Magnolia Marketplace

The morning session of the Mississippi Economic Council’s annual A Capital Day featured the state’s education officials providing an update to attendees on, for the most part, the condition of their agencies in the middle of the Mississippi’s revenue plunge.

Superintendent of Education Dr. Tom Burnham, Higher Education Commissioner Dr. Hank Bounds and State Board of Community and Junior Colleges Executive Director Dr. Eric Clark each stressed the importance of education as a tool that can propel the state out of the national recession, and said that they would manage the budget situation the best they could.

Gov. Haley Barbour, though, provided the most substance when he took the podium at the Jackson Marriott.

As it has been for what seems like forever, Barbour’s budget forecast was grim. Fiscal year 2010’s budget will eventually be cut 8.1 percent across the board; FY2011’s budget will be cut an additional 3 to 4 percent. By the time lawmakers start the 2011 session to craft FY2012’s budget, they will have 15 percent less money than what was originally appropriated for FY2010, which started last July.

FY2010’s budget has already been cut some $226 million, but will need roughly $200 million more in cuts to balance. That’s a big reason, Barbour said, he has been pushing the Legislature to extend his authority to cut the budget from 5 percent to 10 percent.

“These cuts need to be made yesterday,” Barbour said of the additional $200 million from FY2010.

Barbour’s biggest obstacle to gaining that authority lies in the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives.

There will be disagreement within Barbour’s Republicans over the tax amnesty proposal that was included in the Joint Legislative Budget Committee’s budget recommendation. The proposal is designed to allow businesses and individuals who are delinquent on their taxes to pay them minus the penalties and interest.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant has come out strongly for the proposal, telling the Mississippi Business Journal in an extended interview in December that he sees it “as a break for small businesses.”

Barbour does not share the same view. In fact, at the Marriott this morning, the most impassioned part of his 20-minute speech came when he was slamming the amnesty proposal.

“I’m a recovering lawyer, and I know lawyers will tell their clients not to pay their taxes because they know an amnesty period will be down the road,” Barbour said. “That should not be the message we’re sending. The message should be that we will run you down and make you pay your taxes and the penalties and interest if you don’t pay them when you’re supposed to.”

That statement drew a round of applause from the 1,000 or so folks in attendance.

Barbour did say he was happy with most of the rest of the JLBC’s budget proposal, and that it dealt with real numbers and tried to achieve most of the savings he did in his executive budget plan.

Moving forward, though, the tax amnesty issue will probably — at least temporarily — drive a wedge within the Republican leadership in the Senate and Barbour. How big the wedge becomes will be one of the more interesting subplots of the session.

The Mississippi Economic Council’s annual Transformation Tour stopped in Jackson this morning at the Hilton on County Line Road.

A few hundred folks crammed into one of the hotel’s ballrooms to hear a handful of elected officials offer their take on the upcoming legislative session.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant touted the Commission for a New Mississippi’s recommendations to overhaul the state’s budgeting system. Bryant unveiled the plan Monday, and used the same arguments today as he did then.

Bryant said the state desperately needs to develop a strategic plan and tie the allocation of state funds to agencies to the components of that plan. The performance-based budgeting concept is a big part of the Commission’s goals.

“If nobody’s monitoring your level of success you’re probably not going to get much accomplished,” Bryant said. Magnolia Marketplace is writing a story for next week’s MBJ that will take a long look at the Commission’s report and try to gauge how it will play when lawmakers convene in January. Here’s a hint: Some parts of the plan stand a better chance at becoming reality than others.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann touted the new Blue Book and warned against the inclination some legislators may have for diverting 16th Section revenue from school districts to the general fund. Hosemann’s legislative agenda includes reforming the state’s LLC, trademark, tradename and uniform commercial code laws.

Institutions of Higher Learning Commissioner Dr. Hank Bounds and State Board of Community and Junior Colleges Executive Director Dr. Eric Clark both said that their respective levels of education were Mississippi’s key to properly emerging from the recession. New State Superintendent of Education Dr. Tom Burnham, who just started his second stint in that seat, echoed Bounds and Clark.

