A relatively routine bill to reauthorize the Mississippi Department of Employment Security died during the 2008 legislative session amid a dispute over all state agencies’ advertising practices.

Some lawmakers — particularly House Democrats loyal to Speaker Billy McCoy — are upset that the state spends thousands of dollars to run ads on conservative talk radio stations.

A survey by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review showed that state agencies spent $14.3 million on various advertising expenses in fiscal year 2006. Of that total, $910,054 was spent buying advertising from TeleSouth Communications, the parent company that operates the “Supertalk” talk radio network in the state.

Some programming — both the commentary of hosts and the responses of callers from the public — contained withering criticisms of McCoy and those loyal to him. Their anger over voting for state dollars to partially fund such programming is at least understandable.

But what’s that got to do with Employment Security?

The agency handles job training and placement programs and distributes unemployment payments.

Many lawmakers believe that the advertising dispute over the employment agency killed a separate bill that would increase the weekly payments to people who are unemployed; a bill passed the House but died in the Senate. Mississippi’s unemployment payment has been $210 a week since 2002. The bill would’ve increased that to $225 this July 1 and to $235 a year later.

Clearly, state advertising and unemployment benefits are two distinct, unrelated subjects. If the Legislature wants to regulate state advertising expenditures — with radio, television, newspapers, magazines, billboards or even college yearbooks, then they should set about that task in a businesslike manner.

But using legislation meant to address unemployment benefits isn’t the proper venue to debate state advertising. Unemployment benefits and the operation of the state agency that administers those benefits and finds jobs for Mississippians who want and need them should be judged on their own merits.

Politics should not be a function of state advertising. When tax dollars are expended for advertising, those expenditures should be made based on cost-benefit ratios and sound marketing principles — not whether a broadcast station, newspaper or Web site steps on the wrong legislator’s toes.

When the Legislature returns in special session, the Department of Employment Security should be reauthorized as a matter of course, and this legislation should be freed from the mire of politics and judged on the merits of public policy.

— The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger