Where Musgrove failed in requiring a court to dictate to legislators how to spend the budget, this Constitutional amendment could allow a subsequent lawsuit to succeed.
With such a possibility looming, House Appropriations Chairman Herb Frierson (R-Poplarville) recently called state agency heads to develop proposals to cover a 7.8 percent budget reduction.
It makes sense. If Initiative 42 passes, a judge might order additional funding to education. But a judge can’t order tax increases. A judge can’t order economic growth. The legislature won’t pass tax increases. The legislature also can’t order the economy to grow. So in order to increase education funding, funding for other state priorities must be decreased.
Initiative 42 proponents called this fear mongering. I call it math.
Fully funding MAEP will require serious cuts to all other functions of government. Voting for Initiative 42 takes the power out of your locally elected legislator and gives it to a judge, most likely elected in one division of Hinds County. If you don’t want cuts to job training or the Highway Patrol or rural hospitals or roads; don’t bother with your local legislators because this amendment would take that decision out of their hands.
Madison County Journal
7/22/15
