Republican Haley Barbour is in his seventh year as Mississippi governor, and legislators still haven't overturned any of his vetoes.

That doesn't mean Barbour wins every political battle at the state Capitol. It's a strong sign, however, that he knows to count votes and how to persuade, cajole or intimidate enough lawmakers into doing much of what he wants.

It probably doesn't hurt that Barbour is a campaign fundraising dynamo with a political action committee that contributes to candidates. As former head of the Republican National Committee and former Washington lobbyist, he can tap his connections to raise money for the group he calls Haley's PAC.

Overriding a veto takes a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate — a steep margin.

Barbour is already pledging to strike down a bill that won final legislative approval last week. It proposes taking $79 million from the state's financial reserves and using it to restore more than one-fifth of the budget cuts Barbour has made, because of declining revenues, since the fiscal year started last July 1.

Barbour says the bill would diminish the state's savings accounts and that it would put too much into elementary and secondary education and not enough into community colleges, prisons and other programs.

Supporters of the $79 million restoration say Barbour is pitting community colleges against K-12 schools and is sacrificing education to protect corrections, including some privately run prisons. They also point out that Mississippi has about $500 million in reserves.

"Philosophically, the governor wants to reduce the size of government," said Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory. "He doesn't understand apparently, except for the Department of Corrections, that state revenue, by and large, goes to the core functions of government."

Bryan said records show that since 1995, Mississippi has doubled its spending on public education and tripled its spending on corrections.

Barbour and his allies, including Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Alan Nunnelee, say if the state budget looks bad now, it will look even worse in next two years, with millions of federal stimulus dollars disappearing.

The $79 million restoration passed the 122-member House with a strongly bipartisan 106 votes. The Senate vote of 26-22 was enough for a simple majority to pass the bill, but significantly short of a two-thirds margin for an override.

Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, said he will give Barbour's opponents a chance to attempt an override. As chairman, he could simply ignore the veto and let the governor's position go unchallenged, but Nunnelee said that would be bad public policy.

"It's some of the highest drama you see in the legislative process, and I have dealt with three different governors' vetoes," Nunnelee said. "They all work very hard to try to uphold their position."

Four Republicans voted with 22 Senate Democrats for the budget restoration. One Democrat voted with 21 Republicans against it. Three Democrats were absent.

Some senators could change their votes on an attempted override, but Republican Sen. Billy Hudson of Hattiesburg said he's resolved to stick with his support of the bill because he believes it would help schools.

"I don't think we can vote to override him," Hudson said. "But I'd do it in a minute, sure."