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Passed the House
After Chairman Watson explained the bill, a motion was made to adopt
the committee amendments. There were no dissenting votes. A motion was
made to move the previous question which meant to end debate and vote.
There were a few "no's", but no request for a roll call vote.
We are taking a roll call vote. Half way through there are two "no"
vote from Rep. Flaggs and Green both Dems Now three from Rep.
Martinson, a Rep; The vote ended with just three "no" votes and six
voting "present" or "absent". Passed 113-3
You know, the process may have taken a while, but that is the way the
legislative process works. There was compromise in which no one, not
even the governor can stuff a bill down the throats of the people's
House. And in the end a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, Blacks,
and Rural Whites got the job done to meet the important needs of this
state needs.
We are not yet done as the bill goes to the Senate.
John
John Mayo
803 West Second
Clarksdale, MS 38614
District 25
DeSoto, Tunica, Coahoma Counties
House of Representatives
Home Phone 662 624 4706
Cell Phone 662 902 8633
Finally,
The Senate Bill as amended by the House Ways and means Committee passed
without dissenting vote and little discussion from that committee and
will now be on the House floor for a vote.
The amended bill for $297 million includes $108 million for the
Governor's job package and the remainder to fund construction and
renovation projects at the universities and community colleges.
Included in the package for community colleges in my district are
Coahoma $2,429,419
Northwest $3,916,749
Ms Delta $3,011,572
All the community colleges total $50,000,000
Delta State will receive $7,680,000
MS Valley $7,750,000
The university located at Oxford (just pulling y'alls chain)
$13,250,000
All the universities together will receive $109,510,000
Also included in this bond bill is $30 million on the settlement of the
Ayers case
John
John Mayo
803 West Second
Clarksdale, MS 38614
District 25
DeSoto, Tunica, Coahoma Counties
House of Representatives
Home Phone 662 624 4706
Cell Phone 662 902 8633
We adjourned at 3:30 to 10 a.m. tomorrow.
I believe (I know I did) several people have passed onto the Speaker
that we want to vote on the Northrup Grumann bond issue. Two years ago
we made a three year commitment to provide funds for improvement of the
shipyard at Pascagoula (formerly Ingalls Ship Yard). The state owns
much of that. We also were commited to help improve their composite
materials R & D center in Gulfport. Doing both would result in 2-3,000
more jobs.
Many of us feel an obligation to that company for the commitment we
made some time ago.
However, I have found out at least partially what has been holding up
the train. In a Gulf Coast newspaper, the Governor made the remark that
he wanted to cut back on the bonded indebtness by approving only bonds
for economic development.
Doing that, of course, would eliminate bonds for universities, state
hospitals, bridge construction, community colleges, state parks, and the
like. I believe what has transpired in the last three days is an effort
to signal the executive branch that the state is not a lending or
granting institution for private business only.
Tomorrow (Thursday) should be a make or break day. If the Ways and
Means Committee will not take up the senate passed bill, or a House Bill
that covers Northrup Grumann only, we may end the session in the
afternoon.
One good note, the Senate did pass our Will Townsend resolution. That
has been the only issue we have agreed upon in the last three days.
John
John Mayo
803 West Second
Clarksdale, MS 38614
District 25
DeSoto, Tunica, Coahoma Counties
House of Representatives
Home Phone 662 624 4706
Cell Phone 662 902 8633
Developments
Yesterday evening the Ways and Means Committee met and did not take up
a senate passed bill.
They met again this morning and promptly adjourned. The whole House
meets at 10.
We are here to debate issuing about $100 million in bonds to about a
half dozen manufacturers around the state. The major one is Northrup
Grumann on the Coast.
This is a kind of condemned if you do; condemned if you don't bill.
The bill will provide jobs. The bill also requires the taxpayers to pay
for the bonds. These are not loans to the companies.
Should a bill come to the floor without a "clawback" clause in it, I
will attempt to amend the bill to put one. A "clawback" clause means
the companies in return for taking our money have to commit to a certain
level of employment. We did the same thing with Nissan. Would a bank
do any less?
John
John Mayo
803 West Second
Clarksdale, MS 38614
District 25
DeSoto, Tunica, Coahoma Counties
House of Representatives
Home Phone 662 624 4706
Cell Phone 662 902 8633
Chuck Espy and I introduced a House Concurrent Resolution to honor
Will Townsend for his heroism and death in the fire at Ole Miss.
You can find it at this location:
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/20043E/html/HC/HC0001IN.htm
In a motion made by the Speaker, all the members of the House were
added as co-authors.
We met at 4 and adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow. We will probably
finish up sometime tomorrow afternoon.
John
John Mayo
803 West Second
Clarksdale, MS 38614
District 25
DeSoto, Tunica, Coahoma Counties
House of Representatives
Home Phone 662 624 4706
Cell Phone 662 902 8633
Special Session and Movie reviews
It's about 10:30 and we begin the special session at 1:00 p.m. The
purpose is to issue about $100 million in bonds (borrowed state,
taxpayer backed monies) to about a half dozen companies scattered
throughout the state.
Many of us are really in a quandry about voting for or against these.
