Dearing settling back into office

Published 12:02 am Thursday, January 28, 2016

NATCHEZ — Sen. Bob Dearing is settling back into the office he held for 32 years.

Dearing, who in November narrowly won the District 37 Senate seat back from the candidate who unseated him four years ago, wasn’t sworn in until Jan. 20 because of the delay resulting from the election challenge by former Sen. Melanie Sojourner.

But since the Senate confirmed his election, that cleared the way for committee appointments, and Dearing has been appointed to three Senate committees he served on for years, a fourth for which he served as a the chairman of its predecessor committee, and several he hasn’t served on before.

Email newsletter signup

Dearing was appointed to the Appropriations, Constitution, Energy, Highways and Transportation, Judiciary A, Medicaid, Ports and Industries, Public Health and Welfare committees. He was also named vice-chairman of Public Property Committee.

“I served 20 years on the Appropriations Committee, and it is a great committee to be on, but it will be a lot of work because we have got to come up with a balanced budget before we adjourn and come home,” Dearing said.

“I’ve served 32 years on Public Health and (on) Highways, and with the Highway and Transportation committee, we have got to do something about our roads and bridges.”

The Energy Committee is a combination of the former Oil and Gas Committee, for which Dearing was the chairman for eight years, and the former Public Utilities Committee.

“Energy is going to be very important for our area because of all the oil and gas people we have in our area,” he said.

“Being on all of those committees, they have a statewide impact, not just for our area.”

Dearing has filed three pieces of legislation.

One would authorize a $6 million bond for the refurbishing and repair of the Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center. A similar measure introduced by former District 38 Sen. Kelvin Butler passed the House and Senate last year, but was cut during conference.

“The Natchez Festival of Music is 100 percent behind this bill,” Dearing said. “We will have to shepherd it and push for it, but I think we can get it through.”

The second bill would allow state retirees to serve in the Legislature and keep their state retirement provided they waive their legislative compensation and elect to receive a “retiree’s allowance” of no more than 25 percent of the retiree’s annual compensation.

Dearing said a similar measure was passed 25 years ago for a single senator, and his bill would extend it to others.

The third bill Dearing has introduced is an expression of sympathy at the death of former Circuit Court Judge Joe Pigott of McComb.

He has also co-sponsored 27 bills of commendation or mourning, including one introduced by Sen. Chris McDaniel, one of the three senators who voted against seating him.

Dearing said he has plans to introduce another bill known as the “Pet Protection Act” that would make cruelty to animals against dogs and cats a felony on the first offense. In 2011, he sponsored a bill making cruelty to cats and dogs a felony on the second offense.

When he returns to Natchez this weekend, Dearing’s supporters will host a fundraiser for him to help him pay court reporter fees and attorney fees associated with the contested election, which included a hearing before a Senate committee for which he had to hire legal representation.

“We have close to $20,000 and $25,000 in (court reporter and attorney’s ) fees when it all is said and done,” Dearing said. “We are trying to raise a portion of that. We have some good friends who are going around town and getting donations.”