Now that the state’s legislative leaders have released the proposed 2018 fiscal year budget, what’s next? 

The proposed $5.8 billion general fund plan – a plan that is $134 million less than the current fiscal year budget – and the reduction will affect state agencies and departments. Though disappointed to not see more funding, the heads of several local agencies and departments say cuts for the next fiscal year will require a few adjustments, but most say nothing drastic.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, announced last month he was cutting $20 million from the state’s $6.3 billion budget, and withdrawing another $39 million from the state’s savings account to cover shortfalls. Bryant chopped the budget three previous times in the current budget year.

Bryant has reduced budgets by a total of $171 million, plus drawn down $50 million from the state’s rainy day fund. The governor has asked Mississippi lawmakers to give him additional authority to make withdrawals from the state savings accounts. Bryant said he needs the authority to prevent additional cuts before the budget year ends June 30.

Taking the hardest hits will be mental health programs and the arts – the first supports a growing population of people diagnosed with mental illnesses; the latter, an all-too-familiar culprit of budget cuts.

Following are reactions from representatives of a sample of local agencies and departments.

Mental Health

With the proposed budget, East Mississippi State Hospital, which treats patients in need of psychiatric care and more, could face a cut of more than $2.6 million, according to the Mississippi Legislative Budget Office.

The facility’s officials requested $61.5 million; the legislature recommended $55.6 million.

In anticipation of cuts, EMSH consolidated its adolescent chemical dependency unit last month, losing 25 of 50 beds, but kept the unit open and didn’t lose any employees, according to EMSH director Charles Carlisle.

“But that’s not going to happen with the next round (of proposed budget cuts),” Carlisle said.

Carlisle could not release more information about the effects of cuts until after April’s board meeting, but expressed concern that services and positions could be reduced if the proposed budget went into effect.

Though Weems Community Mental Health Center won’t be directly affected by cuts (their funding comes mostly from Medicaid), cuts at EMSH and to the state’s only Crisis Stabilization Unit in Newton will indirectly affect Weems.

“In a state like Mississippi, we need more mental health funding,” Maurice Kahlmus, the executive director, said. “If the Department (of Mental Health) gets cuts, it’s going to affect us.”

Kahlmus said without beds available at EMSH and the crisis unit, those seeking mental health treatment end up in the streets or in jail, which affects the whole community.

“It’s a ripple-down effect,” Kahlmus said.

Education

Funding for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program – the formula that dictates how much money goes to school districts each year – is about $40 million less than last year. Three local educators shed some light on how the cuts could affect local schools and colleges.

Lauderdale County School District Superintendent Randy Hodges said the challenge for his district – as well as school districts across the state – is having to operate and manage in survival mode.

“You can’t be as proactive or progressive as you would like to be because of the money restraints and the reality of what we don’t have budget wise,” he said.

Hodges said a cut in staff is not something they want to do, but necessary.

“Because of the loss of students (208 students in the last two years), that cost us close to a million dollars,” he said. “When you lose money from the state, you have no choice but to revisit how you use personnel. This year we are having to look at not filling positions from retired teachers.

“Personnel is 80 percent of the budget and that is the only place you can cut back significantly. The negative side of that is we will have larger classrooms, but we are in a situation where we don’t have a choice.”

Also affected, technology.

“Like most school districts, technology is getting further behind, especially with replacing old school buses and facility needs,” Hodges said. “Our buildings were built in the ‘60s and we are doing a great job, but they still have that much age on them.”

According to Hodges, if you are a student in Mississippi, where you live determines your advantages and disadvantages on school funding.

“It affects you If you live where your tax base mill is not worth as much as another school district that has a tax base support,” he said. “We are a county school district and we have a rural tax base, which is not going to be like Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, for example.

“That generates big tax dollars for the school, where in the county system you don’t have that advantage. That’s why I know state and federal funding is so important.”

Hodges said the school system that has an adequate tax base can have smaller classes, auditoriums, and artificial turf on their football fields.

“Things we would all love to have,” he said. “I hope the new school funding formula we have all heard so much about takes into account there needs to be an equal way to fund schools across the state, and not so much of it depend on where you live.”

State support of community colleges will be reduced by about $28 million for FY18, and Meridian Community College’s part of that cut will be more than $1.4 million, according to MCC President Scott Elliott.

