JACKSON - The Mississippi Legislature recessed on March 27 with the intent of coming back on April 20 to pass a state budget and to take care of a few other items, such as re-authorizing the Department of Employment Security.

By Friday, lawmakers had done those things, and completed a special session within the regular session to raise state retirement contributions to cover a shortfall.

While the Legislature completed all of that work Friday, the House will be back in session this morning.

Rep. Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, held for reconsideration two budget bills passed Friday by the House - the budget for the Department of Human Services and the budget for Medicaid.

Gunn didn't hold the bills because he has concerns about them, but because House Public Health Chair Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, refused to bring legislation out of his committee to prevent health insurance sold in Mississippi through the federally created exchange from paying for abortions

In a chaotic series of events Friday, Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, tried to end the 2010 session, but could not round up the votes to do so.

But if the session had concluded, the two bills Gunn held on a motion to reconsider would have died because the motions could not be tabled on the same day the bills passed.

McCoy later acknowledged that he misinterpreted the complex legislative rules.

As a result, the House will return this morning. The main business will be to table the motions to reconsider on the Medicaid and Human Services budget bills.

That would complete work on the $5.5 billion general fund budget, which legislators admit could result in layoffs and furloughs because of the dramatic drop in state tax collections.

Then, that will leave the issue of the abortion bill. Holland said he does not intend to bring up the legislation because state law already prohibits the use of public funds to pay for abortions.

"It is my opinion that the current law is sufficient to prohibit the exchanges from providing abortion coverage," Holland said. He told an Associated Press reporter that the controversy was created to help the congressional campaign of Sen. Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo.

Nunnelee said that was not true. He said he authored the bill to prevent the exchanges from offering health insurance that covers abortions because the federal law gives the states the right to enact such laws.

He said he has a long record in the state Senate of passing legislation to make it difficult to obtain abortions in Mississippi.

Under the federal health care bill passed earlier this year, the exchanges would be set up in each state to allow people to shop for private insurance. The idea in creating the exchanges is to allow people and small businesses to join together to obtain better rates like larger companies do.

But the exchanges do not take effect until 2014, meaning the state could deal with the abortion issue during the next three regular sessions.

"I want us to go on record as quickly as possible," Nunnelee said.

Some House members will try to do that today when they meet in session. But Holland said he will be in Tupelo overseeing funerals at his business.

The rift is costing an already cash-strapped state additional money. Legislators receive $116 for expenses for each day they are in session. Legislators who do not attend will not receive the money.

The financial woes facing the state were evident in the budget they passed in recent days.

"This is a difficult budget year," Barbour said.

"People had to make a lot of tough votes to reduce spending and keep the Public Employees Retirement System sound. We have a budget that's reasonable and reasonably conservative."

Nunnelee said it is too early to determine whether Barbour will have to follow through with his plan to cut the reimbursement rates to Medicaid health care providers for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends on June 30, to deal with a $14 million deficit in Medicaid. He said the Medicaid budget bill passed by the House and Senate on Friday includes a provision to use funds from an anticipated lawsuit settlement by Attorney General Jim Hood to deal with the deficit in the current fiscal year.

Also on Friday, the Senate passed the legislation increasing the contribution from 7.25 percent to 9 percent of the salary for state and local government employees, school district personnel and higher education personnel to deal with a shortfall in the Public Employees Retirement System.

The House passed the bill Thursday.

Nunnelee said additional state funds were not available to make up the shortfall, leaving no option but to take it out of the paychecks of public employees.

But Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said the state has more than $500 million in reserve funds that could have been used to plug the shortfall. Plus, he said the complex issue was rushed through the Legislature too quickly - in two days - and time was not spent exploring other options.

While the Senate has ended the 2010 session, theoretically the House could remain in session until May 3 because of the impasse over the abortion issue. The session ends automatically that day because of an earlier agreement between the House and Senate.

Contact Bobby Harrison at (601) 353-3119 or bobby.harrison@djournal.com.