House Bill 1325

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 39-1-1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CREATE THE STATE LIBRARY FUND; TO AMEND SECTION 19-7-31, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE THE TRANSFER TO THE STATE LIBRARY A PORTION OF FUNDS COLLECTED FOR COUNTY LAW LIBRARIES; TO PERMIT COUNTIES TO CONTRACT WITH THE STATE LIBRARY FOR DELIVERY OF LIBRARY SERVICES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 39-1-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

39-1-1. (1) There shall be a State Library which shall render law library services to the Supreme Court and other state courts, to state officials and to the general public.

(2) The State Library shall be under the supervision and control of the Mississippi Supreme Court and the court shall be empowered to promulgate policies and procedures necessary to the efficient operation of the Library.

(3) A State Library Fund shall be created in the State Treasury which shall receive a portion and any remaining funds collected for county law libraries as provided in Section 19-7-31, Mississippi Code of 1972. Such collections shall be expended upon approval by the Supreme Court for the improvement of information resources in the State Library and additional services to county law libraries. The State Library is hereby authorized and empowered to solicit and accept donations, bequests, devises, gifts and grants of money from individuals, organizations and federal, state and local governmental bodies to be deposited in the State Library Fund. The State Library may solicit and accept donations, bequests, devises, gifts and grants of real and personal property. The Supreme Court, in its discretion, may sell the property at public or private sale and shall deposit proceeds derived from the sale into the State Library Fund. It is the intent of the Legislature that any funds collected pursuant to this section shall not supplant or reduce in any way the General Fund appropriation to the State Library. Unexpended amounts remaining in the State Library Fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not lapse into the General Fund and any interest earned on the unexpended amounts in the fund shall be deposited to the credit of the State Library Fund.

SECTION 2. Section 19-7-31, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

19-7-31. The board of supervisors of each county in the state shall have power, by an appropriate order or orders on its minutes, to establish and maintain in the county courthouse or other suitable public building, adjacent or near thereto, a public county law library under such rules, regulations and supervision as it may from time to time ordain and establish, and to that end, the board may accept gifts, grants, donations or bequests of money, furniture, fixtures, books, documents, maps, plats or other property suitable for such purpose.

The board of supervisors shall have power to exchange or sell duplicate volumes or sets of any such books or furniture, and in case of sale to invest the proceeds in other suitable books or furniture. The said board may also purchase or lease from time to time additional books, furniture, or equipment therefor.

For the purpose of providing suitable quarters for such public law library, the said board of supervisors may, in its discretion, expend such sums as may be deemed necessary or proper for such purpose, and may also employ a suitable person as librarian and pay said law librarian such salary as the board, in its discretion, may determine. The board may employ additional librarians or other employees on either a part-time or full-time basis and may pay these additional employees as the board, in its discretion, may determine. The board of supervisors, in their discretion, may contract with the county or municipal library for any staff or facilities as they deem necessary for the overall management and operation of the county law library.

In case such public law library shall be so established, all books, documents, furniture and other property then belonging to the county library, as provided for in Section 19-7-25, shall be transferred to and become part of such public law library, and all books, documents and publications hereafter donated by the state to the county library shall also become a part thereof. And in such case, Sections 19-7-25 and 19-25-65, relating to the county library, shall be superseded in such county so long as such public law library shall be maintained therein.

The board of supervisors of any such county is further authorized, in its discretion, to levy, by way of resolution, additional court costs not exceeding Two Dollars and Fifty Cents ($2.50) per case for each case, both civil and criminal, filed in the chancery, circuit and county courts or any of these in said county, and it is further authorized in its discretion to levy, by way of resolution, additional court costs not exceeding One Dollar and Fifty Cents ($1.50) per case for each case, both civil and criminal, filed in the justice courts of said county for the support of the library therein authorized. If the additional court costs herein authorized be levied, the clerk or judge of said courts shall collect said costs for all cases thereinafter filed in his court and forward same to the chancery clerk who will deposit the same in a special account in a county depository for support and maintenance of said library, and the chancery clerk shall be accountable therefor. However, no such levy shall be made against any cause of action, the purpose of which is to commit any lunatic, alcoholic or narcotic addict to any institution for custodial or medical care, and no such tax shall be collected under this subsection on any cause of action that the proper clerk handling same deems to be in its very nature charitable and in which cause said clerk has not collected his own legal fees.

To accomplish the purposes of this section, the board of supervisors is hereby further authorized and empowered to enter into such arrangement or arrangements with the county bar association of any such county as may seem advisable for the care and operation of said law library and said board may receive and consider, from time to time, such recommendations as the bar association may deem appropriate in the premises.

The board of supervisors of each county in which there are two (2) judicial districts is authorized and empowered, in its discretion, to maintain a law library in each judicial district; in such counties the board is authorized and empowered, in its discretion, to pay from the county general fund or from the special fund herein authorized all such costs herein authorized, provided that the board shall not spend in each judicial district less than the amount of the special court costs authorized herein and collected in each such district.

The governing authorities of any municipality are authorized, in their discretion, by resolution duly adopted and entered on their official minutes, to levy additional court costs not exceeding One Dollar and Fifty Cents ($1.50) per case for each conviction in the municipal court of the municipality for the support and maintenance of the county law library in the county within which the municipality is located. The additional costs shall be collected by the clerk of the court, forwarded to the chancery clerk of the county for deposit in a special account in the county depository, and expended for support and maintenance of the county law library in the same manner and in accordance with the same procedure as provided for costs similarly collected in the chancery, circuit, county and justice courts of the county.

On October 1, 2003, the board of supervisors shall transfer twenty-five percent (25%) of any remaining funds within the county law library account to the State Library Fund in the State Treasury created in Section 39-1-1, Mississippi Code of 1972. Thereafter, the board of supervisors at the end of each county's fiscal year shall transfer into the State Library Fund fifteen percent (15%) of all fees collected under Section 19-7-31, Mississippi Code of 1972.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2003.