House and Senate leaders appear to remain at loggerheads on a $7 billion state budget, even as the deadline to fund state government for the next fiscal year approaches.
Legislators adjourned their regular session earlier this year without agreeing on a budget, with the House and Senate, both Republican led, in a bitter political fight over numerous issues. Now, they’re trying to reach a final deal before the fiscal year ends on June 30.
If lawmakers do not pass a budget before the new budget year begins July 1, then most state agencies would shut down or temporarily close, though some court rulings and legal opinions have stated that some core agencies could still function.
Rep. John Read, a Republican from Gautier who leads the House Appropriations A Committee, said budget leaders were still at an impasse when they met last week, but he believes they’ll get closer to a final deal after returning to the negotiating table this week.
“You’re trying to get from A to B, and we have three people involved in discussions now,” Read said. “And each person thinks they’re right.”
House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann would typically be the two leaders in budget negotiations. But the third person heavily involved in the discussions now is Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, the only person who can call lawmakers back into a special session.
The state Constitution gives the governor the power to set the legislative agenda for a special session, not lawmakers. This gives the constitutionally weak governor a significant boost in political power over special session work.
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but he said at a press conference recently that he wants legislative leaders to have at least a handshake agreement on the budget before calling them back to Jackson.
Numerous rank-and-file lawmakers told Mississippi Today they have not received any formal notification from legislative leaders on when a special session might happen.
One of the major sticking points between the House and Senate is whether to pass a “Christmas Tree” bill, or a bill that appropriates hundreds of millions of dollars in local projects around the state. Read said the two chambers disagreed over other spending items, but he declined to elaborate on the specific disagreements.
Christmas Tree bills are typically funded by excess state cash or borrowing, and the state currently has more than $1 billion in surplus.
Legislative leaders often use the projects bill to reward members who vote in favor of their priorities or punish members wh0 oppose their plans, something that Sen. Jeremy England, a Republican from Vancleave, acknowledged in a social media post last week.
“What is the hold-up? The answer is this: ‘Project Money’ — also commonly called ‘Christmas Tree Items’ (because these ‘projects’ are handed out to members for their local districts, sometimes promised as incentives for votes on other items — particularly in the House, like gifts),” England wrote.
Speaker White has said House members are insisting the Legislature pass a local projects bill, but Hosemann, the Senate’s president officer, has said they’re reluctant to spend any excessive revenue on local projects, given looming federal spending cuts and a volatile national economy.
“Senate leadership has met regularly with the House over the last couple of weeks, made progress on the budget, and will continue working on it this week,” Hosemann said in a statement. “We look to finalize it expeditiously. Given ongoing federal funding freezes and economic shifts, it is important that we exercise prudence in our spending as we craft this year’s budget.”
White’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but he told WAPT TV last week that an ongoing disagreement between the two chambers is over funding the public employee pension system and a Christmas Tree bill.
The first-term speaker told the outlet that he wouldn’t be “much of a leader” if he didn’t reward mayors and supervisors with local project money after they supported his effort this year to pass legislation eliminating the individual income tax.
The budget dispute comes as Mississippi is collecting less tax revenue than it did at this point last year, according to the latest revenue collections report from the Legislative Budget Office.
The report states that year-to-date revenue collections through April are more than $78 million below last year’s collections, or roughly 1.23% less than the previous year. In general, revenue collections have been trending down for months, but have been buoyed, in part, by strong interest earnings on the sizable pot of reserve funds the state has maintained.
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