Jackson Free Press

Cutting state agencies, some by more than 10 percent, is bad. Cutting state agencies and then offering up a tax-break bill that will divert even more money from the state's general fund is plain stupid. It's not difficult math. If revenue shortages lead to tight budgets, that's understandable to a point. If they lead to tight budgets and cuts, and then you offer a deal to divert (a kind word for cut) about 7 percent of the state's general fund in 12 years, that doesn't add up. Less money plus less money does not equal more funding.

This week, lawmakers proved they either don't know how to do math or genuinely refuse to accept mathematical logic for the sake of making good on campaign promises. Gov. Phil Bryant's words at the Neshoba County Fair last year as he campaigned for re-election seem to haunt the halls of the Capitol: "I've cut taxes 49 times in my tenure, and if I am re-elected, we are going to make that an even 50!" Fast forward to January, revenues already coming up short, Bryant cut most agency budgets by 1.5 percent. A few months later, some agencies, let's take the Department of Human Services for example, is looking at a 13-percent budget cut for fiscal year 2017. The mental-health and health departments are in equally bad shape.

On deadline day, lawmakers were recommitting budget bills to conference, instilling little confidence in those paying attention that the state's budget is in decent shape at all. Last weekend, Appropriations Chairmen Rep. Herb Frierson, R-Poplarville, and Sen. Buck Clarke, R-Hollandale, told the Associated Press they were cutting about $73 million from earlier budget plans. Several state agencies will receive cuts of anywhere between 2 and 12 percent. With cuts that severe, diverting any money from the state's coffers does not make sense. Clarke told the Senate the Taxpayer Pay Raise Act will only divert about $3 million from the state's coffers in the first year.

In the House, bill advocates used a "two years" meme to assure lawmakers that a tax study would be conducted, and the bill wouldn't really take effect for two years. Some parts of the bill won't go into effect until 2018, but the point is, the timing isn't going to stop money from leaving the general fund. Department of Finance estimates the bill could cost the state $415 million in 12 years. The number could be higher or lower, but that's negligible.

The $3 million the Taxpayer Pay Raise Act will cost the state in the next fiscal year could have made cuts a little less extreme this year: Cuts could have gone from $73 million to $70 million. Party politics and making good on campaign promises should never trump common sense—or in this case, math, which leads us to ask lawmakers a question

Will you bite the bullet and take responsibility for underfunding multiple state agencies (and likely continuing to do so), possibly leading to salary cuts or job losses because you chose to give every (income) taxpayer a pay raise?

Or will you continue to boast about your lack of mathematical sense and cash in on those great "pay raises" you gave Mississippians? We'll see.