97:. The governor told them that he would abandon the severance tax increase and back any other revenue source that the legislators preferred. Legislative leadership then held a meeting and decided not to move to adjourn early, and Meredith began preparing for his committee to work on the proposals. Though he still preferred adjournment, Speaker Newman advised him that the House was going to fully consider the proposals. Resolved that his committee was now obligated to fulfill its function, Meredith agreed to secure funding for whatever proposals were approved by the House's education committee. The education committee eventually produced an educational reform bill which included provisions for the creation of public kindergartens and pay raises for teachers, which Merideth's committee funded before it was passed by the full House. A complementary bill was passed by the Senate, and Merideth served on the
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chaired the subcommittee which handled gambling bills and asked Endris, "You want a dog and pony show or you want me to just go ahead and kill 'em?" After Endris assured him that the effort was genuine, Merideth said, "Hell, let's go to work." The bill passed the House before dying in the Senate finance committee due to moral objections from religious leaders. In March 1989 legislation authorizing gambling in the sound was reintroduced in the Senate. Merideth advised passing it before the following Sunday to prevent
Christian preachers from rallying their congregations to their cause during their Sunday worship services. The bill was successfully passed in a few days.
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feared that this would be practically unworkable, due to the crowded and difficult nature of navigating the river, and due to the fact that turning around in the river would lead ships to cross into
Arkansas and Louisiana territory, where such activity was illegal. Merideth suggested removing the underway stipulation from the bill to allow docked ships to host casinos. Though fearing that this would make the bill unpopular, Gollott agreed with Merideth, whose subcommittee then struck the language from the bill. Merideth guided the bill's passage through the full House in early March, and it subsequently passed the Senate and became law.
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legislature into special session, scheduled for
December 6, to consider his education proposals. Merideth responded by encouraging his colleagues to pass a resolution thanking the governor for his concern, assuring him that the matter would be addressed in regular session, and then adjourning. He also stated that such proposals required more time than available in a special session to fully consider. In an attempt to ease the situation, Winter called a meeting with Merideth in his capacity as chairman of the ways and means committee and his Senate counterpart, finance chairman
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majority constitutionally required to approve tax increases. Merideth, anticipating the initial failure, worked with other AHEAD supporters to persuade those who had voted the bill down to change their minds. This effort succeeded and the bill was also approved by the Senate. Allain vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode it.
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Towards the end of a 1986 special session, a transportation lobby group and the state's highway commissioners drafted a plan to greatly expand the number of the state's four-lane highways, dubbed
Advocating Highways for Economic Advancement and Development (AHEAD), financed by a five-cent increase on
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In early 1985, public school teachers in
Mississippi began lobbying for salary increases. In February, the Mississippi Association of Educators voted to strike, and by mid-March almost 9,000 teachers were refusing to work. The legislature responded by passing a three-year pay increase plan with a
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tasked with resolving the differences between the two bills. The committee agreed on a bill that included the kindergartens and pay increases plus reading aides for the first three school grades and new school administrator training programs, to be funded by a $ 110 million increase in sales and
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called for an expansion in public education programs and spending, to be funded by tax increases, specifically on the oil and gas severance tax. Merideth opposed any tax hike and also thought that should taxes be raised the revenue should be diverted to existing programs. The governor called the
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to improve the economic situation of areas along the watercourse. The bill passed the Senate by a slim margin and was forwarded to the House and assigned to
Merideth's subcommittee. The bill authorized gambling on ships "underway making way". Merideth, representing the river city of Greenville,
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expanded the jurisdiction of the state so that the ship would have to sail even further—an unprofitable distance—to skirt the gambling restrictions. In
January 1988 Representative Glenn Endris and other Gulf Coast legislators filed a bill in the House to legalize gambling in the sound. Merideth
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proposed his own program the following day, which included four-lane highway construction, a reorganization of the highway department, and scrapped the tax hike. AHEAD supporters ignored Allain's proposal, and were able to pass their program on
January 29, but without the requisite three-fifths
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to promote tourism. Gambling was illegal in
Mississippi's jurisdiction, but the proposal entailed allowing a ship to pick up passengers in port and then sail into federal waters, which were typically defined as three miles off of the coast. A plan was hatched in 1987 to have one such ship, the
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Upon leaving the legislature, Merideth devoted his time to practicing law. He closed his practice in 1999. After divorcing his first wife, Merideth met Linda
Jeffcoat. They married in 2004 and moved to
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when the latter served as speaker of the house and was one of his staunchest supporters. He chaired the House Ways and Means Committee from 1980 to 1988. Upon Newman's replacement by
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in January 1988, Merideth was removed from the chair of the Ways and Means Committee and instead made chairman of the County Affairs Committee.
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fuel-per-gallon taxes. Legislators introduced the bill at the open of their 1987 session, but Governor
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provision added by Merideth which made striking as a public employee a criminal offense.
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income taxes. The bill was passed by the legislature and signed into law on December 21.
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66:, where he served from 1960 to 1992. He served as a floor leader on behalf of
30:(December 7, 1930 – September 5, 2017) was an American lawyer and politician.
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to attempt the scheme, but the plan was delayed after lawyers noted that the
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to H. L. Merideth Sr. and Cassel Boatright Merideth. He was raised in
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Horace Lavelle "Sonny" Merideth Jr. was born on December 7, 1930, in
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Democratic Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives
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in 1948 and received an undergraduate degree in accounting from
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46:. He graduated from Riverside Consolidated High School in
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and several other senators introduced a bill to legalize
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Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2008
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William F. Winter and the New Mississippi: A Biography
542:(second ed.). University Press of Mississippi.
258:"Ex-lawmaker who helped usher in Miss. casinos dies"
188:. He died at his home there on September 5, 2017.
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521:. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
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256:Pettus, Emily Wagster (September 8, 2017).
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582:People from Washington County, Mississippi
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84:Mississippi Education Reform Act of 1982
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277:"House posts lean towards Mabus goals"
62:In 1959 Merideth won election to the
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64:Mississippi House of Representatives
152:Mississippi–Alabama barrier islands
28:Horace Lavelle "Sonny" Merideth Jr.
536:Nash, Jere; Taggart, Andy (2009).
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133:In the 1980s, officials from the
275:Davis, Dan (January 15, 1988).
16:American lawyer and politician
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88:In 1982 Mississippi Governor
211:"H. L. "Sonny" Merideth, Jr"
78:Education Reform Act of 1982
52:Mississippi State University
517:Bolton, Charles C. (2013).
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501:Nash & Taggart 2009
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465:Nash & Taggart 2009
453:Nash & Taggart 2009
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402:Nash & Taggart 2009
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378:Nash & Taggart 2009
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318:Nash & Taggart 2009
244:Nash & Taggart 2009
232:Nash & Taggart 2009
40:Swiftwater, Mississippi
23:Sonny Merideth, c. 1973
135:Mississippi Gulf Coast
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170:operations along the
82:Further information:
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186:Gulf Breeze, Florida
115:1987 highway program
99:conference committee
503:, pp. 218–219.
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106:1985 teacher strike
281:The Clarion-Ledger
262:The Clarion-Ledger
54:four years later.
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528:978-1-61703-787-0
172:Mississippi River
156:Mississippi Sound
90:William F. Winter
48:Washington County
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572:2017 deaths
567:1930 births
511:Works cited
306:Bolton 2013
294:Bolton 2013
144:Europa Star
122:Bill Allain
561:Categories
217:August 29,
192:References
179:Later life
34:Early life
129:Gambling
72:Tim Ford
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148:Biloxi
44:James
544:ISBN
523:ISBN
219:2022
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