Jackson Free Press

In his final budget recommendations before leaving office, Gov. Haley Barbour put everything from Mississippi Public Broadcasting to the Egg Marketing Board on the chopping block Tuesday.

This week, in his $5.48 billion state-spending plan for fiscal year 2013, Barbour called for a 2.9 percent average funding reduction to various state agencies.

"We need to return to discipline," said Barbour, who will leave office in January.

As part of that discipline, Barbour said that community colleges should learn how to self-fund athletics programs and that Mississippi Public Broadcasting should take a lesson about how to be profitable without government help from Nickelodeon and other broadcasting entities that provide programming for children.

His $2.1 billion appropriation for K-12 education represents a 1.4 percent decrease, achieved primarily by reducing administrative expenses and consolidating school districts. Barbour said that while nationally K-12 schools spend 7.6 percent on administrative costs, Mississippi spends 
8.8 percent.

"If we reduce ours to the national average, we would save $24 million a year," Barbour said. He added that consolidating some school districts would improve the quality of education. If school districts overspend, he said that those districts would be able to borrow money from the state to meet any budget shortfalls.

Under his college consolidation proposal, which he floated in previous budgets, Jackson State University would absorb Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University; Mississippi University for Women would join Mississippi State University. All of the campuses would remain open, but the mergers would save the state $10 million, Barbour said.

Barbour recommended budget increases for a few areas. In addition to a 
35.6 percent increase for the state crime lab and a 
41.1 percent increase for the state medical examiner's office, Barbour wants to hire more auditors to collect what he said is the 5 percent in state taxes that 
go uncollected.

"I'm not for raising peoples' taxes, but I am for collecting the taxes that are owed to us," Barbour said.