Senate Approves Secretary of State's Budget

By: The Associated Press

Posted: Tue 2:19 PM, Feb 26, 2013

The Mississippi Senate approved $695,000 for the secretary of state to defend the state's new voter ID law.

Funding for the secretary of state's office was rejected last week in a Senate vote, but several senators were absent from the chamber at the time.

Thirteen senators voted against the Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann's budget Tuesday, but it passed.

The budget for fiscal year 2014 totals more than $13 million.

Sen. David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson, says the bill was a waste of money because the attorney general's office is already handling the voter ID litigation.

Hosemann told The Associated Press that the majority of the state's citizens support the voter ID law. He said senators voting against his budget were doing so to show symbolic opposition.

Arrest Made in Meridian Burglary