Budgets not improving for state and local governments

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March 9, 2010

Furlough, shorter school year being considered to ease school budget woes

By Jennifer Jacob Brown / jbrown@themeridianstar.com The Meridian Star The Meridian Star Tue Mar 09, 2010, 08:30 AM CST

MERIDIAN —     Like most government meetings lately, Monday's meeting of the local Council of Governments was all about budget troubles.

    From the city police chief to the state House Representative, nearly every one of the numerous government officials at the meeting said the poor economy is forcing them to take a new look at how they provide their services to the community.

    The meeting began with State Rep. Greg Snowden (R-Meridian), who said that, as tight as the state's budget is now, it's expected to get even worse.

    Snowden said FY2010 revenues are expected to be about $480 million below what was projected when this year's budget was passed. FY2011 revenues, he said, are projected at around $800 million less than what was budgeted for this year, and FY2012 revenues are projected at $1.3 billion below that amount.

    "$1.3 billion, that's about 1/5 of the budget," Snowden said. "We're going to have to have, in my opinion, some kind of fundamental structural change in our state government... We're not going to have the money we had, and it's going to mean deep cuts everywhere, particularly in our high priority areas like K-12 education."

    Those high priority areas, Snowden said, are most susceptible to budget cuts because other state agencies were already funded at a base level.

    Snowden said he expects controversial budget cut proposals, such as school consolidation, to come up again when the budget gets tighter.

    Part of the reason the state is being hit so hard by the recession, Snowden said, is because about 80 percent of state revenue comes from income tax and sales tax, which fluctuate with the economy more so than property tax.

    Lauderdale County Superintendent of Schools Randy Hodges said superintendents across the state are working to find ways to make up for cuts in funding to K-12 education.

    He said the Lauderdale County School District has been cut by $3.5 million in state funding.

    "We're spending our time, efforts, thoughts, prayers... looking at the budget and how we're going to deal with it," Hodges said.

    Two ways that schools could save money and avoid laying off teachers, he said, are by shortening the school year by five days and by imposing mandatory unpaid days off on teachers.

    Hodges said that schools could get the same number of instructional hours in 175 school days that they currently get in 180 days by adding ten minutes to each school day, and said for each furlough day for teachers, a district would be able to save 17 jobs.

    "(Superintendents) don't want to cut instructional days," he said, "but we're desperate.... We don't want to lay a teacher off. We're looking at options we may not desire, but it's better than letting a teacher go."

    But, Hodges said, the department of education must get approval from the Legislature before they have the option to shorten the school year or to furlough teachers.

    "I think the furlough has a real opportunity of passing (the Legislature)," Snowden told Hodges. "As for the instructional days, I think that's going to be more difficult. The governor has come out against it."

    Meridian Police Chief Lee Shelbourn said a lack of revenue is also affecting the police department. Currently, he said, 12 positions are unfilled in the department, but because of budgetary constraints, there are plans to fill only five of those positions.

    But Shelbourn said the department has been working to provide high quality law enforcement despite budgetary worries. He said he has been evaluating personnel and job descriptions, moving people around within the department to maximize efficiency.

    "We're focusing a whole lot more on quality instead of quantity," he said, "(We're trying) to minimize our upper echelon and get more people on the streets."

    Snowden said he believes most agencies funded by taxpayers in Mississippi are going to have to think outside of the box in order to provide quality services with less money in the coming years.

    "We have a deep situation," he said, "that we've just got to struggle through and try to make work."

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