Members of the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly this week to override Gov. Haley Barbour’s veto of a bill that was seen as strengthening private property rights. However, the Senate failed to garner enough votes to override the veto. HB 803, which would have restricted governments from taking land for essentially private use to create jobs, has been an issue in the Legislature for several years. More than 40 states have laws restricting the taking of private property.

The House of Representatives’ successful bipartisan override attempt of the eminent domain proposal was seen as a victory for the state’s private property owners, and “common folks” who frequently are overlooked by special interests, one backer of the bill said. The 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Kelo vs. New London case in Connecticut made it legal for governments to take land from private landowners for the sole purpose of economic development. The nation’s high court, however, allowed the states to pass laws to prevent those occurrences, which the House was attempting to do.

“The message is the House of Representatives is overwhelmingly concerned and has reacted to what we consider to be abuse, or potential abuse, of property rights, which is one of the fundamental rights of all American citizens,” a House leader said after more than 100 voted to override the veto.

Another high-profile measure that died on the session’s 12th week was a proposal to raise cigarette taxes. This is a matter that the House of Representatives has passed many times in recent sessions, only to see it be killed in the Senate. The bill reached conference negotiation between the House and Senate this year, but an agreement on the size of the increase per-pack could not be reached. It is possible another effort could be made to raise the excise tax on cigarettes, particularly when the Legislature returns later to work on budget matters. The only way to revive the discussion is with a two-thirds vote in both chambers. Mississippi’s current cigarette excise tax is 18 cents a pack. The House proposed setting the rate at 80 cents a pack, down from two previous offers of 90 cents and $1 a pack. The Senate offered an increase of only 60 cents a pack, up from the Senate’s original position of 49 cents and first negotiating offer of 55 cents. The House position clearly was that 60-cents would not raise enough new revenue.

The action came as we made plans to delay ending the session officially due to the uncertainty surrounding the setting of a budget for FY 2010 beginning July 1. That is because of the many unanswered questions surrounding the expected $2 billion-plus that the state will receive from the federal stimulus plan. Under the present plan, we will continue work on general bill legislation in the week ahead and then reconvene on Monday, May 4 to complete the appropriations process unless there is an agreement between the House and Senate that it is not necessary.

Late last week, the 10-member Joint Legislative Budget Committee met to review the state’s tax revenue picture for both the current 2009 fiscal year and the FY 2010 fiscal year beginning July 1. The committee took action to reduce the ’09 revenue estimate downward by $222.5 million and the 2010 revenue estimate downward by $402.7 million. This was after a state economist laid out a fairly dismal economic outlook for most of the rest of this year. The expert said: “Expectations are that recovery will not begin in earnest until the second half of calendar year 2010 (16 months from now) which would be the beginning of fiscal year 2011. The national forecasting groups we use are saying the worst is yet to come.  They expect first quarter 2009 to show steeper declines in GDP growth than in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“In Mississippi we are feeling the effects of the (national economic) downturn.  Both initial and continued unemployment claims have been on an upward trend since late 2007. Job losses intensified throughout 2008 with the largest monthly decline occurring in December. For the three years from May 2000 to June 2003, Mississippi’s last recession, we lost 52,000 jobs. Over just the last 12 months, we’ve lost 30,000 jobs. Retail sales in Mississippi are declining from a year ago. Income tax withholdings, while not declining, have slowed tremendously. All of this is having an obvious impact on the General Fund.”

Gov. Barbour continued this week to sign bills passed by both houses of the Legislature, including HB 1568 banning traffic cameras — one of the most discussed bills of the session.

The public is urged to watch the House and Senate proceedings live over the Internet. Go to www.ls.state.ms.us and click on “live Web cast,” then choose House or Senate. You can reach individual members of the Legislature by calling the Capitol switchboard at 601-359-3770.

Robert Johnson is a Mississippi Representative from Natchez.