Mississippi Senate Report. May 29, 2009
For previous 2009 Legislative Reports and to find out more about Senator Kelvin Butler go to http://www.kelvinbutler.com/
Senator Kelvin Butler is Chairman of the Local & Private committee. He also serves on the Business & Financial Institutions; Finance; Judiciary, Division A; Municipalities; State Library; Highways & Transportation and Tourism committee.
As Senate conferees continue to negotiate with House members on how best to craft the 2010 budget, we all agree that education funding should not be cut.
We have assured our national board certified teachers that we in the Senate are doing everything we can to ensure that they continue to receive their $6,000 annual salary supplement.
The state is fortunate to have nearly 3,000 teachers who took it upon themselves to further their educations in order to give our school children the best possible opportunities to learn, which we commend.
The sticking point in negotiations has been the funding of Medicaid, according to our conferees. The sentiment at this time is that there will be no hospital assessments.
We now know how we can spend the $1.2 billion in federal stimulus money over a three year period. However, to make the 2010 budget work, we will have to use $95 million from our reserve funds while hoping the economy begins to improve.
We are scheduled to close out this regular session on June 3, which would not require extra money in these trying financial times.
Senator Kelvin Butler
5/29/9
Magnolia Tribune
