Nation's Governors to Discuss Business in Mississippi

Governor Haley Barbour will host this years National Governors Association Annual Meeting in Biloxi.

Economic recovery is the focus of the nation’s governors as they prepare to meet in Biloxi beginning tomorrow. MPB's Lawayne Childrey has more.

When members of the National Governors Association open their annual meeting on Friday, it will be the first time in 74 years that they have come to Mississippi. The majority of governors are expected to attend the 4 day conference where topics will range from healthcare to education to the economy. Governor Barbour says one of the hot topics is sure to be spending.

“Interestingly most of us were disappointed that there was so much less in fracture spending in the stimulus package than we anticipated. I think most of us anticipated the amount of highway money would have been maybe triple what it turned out to be.”

The governors were suppose to hold their annual meeting here in 2006 but Hurricane Katrina caused them to reschedule their visit to 09. Ironically part of this year’s agenda will include hurricane insurance and other massive disaster needs.

“Most of the gulf state governors have decided congress isn’t going to do anything about this. There’s some things that we had asked for that haven’t been done. And so now we are gonna see if maybe there’s a way that we can have a regional solution. One of the issues if we do have a regional solution congress has to authorize it, has to allow it. And hopefully they will if we come up with a good idea.”

Another focus of the meeting will be upcoming elections particularly the 37 governors races on ballots next year.

“People are making decisions this summer and fall about whether or not to run. We are in the height of candidate recruitment season for both parties in these governors races."

Most of the nation's governors are expected to attend the the 4 day conference, along with the leaders of three U.S. territories and two commonwealths. But a few of its more famous members like Republican Govs. Sarah Palin of Alaska, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California aren't expected to attend. For MPB news, I'm Lawayne Childrey.