By Billy Davis

A bill that would keep teacher scholarship monies in a revolving fund, and a bill to compensate constables for working as court bailiffs, are among bills authored by state Rep. Nolan Mettetal that are still alive in the state legislature.

Mettetal, a Republican from Sardis, is serving his first term in the House of Representatives after winning the District 10 seat last year.

He decided not to seek re-election to a state senate seat he had held for three terms.  

Mettetal has been busily writing proposed bills in the Mississippi House, where most have died in committee but a few others remain alive in the legislature.

House Bill 908, the compensation bill for bailiffs, passed the House 94-16 and is now being considered in the Senate.

House Bill 860 would ensure that remaining funds from a scholarship program for teachers would remain in a revolving loan fund instead of being moved into the state’s General Fund. That proposed legislation passed unanimously in the House.

He decided not to seek re-election to a state senate seat he had held since for three terms.  

The state legislature Web site shows that Mettetal has authored 24 bills during the current session.
Eighteen of those bills died in committee, including a bill that would drug test people on public assistance and a second bill that would require non-emergency government automobiles have a fuel efficiency of 30 miles per gallon or greater for highway driving.

Another bill that died in committee would have punished drivers for giving false information to law enforcement at the scene of an automobile accident.

Elsewhere in the Mississippi House, state Rep. Joe Gardner has authored 10 bills. Legislation that would have required schools to collect students’ body mass index from kindergarten through the tenth grade, and a bill to increase the compulsory age for school attendance, are among the proposed bills that have died.

Only Gardner’s bill allowing Panola County to donate to the Boys and Girls Club remains alive in the legislature.

In the state Senate, a proposed bill by Steve Hale to create a free online tax filing service for Mississippians is still alive in the legislature.

Hale is listed as the principal author of Senate Bill 2605, which passed out of the Finance Committee in the Senate and passed unanimously in that body.

The tax preparation bill is now being considered by the Ways and Means Committee in the House.

Hale, a Democrat from Senatobia, is serving his first term as District 10 state senator. He ran for the seat last year after then-Sen. Nolan Mettetal chose to run for a House seat.