Jackson Free Press

Also see Ayana's Guide to Need-to-Know Capitol Poop

In 2003, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove fulfilled an election-year promise to fully fund public education first, before other spending. Legislators, also up for re-election, responded in February by agreeing to devote 62 percent of the overall budget on ensuring "Adequate" funding for K-12, as well as higher-education funding.

Until then, the Legislature had come in $136 million shy of what was allocated under Mississippi's Adequate Funding clause for public ed for 2001 through 2003 to ensure that public schools were granted a baseline of funding. Gov. William Winter's education reforms in 1982 brought state funding to 46.5 percent of the budget pie. But over the years, the percentage kept falling as other programs, especially for health care and prisons, took up more of the budget. In 1997, the Legislature tried to remedy the problem by passing the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), requiring the state to make up for shortfalls between poor and property-rich districts. Alas, though, the Legislature went back on its promise, underfunding MAEP by $59 million. That changed last year—at least temporarily. But the up-front education funding inevitably caused budget nightmares in other areas in a state where new taxes are thought to be akin to SARS. During the session, the Legislative Budget Committee made recommendations for budget cuts for the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2005. It proposed cutting more than $200 million from educational funding for kindergarten through grade 12.

"We're in a difficult budget situation," said Steve Williams, senior assistant to the State Superintendent of Education, "but the (legislative) session has just gotten under way and we don't have a real feel for what kind of cuts will be made."

Some lawmakers are making noise that education will again be first. Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson, told the Associated Press: "We will fund education very early in this term. Teacher pay is a top priority." The Joint Legislative Budget Committee recommends that the Legislature allocate $2.5 billion for fiscal-year 2005 for both K-12 and higher ed, as well as $95 million full funding for teacher pay raises.

Arts Funding
The Legislative Budget Committee also recommended that about $103,000 of the Mississippi Arts Commission's budget be cut. The commission has broken ground with its Whole School Initiative, which uses the arts as a teaching tool. Lee Ann Powell, deputy director of the commission, said that the proposed budget cuts could affect that program. Whenever there are budget cuts, the commission generally distributes them across the board to minimize their effect, she said. Besides affecting Whole Schools programs, funding cuts could mean that there would be only three rounds of mini grants for next fiscal year, instead of four, Powell said. Mini grants help community organizations and agencies fund arts programs.

But, I Want to Graduate
Both teachers and students in public higher education in Mississippi are feeling the crunch of the budget crisis. Some students are reporting showing up at college and finding out that their majors have been eliminated. And many instructors are looking wistfully toward other states as their salaries pale in comparison—average salaries here are $7,000 behind other southeastern colleges, Pam Smith, deputy higher education commissioner, told the AP. She said the state College Board will ask the Legislature to fund a 12-percent hike over three years for state college faculty. There is also a salary disparity here between the three historically black universities versus the other five that needs to be closed. The Legislative Budget Committee also recommended a $72 million cut to universities. And if significant cuts are made, university officials have said they will have to consider tuition hikes—again.

Jackpot Frustration
It's not likely to be tort reform's year, even if big-industry million helped Haley Barbour take the governor's mansion. The tide has turned against tort reform. The General Accounting Office of Congress found in 2003 that, while doctors are certainly facing outrageous medical malpractice premiums, the business practices of the insurance industry are as much, if not more, to blame as frivolous lawsuits. This type of critical analysis has slowed the moves for both federal and state tort reforms. That said, tort-reformers' biggest problem in Mississippi is House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, who seems immune to the overtures of big money and lobbyists, barring some brilliant back-room deals straight from K Street. McCoy prevailed over an industry-backed foe in November and then won the Speaker position—from which he will likely block efforts to further limit lawsuits and damages. Unfortunately, though, that probably also means that hearings about the role of the insurance industry in imposing ridiculously high premiums will also not happen. During his campaign, Musgrove told the JFP he would likely call for such hearings for a balanced look at these problems. Oh well.

Crime Wars
The state faces severe juvenile-justice problems (including needed reforms at Oakley and Columbia youth training schools); an unreliable public-defender system that allows too many criminals to walk; the expensive costs of prisons; and the high costs of truth-in-sentencing laws. Barbour said recently that he would oppose any weakening of truth-in-sentencing laws after Corrections Commission Chris Epps, whom Barbour retained in his position, said that the state should consider alternatives to long and expensive prison sentences, especially for prisoners who are in prison for drug-related crimes. According to the McComb Enterprise-Journal, Mississippi has the second-highest rate of incarceration in the country, imprisoning 743 inmates per 100,000 in 2002. Barbour prefers to use more private prisons and regional jails, saying that will save taxpayers money.

During the campaign, Barbour also pledged to send attorneys from the Attorney General's office to Hinds to help prosecute cases—help D.A. Faye Peterson says she doesn't need, and that may get in the way. The idea may, though, die as the heat of campaign rhetoric cools and if crime continues to fall in Jackson.