JACKSON – Mississippi will move into the upcoming fiscal year with a budget that once again depends heavily on one-time money.

While the Legislature passed the state budget about a month ago and concluded the 2010 session, the final action for the fiscal year starting July 1 occurred late last week when Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law the more than 100 appropriations bills that fund state government.

If the state gets more federal stimulus funds later this summer, an additional $110 million will be added to the general fund budget, bringing the total appropriation to $5.60 billion. That number represents $28.4 million more than will be spent during the current fiscal year.

The $110 million would be in addition to the $383.3 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds already plugged into the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The budget for the upcoming year, like the current one, is heavily dependent on federal stimulus funds and one-time money from a variety of sources.

In past years, Barbour and many legislators have bemoaned the use of one-time money to fund recurring expenses. But that was before the current two-year unprecedented drop in state tax collections.

Now, the Legislature and the governor have basically agreed to use the one-time money and now are spending one-time funds at record levels.

For the upcoming budget year, almost $850 million in one-time funds will be plugged into the general fund budget.

One-time money can mean a lot of different things.

It can be, for instance, money recouped by the attorney general’s office as a result of a lawsuit settlement. Or it may mean taking funds from a reserve account, such as the rainy day fund or Health Care Trust Fund, or from a surplus that an agency might have.

The federal stimulus funds also are viewed as one-time money.

Essentially, funds are considered one-time money if it takes a change in law for them to be spent as part of the state’s general fund.

The amount of one-time funds used to support the upcoming budget is roughly the same amount that legislators and Barbour used last year.

In April, when the Legislature passed the budget, Barbour said, “While it’s not exactly the way I would have done it, it’s a truly balanced budget that preserves the appropriate amounts of the Health Care Trust Fund and the rainy day fund to be used in the next two budget years.”

Barbour did veto two aspects of the budget – $20 million from a Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund to help lower the cost of homeowner insurance on the Gulf Coast and a portion of the Department of Public Safety budget that designated compensatory pay for troopers of a certain rank.

Included in the overall budget package was an increase of 2.75 percent in the amount taken from the checks of government employees for their retirement benefits. With the change, government employees will now contribute 9 percent of their salary toward their pension plan.

In signing the legislation increasing the withholding, Barbour said, “While employee contributions have not increased in almost 20 years, the state contribution into the system has steadily risen to 12 percent. I believe this legislation rightly brings more equity among payments made by employees – those who benefit from the retirement system – and taxpayers.”

Despite the additional money state employees and teachers are paying toward the retirement system and the more than $800 million in one-time money, the new budget is expected to lead to the loss of teacher positions, the possible layoff of state employees and furloughs of teachers and state employees.

That, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who advocated the use of more one-time funds in the budget, will result in the loss of government services, including mental health, law enforcement and education.



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