NEWS

Legislative budget panel proposes cuts, layoffs

Geoff Pender
The Clarion-Ledger

The Legislature's budget panel proposes eliminating 1,999 unfilled state government positions and removing most agencies from civil service protection to allow agency directors to eliminate staff and positions.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee — House Speaker Philip Gunn, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and key House and Senate leaders — on Thursday adopted a frugal spending proposal for the coming budget year. The plan includes expected savings of $13 million from removing most state agencies from State Personnel Board protection, which would allow agency directors to more easily lay off people and eliminate positions. It also would "delete" unfilled positions and funding for them.

"A number of agencies have said they could be more efficient and provide better services at less cost if they had more flexibility — including Dr. (Mary) Currier at the Department of Health," said Gunn, who is chair of the JLBC this year. "... That's what agencies are telling us: better services at lower cost. Don't forget the better services part."

The proposed budget also banks on savings from a 20 percent, or $12 million, cutting out-of-state travel for state employees and placing a moratorium on state government buying new cars.

Reeves described the LBR as "a conservative budget that forces agencies to be more mindful of how they spend taxpayer dollars while funding priorities like highway patrol officers, public schools and foster care."

The proposal adopted by the JLBC is a starting point in setting a state budget, which the full Legislature must adopt in the legislative session that begins Jan. 3.

Some highlights of the Joint Legislative Budget Recommendation for fiscal 2018:

2017 Legislature preview

► The total proposed "state support" budget is $6.162 billion, which is $195.3 million, or 3 percent, less than the fiscal 2017 budget after recent cuts ordered by Gov. Phil Bryant. Budget leaders project only small growth, 1.8 percent, in state revenue in fiscal 2018 over the current year's collections.

► The proposal calls for "level funding" of the main K-12 public education budget at $2.24 billion, but calls for increased spending of $20.4 million for the "School Recognition Program," which would provide up to $100 per pupil for schools that achieve high ratings or show great improvement.

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► The proposal would cut the budget for most larger state agencies. The list below shows the agency or category, recommended amount of state funding, and percentage cut compared to the current year:

Medicaid: $909.3 million, 2.5 percent

Universities: $377 million, 6.7 percent

Corrections: $309.9 million, 3.3 percent

Community colleges: $242.5 million, 6.5 percent

Mental Health: 233.3 million, 3.2 percent

University Medical Center: $173.8 million, 2.2 percent

► The budget plan includes savings recommended by panels of lawmakers who met through the summer looking for ways to save money in state agencies. These projected savings include"

$19 million, from a moratorium on agencies buying vehicles

$12 million -- about a 20 percent reduction -- in agencies' spending on travel, primarily out-of-state travel.

$4.5 million in cuts in programs for students graduating high school needing remediation courses when they start at a college or university. Gunn said lawmakers identified "duplication" in spending by high schools and colleges and universities on remedial programs. Such remedial spending tops $35 million some years, lawmakers said.

$13 million from removing state employees from civil service protection, allowing directors to more easily eliminate or shift staff and positions in state agencies.

► The proposal would reinstate the "2-percent set aside" rule, and spend only 98 percent of state revenue, and help refill the state's rainy day fund. The proposed plan does not spend any "one-time" money on recurring expenses, a practice Reeves and Gunn say leads to worse budget problems down the road.

► The proposed budget includes $340,000 for pay increases approved in 2015 for Department of Public Safety's sworn officers including highway patrol.

► It also includes nearly $600,000 for the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which are set to open next year as part of the state's bicentennial celebration.

► The JLBC proposal leaves $641 million of state funds "unallocated," including the state's rainy day fund, various special fund balances and $108.6 million from the state's first settlement payment from the BP oil disaster.

Mississippi State Capitol