Rep. Brandon Jones reports progress on wind pool, budget

Just got this in. Maybe we won't see a government shutdown after all:


June 19, 2009 

Dear Friends,

             Moments ago, residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast got some much needed good news.  In his remarks to the Jackson press corps this afternoon, Governor Barbour announced that he has decided to add the additional $20 million Wind Pool appropriation to his budget.  As a co-sponsor of the original bill, I can tell you that this has been a long process but after months of debate, both chambers of the Legislature and now the Governor have agreed to re-up their investment in the Gulf Coast.  I have already passed along my thanks to the Governor’s office. 

            The rest of the budget picture may also be coming into focus.  After months of wrangling, some major concessions are being made and conferees report that an overall agreement could be in the offing. 

            Yesterday, conferees reported substantial agreements on the General Fund portion of the budget.  Today, those same conferees appear to be getting closer to an agreement on Medicaid.

              Despite the progress report coming out of Jackson, this is no time for victory laps.  The people of Mississippi deserve a budget yesterday and until one is delivered, there is work to be done. 

Twitter

             Yesterday, I started using the networking service Twitter to send brief real time updates of legislative business.  This will enable me to provide updates from the floor of the House and to pass along information that becomes available between the posting of my e-mail updates.  For those of you who are already using Twitter, my user name is “brandoncjones”.  If you haven’t heard of Twitter, you can check out my page at http://twitter.com/brandoncjones or by following the link on my website.