Insurance reform

Since Hurricane Katrina, Baria has introduced several bills to cap the premiums that insurance companies can charge for homeowners and flood insurance.^[9]

Baria has also introduced legislation to create a "Policy Holder's Bill of Rights," which would prohibit "anti-concurrent causation clauses," which allow insurance companies to avoid paying for any damage to homes where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property.^[10]

BP oil spill settlement

In 2015, Baria introduced a bill to require that 80% of the funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill be sent back to the Gulf Coast.^[7] The bill was defeated by the Republican controlled legislature, however, which opted to keep the money in the state's general fund.^[11] Baria renewed these efforts in 2017 with the support of several Republican legislators from the Gulf Coast, but they were unsuccessful.^[12]

Other legislation and policy positions

In 2010, Baria proposed bills in the senate offering tax incentives for homeowners who install solar power,^[13] as well as allowing net metering.^[14]

After joining the Mississippi House in 2012, Baria successfully sponsored a bill to require safety enclosures for swimming pools.^[5] That same year, he introduced several other bills, including bills to increase the death benefit payable to law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty; authorize individuals to brew beer at home; create a "Patient's Bill of Rights; prohibit smoking in certain public places and private places of employment; and create a state version of the False Claims Act to allow whistleblowers who report fraud against the government to collect part of the award.^[5] All of these bills died in committee, however.^[5]

After controversy in 2012 over then-Governor Haley Barbour's pardon of two convicted murderers who worked at the Mississippi Governor's Mansion,^[15] Baria introduced legislation prohibiting governors from issuing pardons during the last 90 days of their term.^[5] The bill died in committee.

In 2015, Baria filed a bill to legalize industrial hemp production,^[16] and in 2017 Baria filed bills to raise the minimum wage and require equal pay for men and women performing the same work.^[17] The Republican controlled legislature blocked these efforts, however.

Baria penned an op-ed after the 2017 murder of a protester during the Unite the Right rally, calling for the state to remove the Confederate imagery from the Mississippi state flag.^[18][19]

In 2018, Baria voted for a bill to exempt recent college graduates from state income taxes if they stay in the state for three years after graduation from a four-year college or university and to grant them an additional two-year exemption if they buy a house or establish a business with at least one additional employee.^[20]

During his tenure, Baria has been a vocal critic of the corporate tax cuts passed by the Republican controlled legislature,^[21] stating that they deprive the state of revenue that could be used to pay for other state programs.^[22] He has also been a vocal supporter of expanding Medicaid to cover more than 300,000 Mississippians who lack health insurance.^[23] Baria also supports state-funded universal preschool and two tuition-free years of community college.^[24]