Despite support from neighborhood leaders across Jackson, Lt. Gov. Reeves has again killed CID legislation.
Here is the text of a letter from District 25 Sen. Walter Michel discussing the bill’s outcome:
Thank you and all of the neighborhood associations for your work with this legislation.
This bill had an uphill climb due to the fact that it was “double referred”, meaning that it had to pass TWO committees in the Senate before it could be debated on the Senate floor. I had every Senator who represents Jackson on the bill with me as co-authors, and was able to get it passed out of the Local and Private Committee on February 28th. I want to thank Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay for being present at the meeting. By getting it passed in this committee in February, we had PLENTY of time to pass it on the floor and send it to the House for concurrence.
I then spoke to Finance Chairman Joey Fillingane and told him that I would like to present the bill in his committee when he brought it up. He told me that Tate Reeves had not given him permission to bring up the bill. I delivered the Neighborhood endorsement letters to both Tate Reeves and Joey Fillingane.
I scheduled a meeting with Tate Reeves and included Sen. Norwood, Sen. Blount and Sen. Horhn to discuss the bill with the Lt. Governor. He has still not given Sen. Fillingane permission to bring up the bill and, frankly, we have run out of time, as the session is scheduled to end in 1 week.
I’m sorry that it did not pass, but unfortunately one person can have the power to kill a bill…….and that’s what happened.
Senator Walter Michel
