Budget Issues at the Capitol

Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson

Lawmakers are scrambling to come up with ways to patch a 500 million dollar budget shortfall brought on by fewer revenue dollars. MPB's Lawayne Childrey reports what steps are being considered.

If the state dips into its rainy day fund and includes money from the federal stimulus package Senate Appropriations Chairman Alan Nunnelee believes it may be able to limp through the current economic recession.

“I still think that we will be looking at slight cuts from the FY 09 baseline if we get the tobacco issue and the Medicaid issue solved. If we don’t get those two issues solved and fully fund MAEP I think I think we’re looking at cutting state agencies somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% for FY 2010. That goes beyond cutting fat, that cuts through muscle and into the bone.”

Mississippi stands to receive an estimated $2.8 billion dollars in stimulus funds, but the rules for spending the money are still vague. That's why Representative Steve Holland of Plantersville along with other lawmakers are calling for at least a 30 day delay before any funds are appropriated.

“Because we think the stimulus package will level this out. And of course we’ve got two revenue bills that are still alive in the legislature, the tobacco tax as well as the hospital assessment. And we want to certainly give those two measures its full evaluation so that we can see what revenues we can plug in from there.”

If approved lawmakers could recess near the end of the month and return sometime after Labor Day. The regular session is scheduled to end April 4th. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.