Under the dome
By Staff
May 16, 2004
Mississippi lawmakers might as well get used to working under the outspread wings of the golden Eagle atop the gleaming white dome of the state Capitol because they're going back to Jackson.
Starting Wednesday, Gov. Haley Barbour, as promised, summoned legislators to a special session dealing with civil justice reform and voter identification.
In the governor's judgment both issues are important and neither was handled effectively in the session just ended. So, taxpayers will spend more money to pay lawmakers who will be away from their regular jobs for a while longer.
Is it worth it?
Yes, if the Legislature and governor can come to some agreements on the contentious issues of tort reform and voter ID.
Voter ID should be an easy one: just require people who go to the polls to produce some kind of photo ID. Stops dead people from voting, restores integrity to the electoral process, adheres to the one-man, one-vote principle. What could be wrong with that?
Civil justice reform, again, pits the powerful trial lawyers' lobby against powerful business interests. We think legislators ought to adopt a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages and then come home, shorten the special session, save money and restore integrity to Mississippi's business climate.
