Governor Haley Barbour’s Monday night visit drew a standing roomonly crowd to the State Room to hear him discuss his pastleadership and his priorities for the current legislativesession.

“We’re going to have some serious issues to deal with thisLegislative session,” Barbour said during his opening remarks.

The governor said his goals for this session were the same asthose he set during the campaign for his first term – to continueto end lawsuit abuse, realign the state economic developmentincentives, no tax increases and to provide more and better payingjobs for Mississippians.

Foremost, Barbour said, the state must protect its “Rainy Day”fund. The governor said the fund had been whittled to nearlynothing under the previous administration and through the effortsof this administration will have grown to approximately $220million by the end of this year.

He urged public and government leaders present to protect thatmoney as an emergency contingency fund and not to make the samemistakes as in the past, when it was tapped to fund programs. Evenat the current level, he said, the fund is woefully inadequate.

“We’re talking about having a Rainy Day Fund that holds lessthan the government spends in a month,” Barbour said.

The governor touted his success in funding education. During hisadministration, he said, education funding has been increased bymore than $480 million.

“This is the largest increase that has ever occurred in fouryears,” Barbour said.

Spending at K-12 levels alone has increased by approximately$323 million, or 19 percent, in the past three years, he said. Inthe same time period, funding at institutions of higher learninghas increased by 28 percent and work force and job training programfunds have doubled.

In addition, Barbour said, teachers’ salaries have increased by30 percent over the past six years.

However, the governor also stressed that “the test of apolitician is not how much money he’s willing to spend,” but whatgets done with it. Mississippi still has a long way to go, despitevast improvement on national standardized aptitude tests, hesaid.

“We can’t delude ourselves into thinking our (state test) scoresare better than they are,” Barbour said. “Our kids scores stillrank well behind the national average.”

The state’s economy is showing significant signs of a risingvitality, the governor said. In the four years before he tookoffice, he said the state had lost a net of 38,300 jobs and spentitself into a $720 million budget hole.

In the past three years, he said, 35,000 more Mississippianshave found jobs than were employed before he took office. He addedthe increase occurred despite devastation wrought by HurricaneKatrina, when 70,000 people lost jobs overnight. The state was ableto return to pre-Katrina employment levels within six months.

In addition, the governor said Mississippi is not last in percapita personal income for the first time since 1929.

The success of the economy is precisely why he doesn’t believetax increases are necessary, Barbour said.

“State revenue will have increased more than 35 percent. I doubtyou can say that for most businesses,” he said.

The state has to be careful, however, because the post-Katrinatax surge created by people buying back items that were lost muststop sometime. Mississippi must be prepared for the sudden drop inincome, the governor said.

The uncertainty of when that will occur, and to what level itwill drop, means the state should be wary of instituting sweepingchanges to the tax code.

“We need to figure out what’s normal – and nobody is thatsmart,” Barbour said. “So, we have to be cautious.”

Caution is precisely why the governor said he is opposed to theproposed tax hike on cigarettes and the elimination of the grocerytax when asked of his view later.

“We don’t need it from a revenue point of view,” he said. “Ihope, if I get elected, in a couple of years we can have a tax cut.But I am not going to propose a tax cut or swap without knowingwhat the outcome will be. Now is not the time to be monkeyingaround with our taxes.”

Aside from fiscal responsibility and education, the governorsaid he is also recommending stronger sentences for crimescommitted with a firearm. He is urging lawmakers to approve a billthat would make mandatory sentences for felonies committed with afirearm and triple the time spent in prison, and lengthen themandatory sentence for a felon found to be in possession of afirearm.

“We can do this without having an adverse effect on citizens,”Barbour said. “It’s not gun control. It’s criminal control.”

He also urged lawmakers to approve 50 new agents for the Bureauof Narcotics at a cost of $5 million.