Education and Medicaid at top of Cory Wilson’s list for 2018 legislative agenda
HOUSE DISTRICT 73 Rep. Cory Wilson has big plans in store for the 2018 legislative session.
Among Wilson’s top priorities are education funding, student testing, a more effective legislature and more efficient Medicaid.
Last year, Wilson was successful in passing the ABLE Act, campaign finance reform, and more government transparency and efficiency.
“I was so pleased to see (the ABLE Act) signed by the governor,” Wilson said. “Once that program is set up in Mississippi, it will provide Mississippians with disabilities and their families a real way to save more of their own money and lead better lives. I’m real proud to have worked with Sen. Kevin Blackwell to lead (the bill) through.”
Campaign finance reform was another accomplishment that Wilson worked on during the 2017 legislative session.
“The elections process will be more accountable, and campaign funds will be used only on campaigns and expenditures related to holding office. A lot of what we did was fairly common sense.”
The new law provides that campaign funds can’t be spent on personal expenditures, and candidates can’t take those account funds with them when they leave office.
“They can donate that money to a charity of their choice, return it to the donors or put it into another campaign. It’s a big step toward making the campaign process more transparent and more accountable.”
The changes will take effect January 1 and will cover money raised beginning on that date.
“Going forward, we’ll have a stronger set of campaign finance laws in place for the next election.”
Other ways Wilson’s legislation increased government transparency and efficiency included occupation licensing reforms, favoring a freer economy with less government regulation.
“It’s a way to roll back regulation and make sure we do everything we can for a favorable climate for economic growth and jobs,” Wilson said. “I was pleased to work with the governor’s office and other legislators. It’s the first law of its kind in the nation.”
Another bill that Wilson helped pass last year consisted of contracting reforms.
“It’s going to lead to more transparency in government contracting and stretch taxpayer dollars to get more bang for the buck,” he said. “One of the big reforms is requiring reverse bidding in procuring commodities. State agencies will get lower prices, and we also changed and tightened the language on sole source contracting.”
Legislators also combined two different commissions to streamline the review process.
ONE OF WILSON’S big topics for the 2018 legislative session is the education funding formula.
“It was a priority last year, and we started looking at it. A lot of the recommendations are pretty solid. It’s time we updated the MAEP. It’s out of date.”
The Mississippi Adequate Education Program, MAEP, was passed by the Mississippi Legislature in 1997 and “is a law that provides a formula that is designed to ensure an adequate education for every Mississippi child — whether that child lives in a ‘wealthy’ community or a ‘poor’ one. It is designed to provide schools the resources necessary for adequate student achievement,” the msparentscampaign.org Web site states.
“We’d like to focus on students and what they need,” Wilson said. “We have one of the strongest school districts in the state. I’d like to see us cut high-performing districts lose from regulations and bureaucracy.”
Also pertaining to education, Wilson wants to focus on reducing the number of testing days students undergo in public schools.
“I would like to see us save tax dollars by reducing the days students are tested,” he said. “We require exit exams from high school, state and district assessments on performance… Some students spend almost four weeks taking state tests. There are 19 testing days for eighth grade. That’s way too much… I’d rather see them learning.”
The MAEP and excess testing days are both education issues that need reform sooner rather than later, according to Wilson.
Wilson also wants to change how the Mississippi legislature works, and this will be a recurring topic from last year.
“I’d like to see us meeting every other year instead of every year, and I’d support reducing the size of the legislature by having fewer legislators. We can look at budgeting for a two-year period and do general bills every other year. A lot of what we do every session could wait, and we’d reduce the size of the government by meeting less.”
Wilson said this will also help legislators have time to prioritize bills.
“A lot of bills are perennial and are either not necessary or could wait. A number of states meet every other year. I would like to do that… We would basically have less time to do things that we don’t need to do and could concentrate on priorities.”
Last but not least, Wilson wants to make Mississippi Medicaid more efficient and effective, as it takes a billion-dollar-slice of the state budget.
“It has to be reauthorized. It last came up four or five years ago. Last time, it was a contentious issue… Those are the big priorities. It’s a team effort, and I’m looking forward to working on it.”
