Legislative Accomplishments
Toby Barker currently serves on the Appropriations, Education, Public Health & Human Services, Medicaid, Public Property and Universities & Colleges committees. He was appointed Vice Chairman of the Public Health & Human Services Committee in January 2012.
He also served Vice Chairman of Universities & Colleges from 2009-2011 and Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Poverty from 2008-2009. He also served as Secretary of Public Health from 2008-2011.
In 2008, Toby Barker was the lead author of the Mississippi Accountability and Transparency Act with many in his freshman class. The language in the bill made it to the Governor's desk, creating an avenue for citizens to access where their tax dollars were being spent.
In 2009, Toby authored the bill to cut the sales tax on prepaid meal plans at college campuses throughout the state. It cleared the Ways & Means Committee on the tie-breaking vote of its Chairman and then easily passed the full House and Senate. Governor Barbour signed it, thus helping our college students make their limited meal plans go farther into the semester. Toby was one of only a few freshman legislators who authored a successful revenue bill in their first term.
Also in 2009, Toby worked in conjunction with Hattiesburg City Councilman Dave Ware to add a cost of living increase for Hattiesburg's police and fire retirees. This local and private bill easily passed the House and Senate.
In 2010, he was given a heavy workload in the Public Health and Human Services Committee, handling the bill that authorizes the creation of Crisis Intervention Teams in communities around the state. These CITs will train law enforcement officers when they encounter suspects with potential mental illness. He also handled the bill establishing the Mississippi Health Information Exchange, which will create a seamless portal for the transfer of patient data between the patient's physicians, hospital and other providers. His bill to authorize the Department of Human Services to track those people receiving food stamp (SNAP) benefits also passed and was signed by the Governor. This bill, as well as the 2011 Healthy Foods Study Committee bill, has the potential of helping us determine the true effectiveness of the SNAP program and make recommendations on purchasing restrictions for the future.
In addition to 2011's successful study committee bill, Toby also handled the controversial Mental Health Reform Act, which aims to eliminate disparities among community mental health regions by holding centers accountable for base services. It also sets up a strategic planning group to measure certain benchmarks in the level of care provided by institutions and community-based services. He also helped steer a bill through to give developers more flexibility with their tax credits when rehabilitating historic structures.