Speaker Philip Gunn stripped power of rank-and-file legislators to have a say in how to appropriate state funds. Could that change?
Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton touts the accomplishments of the Republican majority House of Representatives during his address at the pavilion in Founders Square at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., Thursday, July 28, 2022.
The Clinton Republican has announced he will not seek reelection for a sixth term in the House in 2023. He will leave office as the first Republican speaker since the 1800s, as the third longest serving speaker in state history and as the guiding force of legislation in 2020 retiring the state flag that incorporated the Confederate battle emblem prominently in its design.
That rule strips away nearly all, if not all, of the power for rank-and-file legislators to have a say in carrying out their most basic function: deciding how to appropriate state funds.Success! You're on the list. On the surface, the rule seems logical and fair. After all, legislators should not be spending money the state does not have. But the rule, as it was crafted in 2012 when Gunn was first elected speaker by his colleagues, severely limits the pot of money a rank-and-file legislator can consider when making an amendment to increase funding for the Health Department, for education or for any other agency.
Interestingly, when reporters told the late Terry Brown, at the time the new Senate president pro tem, about the House plan to enact the budget rule, the Columbus Republican who had plenty of conservative bona fides flashed his mischievous smile and said the rule would not be taken up in the upper chamber. He said senators would not support a rule to severely limit their say in the process. A day later, presumably after meeting with Reeves, Brown was advocating for the amendment.
Hosemann was not lieutenant governor when the budgeting rule was enacted, and during his first term as the presiding officer he has at times displayed more of a willingness to let the members of the Senate have a say in the legislative process.