Natchez business and community leaders were optimistic about several pet issues at the opening of this year’s session of the Mississippi Legislature, but many of those issues fell by the wayside by the time the legislative session ended last month.

Unless legislators call a special session, the handful of prioritized local goals will remain unresolved this year.

Despite the lack of passage of the state goals, however, some positive takeaways from this session exist, said Chandler Russ, Natchez Inc. executive director.

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Three of the local leaders’ top five favored state issues passed by a large majority in either the Mississippi House or the Mississippi Senate and one actually had existing legislation already in place to serve as a vehicle. As a result, the way is already partly paved to try and land some of those items on the governor’s desk in the future.

Local leaders also listed a few federal goals for this year that are still in progress, including working to get an interstate highway to pass through Natchez.

At both the state and federal level, much work remains undone, but here is a look at the top legislative issues area leaders had hoped to see passed by the Mississippi Legislature this year and where they stand to date.

No additional funds for the Natchez

Visitor Reception Center

As the only item lacking in state legislative support, the visitor center could not gain any traction in terms of additional funding.

“The reality of that is it looks like neither the House nor the Senate would take that up and that there would not be any additional funding heading in that direction,” Russ said.

The visitor center has seen funding wane in recent years, dropping from $150,000 to $100,000 in state funding because of tight budget constraints. This year, no indication of any funding at all for the visitor center has been given.

A much-discussed solution for that could be on the horizon, as the National Park Service could potentially assume ownership of the visitor center. Toward the end of last month, Natchez National Historic Park Superintendent Kathleen Bond told Natchez aldermen that she expected to learn more about the visitor center’s situation within the coming weeks.

Incentives for the movie industry dies in the Senate

Unlike funding for the Natchez Visitor Center, an attempt to reinstate an incentive to bring non-residential movie crews to Mississippi did gain some traction before it ultimately failed.

The incentive, which was nixed by legislators, effective July 1, 2017, had offered a cash rebate on 25 percent of salaries paid to non-state residents who work on movie production within Mississippi. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves spearheaded the effort to end the incentive under the belief that it was actually counterproductive and caused Mississippi taxpayer dollars to flow outside the state.

Many local stakeholders, however, believe the incentive is key to providing a boon for the industry, specifically in Natchez. Local filmmaker John Norris said that adding the incentive would bring in tens of millions of dollars in film jobs in 2018 alone.

The incentive looked to be gaining momentum in February, as the bill to reinstate the language passed the House by a vote of 89-24.

But the effort fell apart once the measure reached the Senate.

“We could not get it taken up in the Senate to get (the incentive) reinstated,” Russ said.

One member of the House who voted for the reinstatement of the incentive, Rep. Robert Johnson III, said he fully supported the incentive and thinks it could boost the economy, but also that it proved to be a contentious subject when dealing with a tight budget.

“When we’ve given away tax credits … on so many other things, it was just tough to get done,” Johnson said.

Hotel tax denied because of ‘unspoken rule’

One plan to rectify the problems of having a tight budget — at least at the local level — was to add a 1.5-percent lodging tax to accrue more revenue for both infrastructure and public safety.

Again, the House passed the measure without much ado, but the measure failed to go through the Senate.

The reason, both Russ and Johnson said, is due to an unwritten rule that the lodging taxes not exceed 10 percent.

“Right now on hotels, with the existing 7-percent state taxes … and the 3 percent that we’ve added, they were kind of at that internal cap,” Russ said.

An alternative arose that would instead add 1 percent of food and beverage taxes, which currently total 9 percent.

That tax, however, did not jibe with the goal of the lodging tax, which was to impose the tax on visitors to the city, not its residents.

In the upcoming legislative session, Russ said the city would likely lobby to remove the cap, which, again, is not an actual law on the books.

Momentum for elected school board falls by wayside

Though the possibility of shifting to an elected, rather than appointed, school board after years of contentious debate seemed realistic, the legislation to make it happen only passed in the Senate, albeit overwhelmingly, 46-6, but never came to a vote in the House.

A clear explanation for why the bill failed is still lacking, though Johnson said he believes some house members just do not have much desire to deal with the issue.

Additionally, representatives heard vocal complaints from school board officials against moving to an elective format, Johnson said.

Still, Johnson said he remains optimistic about the potential change going forward.

“I think it’s coming,” Johnson said.

Officials look to implement ACT WorkKeys assessment program

Officials initially aimed to push through legislation to receive funding so high-schoolers can take the WorkKeys test, which is part of a program that helps students prepare for a career and increase the likelihood of gaining employment.

Plans changed, however, when officials decided that existing legislation could serve as a vehicle to funding the program, and instead, their goal became to advocate for the program locally.

“There was really not a need for any other special legislation other than raising the awareness … because it’s going to continue to be vital,” Russ said. “I think we accomplished that.”

Russ said he would continue to work toward getting a funding source for the program.

The road toward I-14

In addition to these state objectives, a primary goal at the federal level has local officials excited about one day potentially having Natchez along an interstate.

While the idea as a whole would be a monumental undertaking, all officials are focused on right now is getting a congressional designation. A designation would mean that Congress actually enacts legislation that marks certain roadways to be included in the future interstate — referred to colloquially as “I-14.”

Russ said he expects that legislation will be coming soon.

“We are highly confident that it will continue to move forward with the designation,” Russ said.

Unlike the state items, the jury is still out on the designation, which is needed in order to try and catch up to the momentum Texas has established with the interstate. Texas is currently the only state with a congressional designation for I-14, and it has already opened the first small stretch of the highway in Killeen, located approximately 70 miles north of Austin.