We are getting close to the half way mark of the 2020 session of the Mississippi Legislature. The filing of general bills deadline has passed and committee meetings are in full force. It is a much busier time for me as I now chair the Business and Financial Institution Committee and I have spent much time going over bills assigned to my committee and determining what bills to bring out and what bills to let die in committee.
One of those bills that I will be bringing out of committee this week is Senate Bill 2854, of which I am the author, that authorizes the Department of Revenue to revise the individual income tax forms to allow designation of two bank accounts for direct deposit on receiving your state refund. This is just a mechanism hopefully to get people to put money into some sort of savings account or savings plan. Oftentimes once that money gets deposited into one’s checking account it doesn’t take long to spend it and doing this hopefully will encourage someone to put some back for savings purposes.
Another bill which I would like to mention that actually didn’t get referred to my committee but probably should have is Senate Bill 2202 The Elders Abuse Bill. I am also the author of this bill, which provides protection for elders. If someone over 65 years old is the only one on an account and people in the bank know this person well and have really good reason to believe that this person is getting exploited or scammed, the bank can if they choose put a hold on that transaction for 15 days and contact law enforcement to help in the matter. We see this happen way too often in our workplaces today and too many times there is nothing we can do to help and feel absolutely helpless in the matter. At least with this bill, this can buy some time to save the money for the owner of the funds and hopefully stop an exploitation from taking place.
I am the author of Senate Bill 2187, which is the Certificate of Foreign Birth Bill. Right now parents from Mississippi who go overseas to adopt babies from other countries go through a long, brutal, expensive process. Now, I understand that a lot is needed in our crazy world we live in but the problem lies when they get back home to Mississippi. To get a birth certificate from the State they have to go through another round of practically the same process and info. Another round of attorney expenses. Another round of the same paper work. Another round of drawn out time lost. This bill does exactly what they do in Alabama which says the adoptive parents can go through the State Registrar to get a Certificate of Foreign Birth without judicial proceedings as long as you have done everything you were supposed to do.
As always, it my honor to serve you in the State Legislature as your State Senator. Please contact me anytime in I can be of assistance. God Bless!!
