This year, the lawmakers at Mississippi’s Capitol have had time to do great things such as reforming the juvenile-justice system and settling some Medicaid issues. They have also spent many hours rubbing elbows with B.B. King and Faith Hill, criticizing Jim Barksdale’s offer of $50 million for education (Gov. Haley Barbour’s chief of staff called it a “bribe”), naming a state reptile and declaring that the Magnolia state does not need new streams of revenue—especially in the form of a tobacco tax.
