MDP January 18, 2006

SEND RESPONSES TO SAM HALL ATSAM.HALL@MSDEMOCRATS.NET****

PRESS CLIPPINGS: Wednesday, January 18, 2006

1. Can you believe there is shock over the fact that the coast still has along way to go? It shows you exactly how out-of-touch Congress is with whatis going on in Mississippi and Louisiana. It also shows exactly how poor ofa job Gov. Barbour has done in relaying to his Republican cronies theentirety of the disaster that is Katrina.

Coast progress disappoints - The Clarion Ledger:http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060118/NEWS0110/601180355GULFPORT

Members of a U.S. Senate committee said Tuesday they weresurprised to see so much debris still covering Mississippi's Gulf Coast morethan four months after Hurricane Katrina wiped out 65,000 houses and 2,000businesses.Senators of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee flewover the Coast with Mississippi first lady Marsha Barbour and spent a fewhours in Gulfport to listen to testimony from federal, state and localofficials about recovery delays and the needs they face. Afterward, theytraveled to New Orleans to tour the city and listen to witness testimony.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Connecticut, said he and committee chairwoman SusanCollins, R-Maine, first toured the devastated Coast a few weeks after thestorm. He said the mountains of debris he saw Tuesday took him aback.

2. How dare Mike Moore try to do something like curb teen smoking andprotect the nation's most successful smoking cessation program from beingkilled by a former tobacco-lobbyist-turned-governor. Such arrogance MikeMoore has to do something that would make our state a healthier place tolive. Doesn't he know he can make millions on top of millions of dollars byworking for Big Tobacco, becoming governor and then threatening to veto suchheinous legislation like the bill that would raise the cigarette tax whileending the grocery tax? Really, now, Mr. Moore. If you continue yourcrusade, the people of Mississippi might actually expect more out of ourstate leaders. We wouldn't want that, would we?

Partnership funding bills seek to end political feud The Clarion-Ledger: http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060118/NEWS010504/601180351/1001

Bills awaiting debate in the Mississippi Legislature are designed to diffusea political battle over state funding for anti-smoking programs, formerAttorney General Mike Moore says.House Bill 1115 and Senate Bill 2760 say legislators ‹ not a judge ‹ woulddirect $20 million a year to a private, nonprofit group called ThePartnership for a Healthy Mississippi.Moore, chairman of the Partnership's board of directors, said he askedlawmakers to make the change."In an overarching effort to try to end the controversy that has continuedfor years and years about how the Partnership money is appropriated and toget the talk radio silent and to get all the politics and nuisances out ofthis successful program, we are going to attempt to make sure that the moneyis appropriated by the Legislature to the Partnership," Moore said Tuesday.

3. I don't think he listened...Tax swap - The Clarion-Ledger: http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060118/OPINION01/601180317/0/OPINION

Gov. Haley Barbour shouldn't foist his personal political will upon thepeople of Mississippi by vetoing the Legislature's tobacco tax hike andgrocery sales tax elimination.The tax swap serves the people by hiking the cigarette tax to nationallevels while phasing out the state's sales tax on food.Cutting the tax on food puts about $250 per year in the pockets of a familyof four that spends about $300 a month on groceries. The tobacco tax wouldraise Mississippi's 18-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes to 75 cents a packJuly 1, then to $1 a pack on July 1, 2007. The national average tobacco taxis 92 cents per pack.

4. He voted for the bill before he voted against it. But not a damned thinghas changed in the bill. Perhaps Sen. Chaney just wanted to protect his seaton the state plane.Oh. And don't believe the hogwash about fully funding education. Chaneywouldn't support that either, because his political guru ­ that would beGov. Barbour ­ is not in favor of doing so.

Key senator changes mind on tax bill - djournal.com:
http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=210804&pub=1&div=News

JACKSON - Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, said late Tuesday he would vote touphold Gov. Haley Barbour's expected veto of legislation that phases out thetax on groceries.Barbour will hold a 6 p.m. news conference today to announce whether he willsign or veto the legislation. Legislators said they were confident thatBarbour would veto the bill.On Tuesday, various legislators said the governor was working hard to flipthe votes needed to sustain a pending veto of the legislation, which passedboth the House and the Senate with more than the two-thirds majority neededto override a gubernatorial veto.Chaney, a Tupelo native, said he ischanging his vote "because you cannot have the largest tax cut in statehistory and at the same time be a proponent of fully funding education."

--Sam R. HallCommunications DirectorMississippi Democratic Party--Office: (601) 969-2913Cell: (601) 832-8909Fax: (601) 354-1599--www.msdemocrats.net/home.htmBLOG: www.msdemocrats.net/blog.htm--sam.hall@msdemocrats.net