Snowden: Lawmakers failed in special session

By Staff
In my opinion, the Legislature ultimately will reinstate Medicaid benefits to the affected recipients if the governor's plan really is not going to work but he has asked for time to prove that it will work, and it is prudent to give him that time.
The Star: What was the most important piece of legislation approved in the 2004 regular legislative session?
Snowden: In my opinion, the single most important piece of legislation passed in the 2004 regular session was HB 973, the Mississippi Comprehensive Workforce Training and Education Consolidation Act of 2004.
This legislation brings together in a coordinated way our state's critically-important workforce training efforts. I am particularly excited about the vital role entrusted to our superb two-year community colleges. HB 973 is an economic development measure of potentially historic significance.
The Star: What was your biggest disappointment?
Snowden: The failure of the Legislature, once again, to enact comprehensive voter identification for all voters in all elections was my biggest disappointment. The public rightly cannot understand why lawmakers won't agree on something so fundamental and yet so simple. Unfortunately, this is but another case of partisan politics getting in the way of common sense.
The Star: What do you see as the biggest need for East Central Mississippi?
Snowden: I personally agree with Congressman Pickering that our region needs, above all, to work together for the common good. Or, perhaps more to the point, to work harder at working together.
We've got to trust each other in order to work productively with one another. Positive results depend not only upon pure motives, but also upon adequate and regular communications.
We've got to continue to blur the lines of division between us city versus county, white versus black, public versus private, etc. if we are ever going to progress toward where we want to be economically, socially, educationally, politically, spiritually and in every other worthwhile way in which we measure quality of life.
The Star: Some circuit and chancery clerks, all of whom are paid from fees their offices collect, earn close to or more than the governor. Do you support legislation planned for the 2005 Legislature to place clerks on a salary that pays less than the governor?
Snowden: With fees and salaries legislation it is usually best to reserve judgment until the actual measure is before you for consideration. Whether I would support going to a salary system would certainly depend upon the amount of the respective salaries and upon how they are to be determined.
No court clerk, regardless of experience or tenure, should earn more than the governor. In general, I agree that movement away from the fee system toward a salary system likely would be a positive development, and one that I probably would support.