Legislative Update 70

March 06, 2010

Dear Friend,

2010 Budget Agreement Reached (Again)

It didn’t happen as quickly as I would have liked but it looks like we may finally be able to close the books on the budget for 2010. After vetoing the first Budget Compromise Plan, the Governor offered his support to Senate Bill 2495, a measure that restores $82 million of the $458.5 million in cuts made by the Governor. In its amended form, SB 2495 restores over $37.1 million to K-12 education, including $2 million for National Board Certified teachers, $4 million to mental health, $1.7 million to public safety and $16 million to the Department of Corrections. In addition to these restorations, the Governor has also agreed to restore $4 million to our community and junior colleges from his discretionary stimulus funds. Much of the budget restoration funds will come from the Health-Care Expendable Fund, and from smaller sources such as $14 million in Medicaid “clawback” funds. None will come from the so-called “Rainy Day Fund” which has a balance of $230 million, the Health-Care Trust Fund ($220 million balance) or Katrina Fund ($128 million balance).

Semantics and the Budget

In my last update, I urged you to support the first Budget Compromise Plan (Senate Bill 2688), a measure that would have restored much needed funds to education, law enforcement, and mental health. The Governor vetoed that bill about the same time my update was reaching your in-box.

According to his veto message, the Governor vetoed the first Budget Compromise Plan, a plan that spent $79 million, on the basis that “it spends too much”. Interestingly, within the week, the Governor was backing a plan that spent $82 million or $3 million more than the plan he had just vetoed. I mention this to make the point that all the talk about the Legislature “raiding our reserves” is just that, talk. No serious person involved in this process has argued that we won’t have to use some of reserve funds to save jobs and programs including the Governor. Yet, when it is politically expedient for the Governor or a member of the legislature to criticize a funding plan, you will inevitably hear about the other side leading some type of “raid on our reserves”. This year’s budget presents serious challenges. If we hope to have a budget approved within the month, we’ll have to rise above slight of the hand semantics and get serious.

It is important, however, that we remain careful with our reserve funds. As bad as this fiscal year has been, it is possible that the next year or two could be worse. I can assure that I am committed to keeping an eye on the future during our budget negotiations. In fact, the first Budget Compromise Bill we sent to the Governor used only a fraction of our reserve funds, spending $79 million of the $608 million contained in the “Rainy Day Fund”, Health Care Trust Fund, Health Care Expendable Fund, and the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Fund. I do not believe it would be a good idea to drain our savings accounts when we have rough times ahead. This plan met that criteria.

Bill Update Next Week

Wednesday is our deadline to pass bills that originated in the other chamber. After that deadline has passed, I’ll let you know what survived.

How To Contact Me

As always, I invite you to call me on my cell phone at 228-326-7649 or e-mail me at bjones@house.ms.gov. For real time updates, you can also follow me on Twitter under the user name "brandoncjones". If you haven't heard of Twitter, you can check out my page at http://twitter.com/brandoncjones or by following the link on my website. Please feel free to forward this report to folks in our district and let me know if I need to add someone to my list. You can follow legislative proceedings by going to www.ls.state.ms.us.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve,

Brandon