During the session the governor told us that we had to live within our
means and therefore recommended we cut a lot of services. Now we are
being asked to borrow money to give to manufacturers to allow them to
expand. Eventually we will either have to raise taxes to pay for this
or cut services. I imagine, or at least I would hope that there is a
provision in the bill to require these borrowers to employ so many new
people and pay the state back. Will just have to wait to see what the
bill says.
Pasted here are some movie reviews of films Agnes and I saw this
summer. They are also at this site http://www.johnmayo.com/movie.htm Of
all the movies we saw "Ray" and "Ladder 49" were absolutely must sees.
"Friday Night :Lights" was a bust for us.
Ray
This is a twofer and buy do not rent when the DVD comes out. Drop what
you are doing, take your teenaged kids, your neighbors, your friends,
and your enemies and go see this movie. There is some language, and
there is drug use and redemption. The talk about Jamie Foxx and Academy
Award is no hype. He is good. The music will rock you. The acting
from all the characters is strong. The story about how a boy went
blind, never let anyone take advantage of him, and never took advantage
of his blindness will cause you to applaud at the end of the movie.which
is exactly what happened at the theater we attended in Southaven. Miss
this one and you miss the best biopic story of a great singer and a man
on a mission.
The movie goes from Ray Charles about seven to the year he kicked
heroin out of his life, some 40 years ago.
Ladder 49
Absolutely one of the best endings of personal courage in a movie I
have ever seen. This movie starring John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix
is set in Baltimore (although a native of Baltimore, I had a tough time
recognizing some of the sites). There are some great special effects of
fires and engines racing through the city. There are firemen rushing
into buildings. Yet, this story of courage is not realized until the
final minutes of the movie.
This is still in some of the second run movie houses and I would see it
on the big screen to do justice to the special effects. But even at
home, the message of real courage comes through in the end. Even Agnes
cried at the end in this man's kind of movie.
Friday Night Lights
After all the trailer hype, what a huge disappointment this movie was
for Agnes and me. If you like hard hitting football, this movie does
not disappoint. But, if you believed the hype of "better than "Remember
the Titans", the movie fell far short. I mean like a bullet coming out
of a barrel with no powder behind it.
Unlike the characters in "Remember" like the coaches and a few other
players, there is not a single player in "Lights" your heart goes out
to. The movie is set in a west Texas town where Friday night takes no
back seat to Sunday morning. Based on a true story, the movie follows
the team to the state championship. The coach plays an injured star and
ruins his (player's) career. You witness a lot of pounding. Maybe
there's too much time devoted to the game and not enough to character
connections.
Van Helsing
Agnes was disappointed because she is in to that "fright stuff". I
liked it because it was humorous, campy, and the vampires looked pretty
good when they were not vampires. I would class this as a "James Bond
goes monster fantasy" movie. It's entertaining, has great effects, adds
little to the genre of classic "monster" movies, but certainly doesn't
hurt it either.
Garfield
I stopped reading the comic strip a long time ago. I just tired of
reading about a fat, self centered, smart mouth cat who just happened to
be above my favorite comic strip "Crankcase". The movie is about the
same fat, self-centered, smart mouthed cat. But, it is cute. The best
character in the movie was Opie. He didn't have anything to say, as far
as I could tell was a "live" character, and could stand up and dance
pretty well. If you have nothing else to do and feel like watching a
lame movie, I'd rent this one. It's ok.
John Mayo
803 West Second
Clarksdale, MS 38614
District 25
DeSoto, Tunica, Coahoma Counties
House of Representatives
Home Phone 662 624 4706
Cell Phone 662 902 8633
Rumors and the Threat of Rumors
I am in Jackson. I am a member of an Education Task Force to review
the qualifications of school principals. More than anyone else,
principals are responsible for the success of schools. You can have
great teachers, but if the school leader is less than bright, the
children will be cheated.
A good principal can turn average teachers into high performing ones
and ruin good ones.
Rumors...
As I was setting up to send this email, technicians who are renovating
our voting system in the House said they were told to have everything
cleaned by Monday for a special session that starts that day. Just
then, the House Clerk came in to test the audio system, and now the
Capitol historian stopped by to see if the technicians heard "the
rumor".
The session, if it happens will be on bond bills for a couple of state
industries....Northhrup Grumann on the Coast and probably Viking Range
in Greenwood.
Other members have filtered into the Chamber and additional talk is
that our Clerk is trying to get it another day besides Monday.
Taxes...
Because I talk about taxes, please don't assume that I desire to raise
them just to raise them. However, when I ran I said I would support tax
increase if the state passed along the costs of education to local
governments, and if some crritical health care programs were cut.
To refresh what diferent taxes bring in, I still have at my site last
session's tax proposal at http://www.johnmayo.com/proposal.htm and also
how much money taxes accounted for in FY '03 at
http://www.johnmayo.com/themoney.htm.
Have a good day, and if the rumors are true...I'll write again Monday.
John
P.S. I look forward to Veteran's Day at Walls Elementary School, a
level 5 school in DeSoto County and one with both a great principal and
great teachers.
John Mayo
803 West Second
Clarksdale, MS 38614
District 25
DeSoto, Tunica, Coahoma Counties
House of Representatives
Home Phone 662 624 4706
Cell Phone 662 902 8633
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