The Transformation Tour started Nov. 9 in Greenwood and will end Dec. 10 in Gulfport. In all, 12 cities across the state will host or have already hosted the event.

First-term Pearl River County District 3 Supervisor Hudson Holliday retired from the Mississippi Army National Guard in 2004 as a one-star general.

His campaign for the Republican nomination for governor is less than a week old, but he’s already bringing a military style to it. It could be summed up in three words.

Ready.

“I feel compelled to do it,” Holliday said.

Aim.

“I really do think that people are fed up with professional politicians,” he continued.

Fire.

“Phil Bryant was a deputy sheriff (before serving in the Legislature and then being appointed to the State Auditor’s office). What does he know? He’s never created the first job. He has never hired anybody. He’s never paid workman’s comp insurance on anybody. He’s never had to deal with withholdings or regulations. Now he’s been in Jackson (for several years). He’s just moved up that political ladder. What does he know about that contractor that’s out there in the mud trying to build a building? He’s never been there.”

Then Holliday reloaded.

“What in the world does Tate Reeves know about what’s going on out in the (rural areas)? He’s a bean counter. Did he ever serve in the military?”

Spokespersons for Bryant and Reeves did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Holliday’s campaign will attempt to draw a contrast between him and Bryant, the lieutenant governor who has said he will seek the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2011; and Reeves, the Republican state treasurer who has not committed one way or the other as far as 2011 goes but is thought to a strong possibility for the governor’s race.

In about a 22-minute conversation with Magnolia Marketplace this morning, Holliday touted his experience in the small business world. His background is diverse. He has owned and operated a construction company, developed subdivisions as a homebuilder, established a crop-dusting service, farmed and run a timber-cutting business.

He also served as a deputy sheriff under his brother, the former sheriff of Pearl River County.

“There’s not a whole lot that goes on in Mississippi that I don’t understand,” Holliday, 65, said. “I’ll just be honest with you, I’m tired. I’m tired of us leaving our future up to professional politicians that too often, not all of them, are more concerned about their future than they are ours. They’re just looking for the next ladder to climb instead of making hard decisions.”

Holliday said he’s mulled over the idea of running for governor for about six months. He will run as a Republican, he said, but he’s “not proud of either one of the parties. I think they’re the downfall of this country, to tell you the truth. I’m not sure a Democrat could be elected in a governor’s race.

“I believe good government suffers when good people don’t get involved. I’m going to get involved. I’m not going to sit at the house and complain about the way things are when I know I can do something about it.”

Holliday was elected to his current post last year. It was the first time he had jumped into the political arena. He realizes that name recognition and fundraising ability will be major issues against opponents who have plenty of both.

He’s depending on his time in the military to spread the word about his candidacy.

“When I was in the Guard, I had units from Southaven to Pascagoula, from West Point to Vicksburg, all those units reported to me,” Holliday said. “They know who I am. The Guard won’t elect you, but it is a seed source that I can expand to just about every community in this state. I assure you the Guard will be behind me 100 percent. That opens doors for me to come into North Mississippi.”

Magnolia Marketplace was unable to confirm Holliday’s assertion that he is the first sitting county supervisor to seek the governor’s office. He hopes his experience with the ground level of politics will gain him the support of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors.

“That’s the political leaders in every county,” he said. “The majority of supervisors are Democrat. If I could get through the Republican nomination I will pick up a lot of the Democratic supervisors. They realize that I understand the problems that they face.”

The role of governor, Holliday believes, should be built around two things: Developing a vision for the state and providing the leadership to get there. If the state were a group of folks walking through the woods in the dark, he said, the governor should be the one holding a flashlight.

“You’re destined to look where the guy that has the flashlight is shining the light. His job is to lead us out of the woods and onto the highway of prosperity.”

An antique car enthusiast, Holliday is already rebuilding a 1942 International pickup and plans to outfit it with campaign billboards in time to drive it across the state visiting coffee shops, cafes, truck stops and restaurants and community festivals.

“I’m never gonna have the money Phil Bryant and those guys are going to have,” Holliday said. “It’s going to be a battle but I think people are hungry. I’m one of us. That’s the message.”