Jackson Free Press

Politicians, especially the tight-fisted ones, love to compare the government to your home. When money is tight at home, they'll explain condescendingly, you may have to send your toaster to a repair shop, put off that Disney family vacation or drive that old clunker around for another year or two.

These gross over-simplifications scream of tone deafness.

The fact of the matter is that most people we know aren't choosing between Mickey Mouse and Mercedes-Benzes. They're calculating precisely how far a couple bags of groceries will stretch in feeding their families until the next payday. Or they're asking themselves whether this month's payment to the electric company takes precedence over the payment for the Internet service their children need to complete their homework. Or they're putting off going to the doctor when they get sick because even if they have insurance, the co-pays and price of medicines is more expensive than they can afford right now.

This week, the Mississippi Legislature cleared its plate of general bills and looked toward crafting a budget plan that is sure to involve making some of the same gut-wrenching choices.

Former Gov. Haley Barbour set the tone and provided cover for the leaders in the executive and legislative branches who succeeded him. Before he left office, he recommended 2.9 percent in cuts to state agency budgets and called for consolidation of public-school districts and historically black colleges and universities. Gov. Phil Bryant upped Barbour's ante with the 5.35 percent average cut he laid out in the executive budget recommendation he presented in February.

Our elected leaders have repeatedly told Mississippians to get used to having fewer state-supported services to rely on. But Medicaid isn't a toaster that can be jerry rigged to keep it from falling apart; it's more like the minor—albeit costly—surgery you undergo to keep your whole leg from falling off five years from now.

With state economist Darren Webb's announcement this week of $99 million more coming to the state treasury this year than predicted, lawmakers can have a serious discussion about putting money where it needs to go rather than asking what cuts bring the fewest political consequences.

Lawmakers who received the positive revenue prognosis with caution are probably justified in their trepidation. After all, $99 million is by no means a windfall or a cure-all for the state's myriad problems. And, given the shaky state of the recovery, those gains could disappear in no time.

However, the sum may be just enough to stave off many of the unkindest cuts to public education, Medicaid, mental-health care and other safety-net programs that most states have fought through in recent years. Lawmakers should go slowly in allocating in the extra money, but Mississippians can't afford for them to sit on it, either.