"You're now responsible for every bad thing that's ever happened." --Speaker Billy McCoy, Jan 8, 2008, congratulating me just after we took the oath of office.

FY 2011 Budget

While many of us came worrying about how we were going to make it all work for FY 2011, it turns out we haven't figured out how to close out this year's budget for FY 2010. We haven't really even started on next year's budget yet.

The Latest (Feb. 16):This past week, there appeared a glimmer of hope that some sort of compromise might be reached on finishing out the FY 2010 budget. So far, in this fiscal year, because of actual revenues not meeting projections, $458 million has been cut from the budget, totally 8.7% of the original appropriation.

The goal is to try and make a deficit appropriation out of some sort of reserve to try and help school districts, the Dept. of Corrections, the Dept. of Mental Health and other agencies make it through the rest of the fiscal year. Before now, many of the House's attempts, in my opinion, were a bit too ambitious and unwisely raided too much of the Rainy Day Fund, which I believe we'll need for the next three years.

Maybe it was the snow, or maybe was it Valentine's Day, but an unofficial agreement appears to have been reached between the House and Senate on an amount of the deficit appropriation. $79 million was the magic number to come out of the Tobacco Trust Fund (and not the Rainy Day Fund). The $79 million will be spread over several agencies and help state law enforcement, mental health and education make it through the rest of the year. While our local school districts, Southern Miss, JCJC, PRCC and mental health facilities will still have to endure a sizable mid-year cut, this will help get us through June 30 without completely gutting our state's education, law enforcement and health care systems.

This compromise came via a strike-all amendment to SB 2688, which passed 106-14 on Thursday. It now heads to the Senate, and we'll see how the supposed agreement holds up.

Just to review how we arrived at our current situation:

1st week of session- Governor asks for authority to exempt certain agencies from budget cuts and to give him authority to cut up to 10% of budgets arbitrarily (currently he can only cut up to 5% arbitrarily; to cut any agency above 5%, he must first cut every budget 5%).

2nd week of session- Senate passes SB 2495, giving Governor Barbour the flexibility to cut budgets up to 10% selectively.

3rd week of session- House passes HB 392, which grants Governor authority to exempt a few agencies from budget cuts, but forbids the Governor to make further cuts without first spending $61 million of the Governor's discretionary stimulus money and $50 million in Rainy Day Fund money this year. HB 392 does not give the Governor his requested 10% flexibility.

Friday, Jan. 22 - Governor sees the writing on the wall about the 10% request and instead makes his third round of budget cuts, slashing an additional $216 million from the current fiscal year (FY 2010) budget, bringing all agencies share of the budget cuts to 8.19%. I said on the following Monday that hopefully we had seen the last of mid-year budget cuts.

Tuesday, Jan. 26 - House takes SB 2495 (same bill from the 2nd week of session) that the Senate sent over and amends it to restore $100 million of Governor Barbour's cuts. Of this $100 million, $50 million would come from the Rainy Day Fund and $50 million from the tobacco trust fund.

Friday, Jan. 29 - Projections show that January's sales tax revenues came in $43.4 million short, more than any previous month. Previous budget cuts were based on an 8.2 percent shortfall for the first half of the fiscal year, but January missed the mark by 12.2 percent.

Also on Friday, Jan. 29 - The Supreme Court rules Governor Barbour could not make budget cuts to the judicial branch, citing the judicial branch was separate but equal to the executive branch. This through another kink into finding a way to balance the current fiscal year's budget.

Friday, Feb. 5 - Governor Barbour makes a fourth round of budget cuts, slashing another $21 million from the FY 2010 budget to bring total budget cuts for all agencies to 8.7%.

Both the Governor and members of the Mississippi Legislature have presented their own ideas on how to meet the shortfall. These ideas range from consolidating universities to cutting state services to furloughs for state employees. As we move forward, keep checking back for further updates.

To see Governor Barbour's FY 2011 budget recommendation, click here.

To see the Joint Legislative Budget Committee's FY 2011 budget recommendation, click here.