In the wake of Gov. Haley Barbour’s Jan. 13 announcement of the new 2009 fiscal plan, agencies all over the state are bracing for sweeping 5 percent cuts to funding. Addressing Mississippians and the state legislature alike in his State of the State address, Barbour announced he has been forced to cut funds from virtually every agency across the board as a result of a $200 million budget shortfall.
State law requires in a case where state revenues fall short of legislature estimations, the governor must balance the state’s budget. Still, Barbour said forced cuts are not intended to be restorative and acknowledged the country’s dire economic straits as the cause for the state’s loss of revenue.
“Last January . the State of the State was good, in some ways extremely good. But I also said, ‘We have the wind at our backs, but there are storm clouds on the horizon,'” he said. “Those ‘storm clouds’ were already obvious [last year] – a weakening national [and] international economy and serious troubles in the financial market.”
Vice president for student affairs Bill Kibler said though Mississippi State will lose state funds through the fiscal plan, he expects the university to weather the storm.
“All state agencies, which includes higher education, will be cut by about 5 percent. That’s somewhere between a five- and six-million-dollar hit to Mississippi State,” he said. “The impact is not huge.”
In his address, Barbour said though Mississippi has been met with trying times, compared to its neighbors in the South, the state is doing relatively well.
“Last month, Gov. Riley of Alabama had to cut education spending for this year by $353 million dollars. Additionally, he cut general fund spending by 10 percent,” Barbour said.
Kibler said he expects on July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, the impact of the state’s finances will become increasingly significant as Barbour has suggested Mississippi will then make its own 10 percent cuts to general spending.
“We have determined how to absorb cuts without specifically going out and cutting individual college or agencies in the university, but we can only do that one time,” he said. “We will not be able to do that next fiscal year if we have the budget cuts.”
Student Association President Braxton Coombs and SA Treasurer Will Moon both said they are concerned the state’s financial course will eventually have a considerable impact on the university and the SA.
“More than likely, every entity on campus will in some way, shape or form feel the affects of budget cuts that all public universities in our state are about to undergo,” Coombs said,
Moon said though in the future the cuts could sever funding to student organizations distributed through the SA, he does not expect the SA to immediately lose appropriations.
“In my opinion, this administration has been exceptionally proactive in organizing more evens and granting more funding to university programs and organizations,” he said. “I am not expecting a decrease in the money that is allocated to the SA.”
Kibler said he is confident the SA will remain unscathed by budget cuts.
“The SA does not receive very much funding that is actual state money,” he said. “The food and beverage tax is the majority of the funding that the SA uses for its large initiatives such as the night route.”
Kibler said SA funding depends upon the success of a worsening economy. He said as the market drops and the nation consumes less, less money is collected by the Mississippi 2 percent food and beverage tax from which the SA allocates funds.
For a loss of 3.8 percent of its total budget, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program is one of the few programs not cut by the full 5 percent.
Barbour, a long time proponent of public education, said in order to balance the budget, he had no choice but to strike $76.6 million from the MAEP. He said it was a tough decision to make but is confident public schools will be able to take the loss.
“The news is not as bad as it could be,” he said. “Just as the legislature has been prudent in filling the Rainy Day Fund, our school districts have done a great job of setting aside their own Rainy Day Funds. Last month, the State Department of Education reported our local school districts have $517 million . 50 percent more than the state’s own [fund].”
Since the governor’s address, public schools and the university, as well as other state agencies, have adopted the only plan of action they can: wait and spend their resources as frugally as possible. How long they can sustain their current programs and statuses is hard to tell. With the threat of new cuts approaching in July, the storm clouds of recession do not seem to be clearing up anytime soon.