In March of this year, the Mississippi Freedom Caucus became aware of a bill that passed the Mississippi Senate and was making its way through the House. The Chairman of the Workforce Development committee had been tasked with the job of getting this bill through the process with as few objections as possible. Once members of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus read through the bill, we knew it was something that had to be stopped. Even though all the mayors of cities in Desoto County had asked for this bill and all senators had signed onto the bill as authors, then chairman of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus, Steve Hopkins, described the bill as "the most heinous piece of legislation" he had seen since in the legislature. The members of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus knew our only chance to defeat this bill and overpower the mayors, senators, and committee chairmen was by alerting the citizens of Mississippi through our network of emails, Facebook posts and radio programs, so they could wield their power and kill this horrible bill. National radio host Glenn Beck became aware of this effort by the mayors to sign over power to a quasi-governmental entity and asked Steve Hopkins to come on his show [listen Here] to explain what the bill was attempting to do. Hopkins explained to Glenn that the bill would give a company called RegionSmart the power to issue bonds, assess fees (a politician's way to describe taxes) and take property through eminent domain. All of this would be done by a board consisting of unelected individuals who are insulated from all oversight by the citizens of Mississippi. This entity that had been granted governmental powers would not be subject to Mississippi's open meeting laws or open record laws and could not be audited by the state auditor. Glenn Beck felt so strongly about how heinous this bill was and that this bill was such a danger to our state and nation that he discussed it this weekend at CPAC in his speech just before Donald Trump. The Mississippi Freedom Caucus is proud of our part in killing this horrible bill and are especially proud of the people of Mississippi who took a stand, sent thousands of emails and made countless phone calls that prompted the committee chairman to announce from the House floor that the bill was "dead, dead, dead". You can be ready to Take Action the next time a politician tries to undermine your rights, by completing a simple form and submitting your email address. Also, please share this email with your friends and ask them to sign up for the Freedom Caucus Newsletter. Sign Up Here Be Ready to Fight! Be Ready to Take Action!
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