Among those who follow state news, or try to, there is growing frustration over whether, when and how this year’s regular session of the Mississippi Legislature will end.

Indeed, some lawmakers, including Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, have expressed frustration, too.

Lawmakers normally convene early each January and end their sessions in 90 days, or 120 days when there’s a new governor.

To say it has been an unusual year is an understatement. With the state reeling from the national recession and everyone still uncertain about exactly what will be available to states in the $787 billion federal stimulus legislation, the Mississippi House and Senate recessed earlier this month. They’re supposed to come back in May or June to do several things, including setting a spending plan for the 12 months beginning July 1.

“We can’t finish our business until they finish their business,” Hopson, speaking to local federal retirees, said of those parsing dollars from Washington, D.C. “Hopefully, in three weeks or so, we’ll have a better understanding of how we can spend those funds.”

Hopson, already a leader though in his freshman term, has been in on some of the meetings in Jackson to begin to sort out rules for the money and how it will be apportioned.

Roiling at the center of discussions is how a tax on cigarettes will shape up. As things stand, House and Senate conferees are 11 cents apart on how much to increase the existing 18-cents-per-pack excise tax. The Senate, which has blocked increasing levies on tobacco in years past, is up to 64 cents per pack— the average of Mississippi’s surrounding states. The House, which has wanted an increase to $1, is down to 75 cents. Gov. Haley Barbour has a third plan, which is supported by reason rather than emotion.

He’s trying to overcome all the hubbub about how the tax on tobacco “must” go up to supplant a shortfall in the Legislative Tag Credit fund. Although it’s a sideshow and perhaps even a rubric, the illogic might carry the day.

At this point, no one knows how things will shake out. Do, however, look for lawmakers to try to calm voters. Although the next election cycle is two years away, members of both chambers know what can happen when too many voters are frustrated. Few of them are interested in joining the rising ranks of the unemployed.