Speaker ProTem Greg Snowden: most #MAEP money was never in the state coffers to begin with

State Rep. Greg Snowden urges defeat of education funding amendment

JACKSON, Mississippi — The second-highest leader of the Mississippi House said Thursday that legislators have fulfilled their promises to improve public schools, and he urged voters to defeat an education funding proposal that will be on the ballot in November.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden, R-Meridian, said that if people don’t like the record of the Republican-led House and Senate they have an option. “Change the Legislature,” he said. “Don’t change the constitution.”

Snowden spoke to hundreds of business people who were at the Capitol for an event hosted by the state chamber of commerce, the Mississippi Economic Council….

…Since 2008, legislators have spent about $1.5 billion less on education than MAEP requires, but Snowden said it’s unfair to criticize them.

“Ladies and gentlemen, most of that money was never in the state coffers to begin with,” Snowden said, citing a shortfall in state tax collections during the Great Recession.

Gulflive
1/8/15