Recap of the First Extraordinary Session of 2006

The “Special” session called by Haley Barbour earlier this month, principally to ensure tax incentives for the River Bend project in DeSoto County lasted only a few short days in comparison to some of Mississippi’s previous special sessions. See House Bill 25 for the bill’s language. The River Bend project is a project that has thoroughly been discussed in the local news. For more information on the project and its passage see the Commerical Appeal, Daily Journal, & Clarion Ledger.This project seems to be following a similar path of tax incentives as projects such as Nissan and SteelCorr.

However, River Bend is not the only project the Legislature addressed. Other bills also appear to have passed both houses. They include: Senate Bill 2005: an appropriation to renovate a portion of the Sillers building in downtown Jackson; Senate Bill 2010: creating special assessment areas and allowing for bonding and taxing with regards to a Byram/Clinton corridor; House Bill 1: allowing bonds to be issued for expanding the Magee General Hospital; House Bill 5: which provides grants for local governments on the Gulf Coast; House Bill 14: expanding the bonding authority for Gulfport’s Memorial Hospital. Many of these bills appear to be ready to be addressed by the governor but the Legislature’s website does not currently indicate they have been enrolled and signed to be sent to the Governor. I will research this further and post an update on this point in the comments when I find out more information.

Other bills did not get passed in this extra session. Key among these bills was Senate Bill 2003 that would reduce the sales tax on modular home units. The lack of passage for this bill is, however, rumored to be the basis for another special session.

Meth Offender Registry ???

The topic of a meth offender registry has once again surfaced in a recent Slate article, found here. According to the article at least 3 states: Tennessee, Illinois and Minnesota have already passed laws to create these registries and I would not be shocked if Mississippi were soon to follow. For a look at Tennessee’s registry click here.

I project this future registry based upon a couple of facts, 1. next year is an election year and being tough on crime is often seen as a good thing for a candidate, 2. people are obsessively scared of meth, like it is some sort of super drug (the article makes some good points about this), and want to punish it more than other illegal drugs, and 3. the Legislature has already shown a propensity to go after the Meth “element” so this would not be a first go around for legislators to think about these issues. For a most recent bill see Senate Bill 2511 of the 2006 Session.

There are two issues I am looking for with this post.

First, is to gauge public reaction to a possible meth registry, is it a good idea?, is it needed?, do you think it will work on some level?, if so how effective might it be?

Second, I am looking for people’s thoughts on registering felons in our state. Does the sex-offender registry work, if so will this registry work? Also, if we register sex offenders and meth creators/dealers why not everyone on parole or with prior convictions?