Cuts not governor’s job
Published 12:00 am Sunday, January 24, 2010
Gov. Barbour, in his annual State of the State address, reiterated his desire for the Legislature to grant him additional authority to make cuts to the current budget. He requested authority to make cuts, at his discretion, up to 10 percent. Current law allows him discretion in making cuts up to 5 percent of agency budgets when revenues come in at least 2 percent below projections.
For a number of reasons, The Parents’ Campaign believes that the governor should not be granted budget authority beyond what is already provided in statute. The first and foremost reason is that appropriating funds is the job of the legislative branch, not the executive branch, of government. Separation of powers is an important standard of our democracy, and that separation of powers should be maintained. Providing for a balanced budget is the Legislature’s responsibility. The Legislature should do its job and make the additional cuts necessary.
Second, though state economist Dr. Phil Pepper and the State Revenue Estimating Committee have estimated that the budget shortfall for this year will be approximately $347 million, the governor has said that, if given the additional authority he has requested, he will make budget reductions that total $412-million, $65-million more than is expected to be required. Education will suffer tremendously due to cuts of this magnitude.
Third, leaders in both the House and Senate have noted that there is approximately $500 million of funding that is available to help mitigate budget cuts. State law authorizes the governor to use up to $50 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to address the budget shortfall, an additional $61 million in unobligated federal stimulus funding is available, and approximately $400-million in additional reserve or contingency funds is said to exist.
While The Parents’ Campaign does not advocate spending down reserve funds to dangerously low levels, we do believe that the state must take advantage of every opportunity to avoid cutting schools to a point that would compromise the quality of education provided our children.
Gov. Barbour (was not given the authority and announced) all state agencies would be cut 8.1 percent (a smaller cut than education would face under his preferred scenario). The Parents’ Campaign believes that the Legislature should retain its budget authority and decide how cuts are to be absorbed by various state agencies. We are hopeful that the Legislature will continue to see education as its top priority and will avoid making cuts to K-12 education at a level that will diminish the quality of education provided our children.
Nancy Loome
The Parents Campaign
Jackson