JACKSON — Gov. Haley Barbour has vetoed parts of Mississippi’s overall $6 billion budget, including two provisions in a bill dealing with overtime pay for state troopers.
Barbour said he doesn’t want to restrict the efficient management of the Department of Public Safety by mandating the way overtime and compensatory time are handled.
Barbour vetoed parts of several other budget bills lawmakers passed during a three-day special session that ended at midnight Tuesday. The new state fiscal year began Wednesday.
He struck down provisions in two bills that would pay for special legislative sessions by taking $500,000 from the sale of NASCAR vanity license plates. The money usually funds repairs at the Capitol, the Governor’s Mansion and the War Memorial Building.
He vetoed plans to take money from state reserves to give $7 million to community mental health centers and $100,000 to the Mississippi Technology Alliance.
Barbour said that early in the budget-writing process, he and top lawmakers had agreed to take no more than $95 million from the state’s rainy day fund, about one-fourth of the fund’s balance. He said the $7.1 million went beyond that agreement.
The governor also vetoed a plan to take $2 million from the Department of Finance and Administration to give to the Gaming Commission.
Because legislators are not in session, it was not immediately clear when they would get to consider trying to override Barbour’s veto. Doing so would take a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate. Barbour is in his sixth year as governor, and lawmakers have not yet overridden one of his vetoes.
The bills are Senate Bill 2041, House Bills 45 and 58 and Senate Bills 2046, 2048 and 2047.
State News
Barbour vetoes proposed OT changes for troopers
- State News
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- Miss. high court hears arguments over pardons Feuding attorneys asked the Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday to determine the validity of pardons that Haley Barbour gave to convicted killers and other convicts during his final days as governor. Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. said the court would not rule Thursday, but he didn’t say when a decision would come.
- Senate votes to merge 3 Sunflower school districts The Mississippi Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would merge Sunflower County’s three school districts into one, easing into the politically sensitive topic of consolidation by focusing on a single area in the impoverished Delta.
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Kansas, Missouri fight to keep Marine data center
Kansas and Missouri officials are working together to fend off New Orleans’ effort to lure a Marine Corps data center and its 400 high-paying jobs away from Kansas City.
The congressional delegations and governors from both states have written to Marine Corps Commandant James F. Amos, arguing to keep the center where it is. -
Judge temporarily blocks Mississippi execution
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the execution of a Mississippi inmate who killed two men during a robbery spree in 1995. The man’s attorneys asked for the order, not arguing guilt or innocence, but that corrections officials prevented Edwin Hart Turner from getting medical tests that could prove he is mentally ill.
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New rules, tests proposed for public aid in Miss.
People who receive public assistance would be subject to random testing for drugs or nicotine and would have to perform community service under new requirements being considered by Mississippi lawmakers.
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Home strengthening may lower insurance
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said he is working with legislators on a bill that would require insurers to offer discounts to homeowners who have strengthened homes against wind damage.
State officials told the Sun Herald that they hope the reinforcement of roofing, doors, windows and other components also will qualify homeowners for insurance discounts, although there are no guarantees. -
Inmate asks courts to stop execution
Condemned inmate Edwin Hart Turner’s lawyer told a federal judge Friday that a corrections policy prevented Turner from getting tests that could prove he’s mentally ill and ineligible for execution.
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Pardoned killer to fight return to Mississippi
A convicted murderer who left Mississippi after being pardoned by former Gov. Haley Barbour seems poised to fight attempts to force him to return from Wyoming. Joseph Ozment’s attorney, Robert Moxley, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he will defend Ozment’s freedom if he decides to try to stay in Wyoming.
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Universities say financial aid fund running short
Recipients of state scholarships could see their aid packages trimmed unless the Mississippi Legislature puts more money into financial aid. That includes the more than 20,000 students who receive the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant.
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Bad info infuriated kin of pardoned man’s victims
In another twist in the often confusing aftermath of pardons granted by former Gov. Haley Barbour on his way out of office, Mississippi corrections officials said Tuesday that victims’ relatives were given bad information by the state that fanned their outrage.
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