Ellington

The Zombie Tax
A bill increasing the cigarette tax rose from the dead Monday, as legislators in both the Mississippi House and Senate voted to suspend the deadline for a bill that would satisfy both Senate and House negotiators. The bill died March 25 in conference committee, after legislators were unable to reach a compromise on the proposed increase.

Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, offered a 60-cent increase, up from the Senate's original proposal of 49 cents, and has indicated that he would support a 64-cent hike, which would bring Mississippi's current 18-cent tax on cigarettes up to the average of its neighboring states. House negotiators have offered an 80-cent increase, down from their original figure of $1. Rep. Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg, has argued that a lower increase would cheat the state of valuable revenue and be a less effective deterrent to smoking.

Children First
On March 30, legislators passed an education bill that would give the state greater power to intervene in failing school districts. The Children First Act would allow the state Department of Education to remove elected and appointed school boards in districts that it designates as "failing" for two consecutive years. Under the act, districts would publish annual reports on their performance and finances. A previous law allowed state officials to remove superintendents from under-performing districts. The bill would also create a single Mississippi Recovery School District to consolidate the administration of all districts under the state's control.

In conference committee, the bill also picked up an unrelated stipulation that students must have a 2.0 grade point average to participate in extracurricular activities.

Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, one of the House's conferees and the chairman of the House Education Committee, hailed the bill's passage.

"It is critical that we create law and policy that allows us to step in immediately when a school district is in trouble in order to avoid the crippling set-backs that can be caused when we neglect to right the ship," Brown said in a statement. "This bill helps us accomplish that."

The bill will be transmitted to the governor to sign into law.

Better Late Than Never
Barbour approved a bill Monday that gives wrongfully convicted Mississippians a legal avenue for seeking compensation from the state. Senate Bill 3024 gives exonerees three years to file an action for being wrongfully imprisoned. Under the bill, now law, exonerees are entitled to $50,000 for every year of incarceration, up to $500,000, regardless of the number of wrongful convictions.

The compensation does not cover any time exonerees spent in jail before their indictment. The bill also requires the state to pay any attorney's fees associated with a wrongful conviction claim.