The caricature of Mississippi House Speaker Tim Ford of Tupelo as the high-salaried, money-grubbing king of the backroom political scheme in the state Capitol is one easily drawn and readily compelling in terms of looking for someone upon whom to heap the political blame for the absolute debacle that House Bill 1281 became for a governor, a lieutenant governor, Ford and 174 lawmakers.
Problem is, the caricature isn't accurate.
At $110,000-per-year, Ford's high salary is a moot point in Mississippi - the poorest state in the union - where per capita folks live on less than 20 percent of that total. Ford, arguably one of the three most powerful people in state government and some say the most powerful, understands the legislative process as well as anyone who ever served in that branch of government.
Deals - brokering consensus among warring factions, establishing coalitions from chaos, and finding ways to make both simple and sometimes two-thirds majorities of a diverse group of 122 high-strung political personalities work in concert - are part of any House speaker's turf. Like Walter Sillers, John Junkin and Buddie Newman before him, Ford likes the state's toughest political kitchen and the media heat that goes with it, even when he's the main course.
Coming to power on the heels of the ballyhooed "House Revolt of 1987," Ford rather quickly took to the trappings of power that had made Newman the target of a revolt in the first place, and he's kept the speaker's office longer than many of the House reformers ever intended.
For Ford, the firestorm of controversy over the Mississippi Legislature's attempt to give themselves a better retirement plan than that afforded other state employees, public school teachers included, centered not on the criticism of the lawmakers as "greedy" but on criticism of the solons as "sneaky."
"When the media reported this in the manner that they did, this stopped being about 'money' and started being about 'integrity,'" Ford said Friday in a telephone interview. "Any Monday morning quarterback can look at this situation and conclude - and rightly so - that it could have been handled better. I don't think you'll get any argument from many of the members that mistakes weren't made in the way the Legislature as an institution went about this."
But even after joining with House Appropriations Committee Chairman Charlie Capps in voting for the repeal of the Supplemental Legislative Retirement Plan revisions, Ford bristles at the suggestion that there was anything "sneaky" about the way the attempted retirement increase was conceived or presented to legislators who voted overwhelmingly to approve the retirement hike in the waning days of the 2000 regular session.
"It (H.B. 1281) was introduced early in the session," said Ford. "This was no backroom, last-minute deal. The House Appropriations Committee, and most members, didn't feel it appropriate to take any action on it until the Legislature had taken care of the teachers and other state employees. After the Legislature approved a six-year, $323 million teacher pay increase and added $36 million in enhancements to the state employee insurance plan, then and only then did the Appropriations Committee try to deal with improving the retirement system for legislators."
Ford said sentiment was running high among some lawmakers for some increase in compensation for lawmakers based on the fact that the lawmakers haven't had a pay raise in 15 years. The speaker also acknowledged that expenses were hiked for lawmakers in 1997 over loud objections from then-Gov. Kirk Fordice.
But Ford said the media missed a key distinction.
"The taxpayers shoulder the entire burden for the raise we made in teacher pay and for the state employee insurance increase," said Ford. "Approving a retirement system increase for legislators rather than a pay raise made the legislators personally contribute toward the compensation increase.
"But more than that, I want the public to know that their was no attempt to mislead anyone about this issue. The 'short title' of this bill clearly read 'Supplemental Legislative Retirement System; revise certain provisions of.' That short title was put on every House member's desk and available in both printed form and electronic form to members, the press and the public for at least 20 days on the House calendar," said Ford.
What the public should remember from this fiasco is clear: 1)Legislative conference committees should be covered by the Open Meetings and Open Records Act so there is no confusion about what lawmakers do behind closed doors; 2) Keeping legislative compensation low while legislative campaign costs continue to escalate is an invitation to a dumbing-down of the Legislature at best and public corruption at worst; and 3) A motivated, involved populace can indeed make their voice heard in the state Capitol without the pabulum of term limits. H.B. 1281 is proof positive of that fact.
What the Legislature should remember from this fiasco is also clear: 1)The vast majority of taxpayers don't believe that legislative service is or should be a full-time job; 2)If you want an increase in compensation, ask for it in a forthright manner and take the political heat at the point of sale - not in absentia after winking and nudging through the approval of a conference committee report; and 3) The public doesn't want your retirement system to be one iota different than that afforded schoolteachers, state hospital nurses or the guy who shovels roadkill off the highways for the state Department of Transportation. To attempt to do so insults a fundamental sense of fairness to which Mississippi voters - rich or poor, black or white - continue to cling.
Critics who think Speaker Ford and the vast majority of his legislative colleagues didn't go to school on those basic lessons over the last three weeks simply weren't paying attention.
