[10/24/01]Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and state legislators told Mississippi school superintendents gathered for their fall legislative conference in Vicksburg that their 2002 budgets would be limited due to a statewide financial crunch.

“Education is one of the first things to be looked at for cuts this year,” Musgrove said. “The reality is, how do we deal with the real budget and how do we set priorities?”

Tuck regretted the uncertainty.

“Certainly we wish we had better budget projections,” Tuck said.

When lawmakers convene each January, they make allocations including dollars for schools starting July 1 of the same year. In 1990 and again last year, there was not enough state income to provide the promised revenue.

Tuck added that the attacks of Sept. 11 have postponed the state’s economic recovery at least six months, but she also said teacher pay raises, to cost about $70 million more this year, will be funded.

Teachers are in the second year of a six-year plan to raise the Mississippi average to the Southeastern average by 2006. When the plan was approved in 2000, the larger raises were in the later years. After next fall, continued increases will require about $350 million to fund.

“We’re committed to the teacher pay raise,” Tuck said. “I believe it will be fully funded.”

Musgrove also used the conference to pitch his solution to the economic downturn.

Musgrove has proposed a statewide health-care initiative, using part of annual tobacco settlement checks to parlay into more federal dollars.

Musgrove said that the money saved in health care through this plan will relieve the general budget and aid consumers stimulating the economy.

“We could save anywhere from $60 to $120 million (next year) if we put this plan into focus,” Musgrove said. Musgrove said his plan would generate an extra $330 million for health care by 2008, and that the relief on the general budget would leave room for education funding.

“What he was trying to say was that if we get more money from health care then we will have more money for education,” said Don Taylor, principal of Vicksburg High School.

“I hate to be cynical, but to me, it’s a matter of can we get it done,” said Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Donald Oakes.

He said tax revenues are needed for the schools to operate on their current budget. Although much of this year’s projected shortfall in state revenues was restored, trustees of the Vicksburg Warren School District enacted an increase in local taxes to raise nearly $800,000 in new money.

Sen. Jack Gordon, D-Calhoun, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told school administrators that early collections for the state fiscal year, that started Oct. 1, are not encouraging.