The 2006 Legislative session was a good and productive one forthe Lincoln County area, local lawmakers said, but they expressedstrong disappointment over lawmakers’ failure to pass a grocery taxreduction and cigarette tax increase bill.

District 92 Rep. Dr. Jim Barnett said the Legislature managed tocreate a balanced budget that funded a lot more than expected.

“We did better than I thought we would,” he said.

For Lincoln County, Barnett cited a $325,000 increase in thebudget for the Mississippi School of the Arts as one of the localbenefits.

Another positive for the local area, lawmakers said, was thepassage of a bill to fully fund the operational costs of sevenmental health crisis centers in the state, including one inBrookhaven.

Six of the centers have been built. Land purchased several yearsago for the Brookhaven facility will begin seeing some activitysoon as the site in preparation for construction, Barnett said.

“They should be letting bids on that in the next few days,” hesaid.

District 53 Rep. Bobby Moak said the waiting is over.

“It’s been waiting quite a while,” he said. “It will be reallygood for our area.”

District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith also cited a bill raisingstate employees’ pay by $1,500, in addition to some realignmentswhich gave more substantial increases, as another positive of thesession.

“It was a very productive session, and turned out very well,especially post-Katrina,” said Hyde-Smith. “We still have a lot ofKatrina issues, and we will for a long time.”

Moak agreed.

“It was unusual in that we had no lulls. It was busy every day,”he said. “I was also disappointed a lot of the Katrina issuesdidn’t make it to fruition. I really felt we should have passed thehome loan bill.”

That bill would have created a state bond program to establish apool of money that Hurricane Katrina victims could use to receiveup to $25,000 toward home reconstruction if not made fully whole byinsurance coverage, he said.

“It isn’t a lot of money when it comes to building a home, butit could really help get some people back on their feet,” Moaksaid.

Lawmakers expressed considerable disappointment in theLegislature’s failure to pass the grocery/cigarette tax bill. Themost recent bill would have cut grocery taxes in half whileincreasing the tax on cigarettes to 80 cents.

The bill was vetoed by the governor and two attempts by theSenate failed to reach enough votes for an override.

“I was disappointed the Senate didn’t override on the grocerytax bill,” Moak said.

Hyde-Smith predicted lawmakers will continue to hear about thebill after the session.

“From what I’ve heard from my constituents, the biggestdisappointment (in the session) was not being able to pass thegrocery tax cut,” she said. “I’ve heard from several constituentson that.”

Lawmakers all predicted the bill would be resurrected during thenext legislative session. And Hyde-Smith forecast a possibledifferent outcome next time.

“I think when the legislators get home and hear from theirconstituents, there may be a different vote on that,” Hyde-Smithsaid.