Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Tuesday he will "put all the cards on the table face up" next week about possible school consolidation and other proposed budget changes.
Barbour, speaking with reporters by teleconference from Baghdad, says the budget proposal he’ll release next Monday will include plans to restructure parts of state government.
He said the cuts won’t be ‘‘Draconian’’ for the fiscal year that begins next July 1. But he also says the state can’t afford ‘‘business as usual’’ because of the struggling economy.
The governor, in Iraq where he and three other governors are visiting troops on a trip sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department, warned again of the need for future cuts when federal stimulus money runs out.
"You may see us having to find another $500 million to $600 million in savings in 2012 above what we have to find this year and in 2011," Barbour said. "We're going to have to make more big savings in 2012 — even if revenues stop declining."
The governor’s budget presentation is one of several steps in preparing a state spending plan. Top lawmakers will release their own recommendations Dec. 2, then the full House and Senate will vote on a budget early next year.
Barbour and the governors of Georgia, Oregon and Wyoming are on a trip sponsored by the Department of Defense.
The trip was announced only after the governors arrived Tuesday. Barbour was in Washington earlier this week. He and the other governors were briefly in Kuwait before visiting U.S. troops in Iraq, including some from the Mississippi National Guard’s 155th Brigade Combat Team.
More than 3,000 members of the 155th are deployed in Iraq, and it’s the second tour of duty for many in the unit.
Barbour told reporters during a conference call that he can’t reveal where else the governors will go or when they’ll return. In 2005, Barbour and other governors traveled to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He said things are much improved this time because of the increase in troops. Barbour said he hopes President Obama will support Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for additional troops.
"If he does (add more troops), I'll publicly applaud him for that," Barbour said. "If he does not, I'm not going to criticize him ... politics ought to stop at the water's edge (during times of conflict)."
Barbour said he's pleased with what he's seen during this visit and that "only with the surge have we broken the back of this insurgency."
Meridian Star Editor Fredie Carmichael and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Barbour talks budget, troop levels from Iraq
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