Lawmakers visit Monticello

Lazaro Aleman, ECB Publishing, Inc.

With the 2019 legislative session set to begin on March 5 and legislative committee meetings beginning as early as this week, the Jefferson County Legislative Delegation held its pre-session public hearing here on Monday evening, Dec. 3.
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The delegation, which consists of District 3 State Senator Bill Montford and District 7 House Representative Halsey Beshears, typically hold these annual hearings late in the year to learn about constituents' concerns and wants in preparation for the spring legislative sessions.
On Monday, in a gesture mildly reminiscent of former days when the Jefferson Legislative Committee would wined and dined the legislators as part of the lobbying effort – before ethics law put a stop to such practices – Jefferson County Commission Chairwoman Betsey Barfield good-naturedly and partly in jest handed Montford and Beshears a goodwill basket of satsumas and homemade jellies.
Following which, the lawmakers introduced themselves and their staffs and then refrained from further comment, other than to state that it was their purpose to listen and learn what their constituents were thinking, what their concerns were, and what their wants were.
Barfield, first to address the delegation, gave a lengthy presentation, touching on the county's two “asks” and giving updates on several planned Restore Act funded undertakings and other “bubbling projects.”
She identified the completion of the historic A-Building's restoration as the county's number one priority. Barfield said she realized that the $4.8 million that the county was requesting was “a big ask”, but said the project's importance to the community warranted it.
The county's second ask, she said, was really an endorsement of the Jefferson County Health Department's request for $437,000 to continue the much-needed renovation of the public health unit building on West Washington Street.
Barfield next provided the lawmakers with updates on the various projects being planned with the Restore Act funding resulting from the 2010 BP oil spill. These include the extension of sewer service to the Lloyd interchange and extension of broadband service to remote areas of the county.
She talked also about the latest doings of the Gulf Consortium, the 23-county organization on which she serves and that oversees the distribution of the BP oil-spill monies.
Barfield then introduced Commissioners Stephen Walker and Eugene Hall, both of whom thanked the legislators for their past efforts on behalf of the county. Walker's comments focused on the several road-improvement programs that have greatly benefited this county, and Hall asked for the legislators' help in the fostering of marijuana nurseries here to create much-needed jobs.
City Manager Steve Wingate presented the City of Monticello's wish list, which asks for more road-improvement funding to resurface city streets and $150,000 to continue the replacement of degraded mains in the city's water system. Wingate also thanked the legislators for their past efforts on the city's behalf.
Councilman Troy Avera in his turn called the city's water system antiquated and in desperate need of upgrading.
“You've done a lot for us in the past but we're asking for more,” Avera said not altogether in jest.
But his major concern, he said, was the Legislature sponsored tax reforms that continued to chip away at the city's funding base, in terms of property taxes. Avera estimated that the 2009 tax reform had caused the city to lose between $50,000 and $70,000 annually in property taxes.
“That's about 10 percent of our ad-valorem taxes,” Avera said.
And now the the recently approved Amendment 1 threatened to erode more of the city's revenue, he said.
“This tax issue is hurting us,” Avera said.
He asked that the Legislature come up with a method to reimburse cities for lost tax revenues, the same as legislators had done for counties.
Lastly, Avera asked for larger and more frequent road-improvement grants and development of DSL capabilities for small cities.
“Monticello needs high-speed internet development,” Avera said. “It's an economic development issue for us.”
Clerk of Court Kirk Reams, newly-reinstated after a year of suspension, received a warm welcome from the legislators. Reams said he was trying to get back to speed on the issues after his long absence.
He asked that the lawmakers help the county continue to receive the road-improvement grants and also a grant for expansion of the sewer system to Lloyd and beyond. He also suggested some funding sources that the county might be able to tap into to move the A-Building restoration project along.
Others of those who addressed the delegation included:
* School Superintendent Marianne Arbulu, who had no specific request, other than to ask the legislators to take a long-term and balanced look at the education bill when it came up before them.
As for the local district, “We continue to be in the petri-dish and under scrutiny,” Arbulu said.
* School Board Chairwoman Shirley Washington invited the legislators to attend a School Board meeting so that they, in her words, could see how professionally and properly the board conducted its affairs, notwithstanding the representation in some quarters of the community.
“Sometimes, you receive information from one side and not the other,” Washington said, adding that much of the batching of the school board came from audience members who didn't get their way with the board.
Washington also claimed not to be a politician, which elicited the only comment from Beshears. The latter noted that Washington hadn't gotten elected as many times as she had without being a politician.
“We're all politicians,” Beshears said. And part of the job, he said, was taking the good along with the bad.
* Bobbi Golden, a self-described corporate dropout turned farmer, encouraged the lawmakers to approve the use of hemp, which she said had hundreds of industrial uses other than as a drug and would give agriculture a boost.
She got no opposition from the legislators.
“We're on the verge of it being a valuable crop,” Montford said.
* Paul Henry, a conservative-minded individual who distrusts big government, spoke on several issues of importance to him, which he represented as recycled proposals. These dealt with imposing stiffer sentences on convicted felons found in possession of weapons; creating a statewide voter identification card, as opposed to using driver's license for that purpose; and doing away with state funding for road landscaping projects and instead using such funding for road pavings.