Lawmakers and lobbyists across the state have their bags packed as speculation is swirling that Gov. Phil Bryant will call a special session of the Legislature this week to address a potential state budget shortfall.
The governor, who is the only person with legal authority to call a special session, has not confirmed whether he will summon lawmakers back under the dome. Just 10 days from the end of the current fiscal year, economists believe the state will fall short of its revenue projections, likely meaning the state’s budget would not be balanced.
Four lawmakers and three lobbyists told Mississippi Today Monday morning they are prepared to travel to the Capitol Friday should Bryant call a special session.
“Gov. Bryant is carefully watching revenues versus expenses for state government and will take proper actions to balance the budget if needed,” Bryant’s spokesperson, Clay Chandler, said. “That includes his constitutional right of calling a special session, if necessary.”
State law requires the governor to keep the budget balanced. Going into June, the state had collected $203.3 million in revenue less than expected to that point. In order to balance the budget, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said, the state needs to collect between $725 million and $750 million in June revenue. That total would be at least a 13-year record.
Reeves’ office said Monday morning they have not been made aware of any special session.
If there is a shortfall at the end of the month, Bryant likely would have to move money from reserve accounts to the general fund. Six separate funds totaling $481.1 million, including $393 million left in the Rainy Day Fund, can be used to offset any potential shortfalls at the end of this month.
Bryant already has pulled $45.2 million from the Rainy Day Fund this fiscal year to offset lower-than-expected revenue, but he only has the legal authority to pull $50 million per fiscal year from that fund. If more than $4.8 million is needed from that fund to balance the budget, the Legislature would have to convene in Jackson to sign off on that action.
Many lawmakers and state elected officials have called for a special session for sundry reasons. Most recently, Democratic lawmakers publicly urged a special session to deal with budget concerns for both the current fiscal year and next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Another point of contention for officials has been the passing of a law that sweeps certain special funds into the general fund and disallows inter-agency transfers. Numerous agency heads have publicly criticized state leaders as they’ve planned their upcoming fiscal year budgets. The Legislative Budget Office expects to use more than $54 million in special fund sweeps in this current fiscal year’s budget, according to a report the office released last week.
“The only way to stop this runaway train and restore fiscal sanity is for the governor to call a special session to deal with this budget mess ASAP,” said Rep. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, who is House minority leader.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
As the Legislature sweeps special funds into the general fund, expect more top-level retirements and resignations at state agencies.