The Mississippi Legislature Ratings Guide includes scores for all legislators. Matt Schlapp, ACU Chairman, stated that Mississippi’s 2016 session provided much-needed tax relief for small businesses and conservative reforms to its welfare and education systems. “Key bills included SB2161, which makes charter schools available for parents with children in failing schools and another bill that extends state’s abstinence program for five years.” Schlapp also applauded a new state law that allows terminally ill patients to select potentially life-saving medications that the Food and Drug Administration has yet approved. The ACU opposed the law that gave tax breaks to Continental Tire in order to locate a Mississippi plant. According to the group, it opposed using taxpayer funds for one company over another. The law was passed in a special session and blocked by a federal judge. It protects three “sincerely held” religious beliefs: that marriage is between one man or one woman; that people shouldn’t have sex outside of marriage; and that a person is born gendered. Anyone who refuses to marry based on those beliefs would have been protected by the law. Opponents claim that the law unfairly targets transgender, gay and lesbian individuals for discrimination. Schlapp also lamented new laws that allow “unnecessary government intervention in the marketplace.” He stated in the press release that auctioneers now need a license to operate as businesses. Another bill funds the Mississippi state board for barber examiners up to $750,000. Conservatives feel that Mississippians shouldn’t have to pay for a bureaucracy that decides who can and cannot cut their hair._x000D