Legislature: Go slowly, but go on

The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 3/29/9

The Mississippi Legislature is right to be cautious and take it slow on developing a state budget.

There is so much uncertainty on both the revenue and expenditure side of the ledger to proceed as normal.

But economic uncertainty should not be used to procrastinate on dealing with ongoing issues the state must face with or without an economic downturn.

House and Senate leaders now are expected to recess and come back in late May or early June to finalize the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

It doesn’t look good. In fact, state economist Phil Pepper told lawmakers last week that “the worst is yet to come” with expected increases in unemployment to reach 10 percent by December.