7/28/2019 Rankin County Supervisors letter to Bryant on HB
1584
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2 1 1 E.Government St., Suite ABrandon, Mississippi 39042
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS"Government of the People"
Telephone: (601 ) 82 5- 14 75Fax: (601) 825-960 0
March 25,201 3Hon. Phil Bryant, GovernorState of
MississippiOffice of the GovernorJackson, M S 3 920 1
Re: House Bill 1584Dear G overnor Bryant:
We write as a unified Board of Sup ervisors for Rankin C ounty,
Mississippi, to express ouropposition to a portion of House Bill 15
84 that has been d elivered to you for signature. We
askrespectfully that you veto House Bill 1584.House Bill 1584 was
introduced by elected representatives of Rankin County in part
toprovide additional powers to the Board of Directors of the Pearl
River V alley Water Supply Districtto provide additional services
to residents of the District. In addition, there was introduced
thefollowing language at Section 2, Paragraph 4 of HB 1584 (lines
342 through 347 of the proposedlegislation):
The funds generated from fines paid for traffic tickets,
citations, oraffidavits issued by reservoir police officers shall
be rem itted to thedistrict by the county that collects the fines.
Th e collecting agencymay retain two percent (2%) of the am ount of
the fines to cover thecost of collection and rem ission to the
district.This portion of HB 1584 forces Rankin County to remit to
PRVWSD 98% of "funds fromfines" generated as a result of Reservoir
Patrol activity on PRV WS D property. The remaining 2%retained by
the county must then be used to defray the cost to Rankin County
for handling theunderlying prosecution of the offense that
necessitated the citation and remitting the fun ds fiom finesto
PRVW SD. This portion of HB 1584 creates a significant hardship for
Rankin County (and theother counties composing the district)
because it fails to recognize the actual cost of servicesprovided
by Rankin C ounty in prosecuting the PRVW SD citations through the
Justice Cou rt system.
7/28/2019 Rankin County Supervisors letter to Bryant on HB
1584
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Hon. Phil Bryant, GovernorMarch 25 ,2 0 13Page Two
Presently, citations issued by the reservoir patrol are prosecu
ted by the Ran kin Cou nty JusticeCourt system. PR VW SD has no
justice court system of its own. It has no courthouse, no
prosecutor,and no jail. These necessary and expens ive services are
provided by Rankin Cou nty to residents ofPRV WS D as any other
county residents. The fund s from fines associated with reservoir
patroltraffic citations are currently used by Ran kin Co unty to
defray the cost of providing these essen tialfunctions to PRV WS D
residents. Th e application of Section 2, Paragraph 4 of HB 1584
will resultin an unequal distribution of the cost of these services
to other residents of Rank in County.
Further, unlike m unicipalities in Rankin Co unty, PRV W SD is
not charged a fee for housingits offenders in the Rankin County
Jail. PR VW SD is not charged w hen o ne of its prisoners
requiresmedical attention while in the custody ofthe Rank in County
Sh eriff. HB 1584 will allow PRVWSDto be treated as if it is a mu
nicipality (at least in part), but the legislation do es not
require PRV WSDto account for the expenses norm ally attributable
to a municipality in the manner of prosecutingtraffic and other
citations within the county court system.
Lastly, we believe HB 1584 creates for Rankin Coun ty (and the
other counties in whichPRV WS D o wns or controls property) an
unfunded mandate by the legislature. In an effort to providefunding
mechanisms for PRVWSD, the legislature is burdening Rankin County
tax payers byrequiring Rankin County to continue providing a court
system for handling PRV WS D traffic andother offenses, but
diverting the resources to fund that court system to PRVW SD. It
must also benoted that PRV WS D is an agency of the State of
Mississippi. It seems to us that as an agency of theState of
Mississippi the appropriate manner to deal with inadequate funding
for the PR VW SD isthrough an appropriation of funds from the
legislature of the State of Mississippi. We can think ofno other
agency of the State of M ississippi that legitimately expects its
funding to be generated fromunfunded mandates burdening a county
within which the state agency operates. For these reasons,we
believe HB 1584 creates a n unfair situation for Rankin Co unty and
w e are asking you to preventthe legislation from taking effect
until Section 2, Paragraph 4 of HB 1584 may be amended
orremoved.
We very much appreciate your consideration of this request and
we would request anopportunity to meet with you personally before
you cho ose to sign the Bill into law.Sincerely,RANKIN COUNTY BQARD
OF SUPERVISORS
-W OO D BROWIV, DISTR ICT 2cc: Rankin County Adm inistrator
