Last week, I was able to continue my years-long push to make sure that Mississippi rural communities, counties and cities have access to first-class fire protection. I successfully offered an amendment to House Bill 1194 to allow Boards of Supervisors to receive from the state grants up to $100,000 from the Rural Fire Truck Acquisition Program for the 2023 fiscal year. I was joined in the effort by 31 co-sponsors, a demonstration of House solidarity toward fire protection for our rural areas.
If the bill passes the Senate, it can help our rural counties and cities continue to improve fire protection. Improved fire protection for our rural areas and cities not only helps save lives and property but can also help on fire insurance rates. I believe that our firefighters who risk their lives for all of us deserve good equipment. The amended measure passed the House resoundingly and will now be considered by the Senate.
I have been contacted by a number of state retirees, or those who hope to be state retirees, who oppose House Bill 605, a bill to restructure authority over the Public Employee Retirement System. I will vote “No” on this measure if it comes before the House. We have seen similar efforts in the past that might serve to undermine the solidity of this program that has provided earned support for hundreds of thousands of Mississippians over the years. Stronger heads have always prevailed, and I trust that will be the case this time.
The PERS system supports retired teachers, road workers, police officers, university and college employees, city employees and other individuals who have granted us their time and talents to make our public services dependable, and they are worthy of our support.
I commend the PERS retirees association and others for sounding the alarm on this threat to the fund’s stability. We are certainly blessed with PERS board members who are knowledgeable and act to strengthen the program when necessary. They should remain in charge of it.
It appears that this will be another good session for public education. As the husband of a former teacher and the son of one, I am well aware of the devotion to our students, their families and our communities that our teachers demonstrate every day in the classroom. That holds true for teacher assistants as well, and I was proud to vote for a $3,000 raise for this group. House Bill 1365 passed overwhelmingly to raise teachers assistants’ pay to a total of $20,000 per year, and it further stated that no district could remove supplemental income from them because they received a raise.
In another pro-education vote, we passed House Bill 1369, which provides that schools would be paid from state funds for the number of enrolled students, not for average daily attendance. I believe this mode of payment will help in our ongoing efforts to fully fund MAEP. The pandemic pointed out the funding disparities that occur with large swaths of student absenteeism. This has hurt many North Mississippi school districts. It is only common sense that schools should be funded based on the number of enrolled students because they must provide the same services no matter how many students are in attendance.
If I can be of service to you, please call on me. My residence address is 1720 North Main, Water Valley, MS 38965, and my office address is P.O. Drawer 280, Charleston, MS 38921. My email address is tureynolds2@gmail.com.
