Trying To Sort Through The Budget Restoration Bills

Well, it looks like there is a final bill to restore some budget cuts that is on its way to the House. The Senate bill takes $58 million from the health care trust fund and would give back approximately $28 million to public education. Yesterday’s bill would restore about $45 million to education with an additional $5 million for the governor to use at his digression.

The House bill used $100 million from one-time funds to restore cuts made by Haley Barbour.

So obviously the two chambers are now going to have to work on their differences. Sen. Hob Bryan (D-Amory) said, “We’re trying to pass legislation that we might agree on and get passed.” And it passed the Senate. That doesn’t mean leaders in the House are going to like it. House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown (D-Jackson) has already said the bill doesn’t go far enough for his liking saying, “We think we need more money.”

Also today, Barbour announced another round of cuts as expected. The governor ordered $21 million in new cuts as January revenues came in 11 percent lower than anticipated. In his press release, Barbour also made note of the lack of funds for the Department of Corrections in the bills that passed the House ($0) and Senate ($4 million).

Here are the agency budget cuts made by the governor

The interesting thing I see here is the education vs. Corrections debate. Obviously, we know who is going to win that debate when it comes to politicians facing re-election in less than two years.

There is no lobbying group parading around Jackson pressing for additional funds to Corrections like there is with education. We could sit here and debate all day long about the importance of both and where the money should go. Nobody wants to be soft on crime (for the most part), but even less people want to be against education.