Lawmakers In Final Days Before Break

Mississippi legislators will leave the capitol for a month-long break this week, while they work on the state’s budget problems. MPB’s Stephen Koranda reports on how they’re spending the final days before the break.

Lawmakers will hopefully spend the last days working on some of the unsolved budget issues, says House Majority Leader Tyrone Ellis of Starkville. Legislators missed a deadline for some important bills like increasing the cigarette tax, but Ellis says there’s still a chance to work them out.

“As long as the session is still in session we still a have a chance to do anything .We can do a suspension resolution and agree to be able to introduce another bill and get whatever we need to get done.”

The break is aimed at allowing lawmakers to finalize the details on the more than 2 billion dollars in federal stimulus money coming to the state. On the Senate floor last week, Appropriations Committee Chairman Alan Nunnelee of Tupelo said without money from a cigarette tax or a solution for funding a 90 million dollar Medicaid deficit, there would likely be a shortfall that requires a 10 percent across the board cut. But he added, it's not quite that easy.

“There are some budget s that we cannot reduce by 10 percent, such as debt service. So when we take those out of the equation, I think the more likely scenario would be budget cuts of somewhere between 15 and 20 percent.”

After leaving, lawmakers are scheduled to return to the capital in early May or June.