurant bills to fund a sports complex have not appeared in local filings. Such a bill is expected to be filed in either chamber’s Local and Private Committee. The deadline to do so for a revenue bill, one that would raise a tax, is March 20.

Overall, nine of 12 bills authored by Denton and state Rep. Alex Monsour, R-Vicksburg, survived the first round of cuts to bills already in or entering committee. Friday was a deadline for action on general, non-revenue bills. The current 90-day session ends April 5.

Six of the nine are special recognition bills to honor various individuals. Included on that list is New England Patriots safety and Vicksburg native Malcolm Butler, former Warren County Chief Deputy Otha Jones and We Care Community Center founder Tommie Williams. The latter two died just before the current session.

Two of Monsour’s bills still alive are efforts to fund river barge training at Hinds Community College and raise the maximum life insurance policy for industrial life insurers to $10,000 from its current $5,000.

Four bills in the House and Senate tailored to texting while driving died either in committee on the House calendar, including House Bill 41, which Denton wrote. Texting and driving is already banned in 44 states, though Mississippi is among four that bans it only for novice drivers.

In the Senate, a bill authored by state Sen. Briggs Hopson III, R-Vicksburg, would exempt newly licensed doctors and other medical fields of work from state income taxes if they work in areas deemed a critical physician shortage area by the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Those areas are defined as having no more than one doctor per 5,000 residents. The legislation, Senate Bill 2462, is before the Senate Finance Committee.

Seven other bills Hopson authored made it to committee, including one that furthers efforts to redraw the state’s circuit and chancery court districts according to 2010 census results. Two are recognition bills; one honors Butler’s Super Bowl heroics and another recognizes W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home as the state’s oldest African American-owned business.

Eighteen of 26 bills Hopson filed so far this session died in committee. One, Senate Bill 2173, would have extended the probationary period for newly-hired school district employees. Another, Senate Bill 2805, would have required photo ID be shown at unemployment offices around the state when claims are made for benefits.