The Legislative Budget Committee’s official recommendation for state spending in fiscal year 2011, beginning July 1, 2010, reflects hard times and virtually assures loss of state jobs and services in some categories. But a lot of politics and bargaining involving the governor and both chambers will come before adoption.

The $5.64 billion recommended by the bipartisan, bicameral committee, chaired this year by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, is slightly higher than the $5.5 billion recommended in Gov. Barbour’s executive budget.

The Barbour budget would make cuts of about 11 percent, the legislative budget about 9 percent.

The details and differing proposals in the gap between the two recommendations suggest hard, complex and probably controversial work ahead.

The governor’s and the committee’s budgets both would reduce funding for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the bedrock financial formula designed to assure enough money to pay for an adequate education in every district. We hope many legislators think long and hard before further reducing such basic funding – cuts that could place some districts in dire straits and require local property tax increases just to stay even.

Almost every state has significant budget problems. The non-profit and non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has said in its reporting and analysis that the depth of state spending cuts, service reductions and government layoffs could slow down the nationwide economic recovery, a factor we hope legislators will consider in working out Mississippi’s 2011 spending.

The loss of state spending will, of course directly affect families whose wage-earners lose their jobs or are laid off.

With a planned reduction in contract spending, the business sector stands to feel the pain because revenue from goods and services will dry up, placing additional pressure on employment in the private sector.

In the face of losing even more economic activity the Legislature should examine the potential in historically effective investments like infrastructure, which creates and/or increases private jobs.

While increasing taxation hasn’t been seriously mentioned yet as a possibility in Mississippi (although increasing some fees is part of the legislative proposal), a majority of states nationwide are enacting or considering tax increases.

The policy center says “many more states ... will need to consider tax increases or other revenue measures, as well as such steps as tapping state rainy day funds, as a way to minimize harmful budget cuts.”

A spirit of bipartisanship obviously is needed to craft a reasonable budget.