JACKSON — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Friday cut another $21 million from what started as a nearly $6 billion state budget.
It was the fourth round of spending cuts he has made since the fiscal year started July 1, and the total reductions now stand at $458.5 million.
Barbour said the cuts are necessary because of the state’s lagging revenues in a weak economy. He said during a news conference that January’s tax collections came in $40.5 million below expectations. Barbour said the collections could be as much as $500 million below projections by the time the fiscal year ends June 30.
“There’s been some talk in state government that we’re cutting too much. In my view, if there’s a criticism, it’s that we’re not cutting enough,” said Barbour, a Republican.
State revenues have fallen short of expectations for 17 consecutive months, and Barbour says it’s easier for agencies to absorb losses now than it would be in a few weeks.
Most agencies are losing nearly 8.7 percent of their funding for the fiscal year. The latest round of cuts did not include Medicaid, the court system or the state’s payments for long-term debt.
The budget for public schools has now been cut $206.5 million.
The Senate passed a bill Friday that would give $28 million back to the state schools struggling with operational costs in the wake of the budget reductions.
The chamber reversed itself on an earlier version of the bill, passed Thursday, that would have given $45 million to public education. Both proposals called for tapping the health care trust fund, where annual payments from the state’s tobacco lawsuit settlement are deposited.
The new plan calls for taking $58 million from the fund and spreading the money across numerous programs and agencies.
“Everybody in the chamber supports schools, but you cannot overlook the necessities,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo.
Nunnelee proposed the alternative that would go toward K-12, community colleges, the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the state’s district attorneys and staff, among other programs.
The revised version of the bill overwhelmingly passed the Senate after Sen. Hob Bryan proposed an amendment to give public education $12 million of the $16 million Nunnelee originally allocated for the corrections department. The move boosted funding for public schools to more than $28 million.
“We’re trying to pass legislation that we might agree on and get passed,” said Bryan, D-Amory.
The bill now moves to the House, where legislators have voted to take $50 million from the health care trust fund and $50 million from the rainy day fund to restore some of Barbour’s budget cuts. The House plan would restore $43.4 million to K-12.
House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, who’s also a key member of that chamber’s Appropriations Committee, said the Senate bill doesn’t go far enough.
“We think we need more money,” Brown said Friday. “They seem to agree there’s a problem for 2010, and we look forward to getting the bill into conference so we can work it out.”
Barbour criticized the House plan because it didn’t include any funding to restore cuts to MDOC, a move he described as “totally irresponsible.” The MDOC budget has been reduced by $30 million.
Some senators balked at the idea of giving more restoration money to corrections instead of education.
“This body is going to support education and give it a priority over prisons and putting people in jail and throwing away the key,” said Sen. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis.
The bill is Senate Bill 2688.
