With his sights set on invigorating Mississippi’s anemic economy, Gov. Haley Barbour unveiled his 2011 fiscal year budget proposal Monday. His announcement was immediately followed by sighs of confusion and grumblings from legislators and officials across the state.
“It’s like he’s trying to drop an atomic bomb on state government,” Rep. Steve Holland (D-Lee) said. “If he was going for shock and awe, he did a good job.”
Holland said the budget proposal calls for a wholesale change to the face of the entire state government.
It proposes cuts to public education at almost every level, cuts to the state’s mental health programs and cuts to Medicaid. It would combine some state agencies and defund a few commissions and boards. Barbour also suggested nearly one third of the state’s school districts consolidate and eight of Mississippi’s state-funded universities be merged into five.
The universities the governor has proposed to merge are Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University into Jackson State University, and merging Mississippi University for Women with Mississippi State University.
This is not the first time a governor has proposed educational consolidation. Holland said the issue has come up every year since he has been a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1985.
“I voted in 1986 in favor of consolidation, and it was akin to being torn apart,” he said. “It comes up every year, and every year it goes down like the damn Titanic.”
MUW President Claudia Limbert said she feels the merger would have a negative impact on the community, region and state.
“There is little support for a merger in the Legislature,” she said. “According to local legislators, [there is] no explanation provided of merger details, and no clear evidence that a merger would result in significant savings for the state.”
MSU President Mark Keenum said he does not anticipate much political support for a merger of the universities.
“My focus is on MSU; that’s what is important right now,” Keenum said. “I’m not going to dwell on potential mergers when I’ve been given a mandate by IHL to come up with a 13 percent cut for fiscal year 2011, and a 23 percent cut for fiscal year 2012.”
Historically, the Legislature has generally ignored governors’ budget proposals, but a proposition of this magnitude is unprecedented. Barbour said he feels the budget is drastic, but not draconian.
Barbour proposes spending $5.5 billion in FY 2011, which begins July 1. That would be $715 million less than the current budget. He said this reduced figure reflects an anticipated sluggish economic recovery in the coming years.
“They’re some pretty draconian requests,” Holland said. “I’m not going to fight this tooth and nail just yet; we need to see how it’s going to pan out. But the fact of the matter is, we have a very real budget crisis, and we have to look at what’s on hand right now.