Downsize the Mississippi Legislature

This letter appeared in the March 31 Clarion-Ledger.

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Burdett Rutland ("Reapportionment due in Mississippi," March 14 letter) notes that neighboring Alabama and Tennessee, with larger populations than Mississippi, both have smaller legislatures. Also, Louisiana has 39 senators and 105 representatives, and Arkansas has 35 senators and 100 representatives, whereas the Magnolia State has 52 senators and 122 representatives.

The Web site ncsl.org shows the number of legislators for each state. The most egregious example is California. With more than 12 times Mississippi's population, that state has 40 senators and 80 assembly members.

There are only two ways that the Mississippi Legislature could be downsized. Since the legislators themselves obviously won't do it, we citizens will have to do it through a ballot initiative.

Click here for two of my previous articles on this subject.

Here's another piece that relates to this topic.