Staff reports

Mississippi’s new voter I.D. law is unlikely to be approved by the U.S. Justice Department and will likely end up in court, state Rep. Greg Snowden said Thursday.

Snowden, speaker pro tem in the Mississippi House, was an invited speaker at the Legislative Day that was planned and hosted by Panola Partnership.

The morning-long event was held at the Batesville Civic Center and covered politics, technology and economic development.

Snowden predicted that legislative redistricting performed this year will be approved by the Justice Department while voter I.D. legislation will not.

Snowden also admitted both issues are sensitive topics and were hotly debated in the House and Senate. But he shrugged off such debate and said it was typical for political bodies, where debates typically break out over geography, race and background among other factors.

“Your allies change day to day,” said Snowden, a Republican serving his 12th year in the House.

“Your friend today is somebody you’ll disagree with tomorrow,” said Snowden. “You have to keep him a friend because you might need his help next time.”

State Sen. Steve Hale addressed the gathering before Snowden.

Standing before a room of business leaders, Hale took some time to describe legislation that aided economic development, including a state income tax credit on inventory.

The state senator also said changes were made to the state’s Workman’s Compensation program, and legislators debated changes to Mississippi’s free port tax exemption.  

Hale also said he sits on the Education Committee that made changes to conservatorship laws at the Mississippi Department of Education. He did not describe what changes were made during the most recent term. North Panola schools have been under conservatorship since 2008.

Hale, a Democrat from Senatobia, is serving his first term as state senator.

The recent redistricting changed Hale’s district to exclude Panola County, but he has said he will continue to represent the county until the new boundary lines are approved. Hale did not address the issue during his speech, except to say it was hotly debated.

Hale said more than 2,700 bills were introduced during the 120-day session and approximately 400 were signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant.

Potential industry looking at Batesville

Batesville is among three or four final potential sites for the location of a significant new industry, said Mickey Milligan of the Mississippi Development Authority during opening remarks at the Panola Partnership’s Legislative day.

Milligan and Partnership CEO Sonny Simmons had toured the site as late as Tuesday with representatives of the company, he said. Milligan touted existing industry in a community, both as the most likely source of new jobs and as a recruiting influence for new industry.

“How you take care of your existing industry is your best tool for recruiting new industry,” Milligan said.

Tennessee Valley Authority economic development specialist Jamie Kennedy said that although all projects are different, common denominators for success include making sure that a potential site has visual appeal, that it is risk-free and that any presentation makes a good case for the quantitative advantages for a site.

“They look at things quantitatively,” Kennedy said.

Social media ‘game changer’ for business

Graphic artist and social media consultant Greg Word with North Mississippi Industrial Development Association reminded his audience Thursday that the internet was the biggest game changer in our lifetime and let those business people there know that if they weren’t using social media—they should be.

Word also told the group that while email was decreasing, text messaging is growing and has reached 12 billion text messages sent per day and over 500 billion minutes spent on Facebook each month.

Word gave examples of businesses using social media effectively and explained that simply having a Facebook page was not sufficient for successful marketing on the the Web.

Word also shared links to free and inexpensive applications and programs for essential business functions for small business.