8 issues set for session

The Sun Herald, 5/21/8

Gov. Haley Barbour has listed eight issues on the agenda of the special legislative session which begins today.

But Coast business leaders who favored sales tax rebates for casinos to build non-gambling-related tourist attractions are still out of luck.

The governor has sole authority to call a special session and set the agenda. He included a moratorium that would restrict casinos to counties where they already are approved, but left off incentives. For weeks during this year’s legislative session there had supposedly been a deal involving the two casino bills. Anti-gambling factions wanted to pass Senate Bill 2199, the moratorium, and in exchange they would help pass the incentives, House Bill 1196, which Rep. Diane Peranich, D-Pass Christian, sponsored.