Mississippi’s public schools, sheltered from earlier budget reductions, now face cuts of less than 5 percent as they join a second round of budget-trimming forced by a shaky economy.
State revenues will fall between $175 million and $310 million below estimates for the current fiscal year, prompting deeper budget cuts, Gov. Haley Barbour said Tuesday in his sixth State of the State address.
The governor said it means he can no longer exempt the Mississippi Adequate Education Program from cuts that began in November. The departments of Health and Medicaid also are at risk for first-time cuts.
Barbour’s spokesman, Dan Turner, said specifics of the cuts may be announced today. Agencies that made 2 percent cuts last November face an aggregate cut of up to 5 percent, he said.
Magnolia Tribune
