Barbour budget: Legislature faces prioritizing

The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 1/28/8

As he telegraphed in both his inaugural address and in his “State of the State” address earlier this month, Gov. Haley Barbour recommended an austere state budget totaling $5.6 billion.

Simply put, Barbour’s budget says “no” to most state agency requests for additional funding.

“This is a tight budget because this is a tight revenue situation,” Barbour said Thursday during the press conference in which he unveiled his executive budget recommendation. “For these departments and agencies to operate at level funding should not be that difficult because they’ve had significant increases in the past.”