“The college has already absorbed over $1.1 million in state cuts over the past two fiscal years,” Elliott said. “Suffice it to say, for one of the state’s smaller community colleges, those kinds of reductions are game-changers. For instance, I think you can look for virtually every community college in the state to increase the cost of tuition percentage-wise much more than usual. That is a regrettable outcome because one of the tenets of the community college movement in America has always been to make higher education readily accessible, especially to those students who are socio-economically challenged.”

Cutting travel, equipment and supplies is an option the college has pretty much been exhausted in coping with past cuts, Elliott said.

“As most of our budgets are invested in personnel costs, some colleges will be compelled to reduce force (layoffs) or implement less drastic adjustments, such as furloughs and across-the-board pay cuts,” he said. “That will be a last resort for us at MCC. We have been fortunate enough, through conservation on expenditures and under projecting revenues on the front end, to have mustered a modest cash reserve. We will undoubtedly have to infuse some of that reserve in our FY18 budget in an effort to avoid reducing force. However, that’s a short-term solution that would have a destabilizing effect as a recurring methodology.”

Now that Gov. Bryant has been authorized to pull another $50 million from the rainy day fund, Elliott said he is optimistic MCC won’t have to deal with yet another reduction in state support this fiscal year. However, he has concerns about the following year.

“I am more worried about next year when the Legislature’s corporate and inventory tax cuts kick in, which reportedly may reduce state tax revenues by upwards of $350 million or more,” he said. “If the economy doesn’t improve in tandem with the loss of those tax revenues from industry, I fear continued reductions in state support to the colleges will occur. Of course, I am biased when it comes to the role of community colleges, but I think continued cuts to our colleges just doesn’t make good business sense.

Scott attributes the state’s revenue problems to not enough people working in high-wage, high-demand positions.

“And it’s not so much a matter of job availability as it is a case of having folks with the relevant skills,” he said. “Most of those jobs correlate with the Career & Technical programs and customized training offered by our community colleges. We want to be part of the solution, but we must have the resources to meet that mission. The Legislature is faced with a very difficult set of circumstances; still, it seems like we are cutting our own throat from an economic development standpoint when it comes to community colleges.”

Terry Dale Cruse, administrative director and head of campus at Mississippi State University-Meridian, said while the university has been affected by budget cuts in recent years, he is unsure of the outlook for the coming year. He said he is monitoring it closely.

“We haven’t had to eliminate any programs or offerings at MSU-Meridian because our enrollment has grown over the past year,” Cruse said. “In fact, not only have we been able to continue offering the great programs that we have, but we have developed some innovative applied technology programs.

“The bachelor of applied technology provides the opportunity for students who are in technical programs at the community college to transfer in some of those technical credits to Mississippi State-Meridian and earn a bachelor’s degree. We have that in two areas right now: health care and the newest that has been approved – events and hospitality services.”

Law enforcement

Cuts from the proposed budget could stall investigations, but more likely will transfer costs to municipalities, local law enforcement officials say.

“I don’t think there will be a reduction in services,” Meridian Police Chief Benny Dubose said. “Maybe municipalities will bear the financial burden as a result … but the medical examiner’s office isn’t just going to stop performing autopsies.”

Meridian Fire Marshal Jason Collier also said local departments may have to pay more for crime lab services, such as identifying ignitable liquids, but he hoped that Meridian wouldn’t lose its local crime lab branch, which does fingerprint analysis and more.

“I just hope we don’t lose our local office,” Collier said. “That would have the most direct effect on us.”

City and county

Meridian Chief Financial Officer David Whitaker and Lauderdale County Administrator Chris Lafferty said the governor’s austere budget cuts seem to have had little effect – if any – on Lauderdale County.

Whitaker said the city’s $37.56 million General Fund budget for FY 2017 has not been altered by state budget cuts.

“Our General Fund budget is still in good shape. We don’t have any state funding expected to come in at this point. We are within budget and expect to stay there and not exceed our budget this fiscal year. If we have another drainage collapse we’ll have to analyze what to take out the budget,” Whitaker said, referring to the 2015 IHOP culvert collapse. “We’re a point or two under budget now. I think we’re going to have a good year.”

Whitaker said top drivers for the city budget are sales and ad valorem taxes that go into the General Fund. Planning for budget for FY 2018 will begin in May.

“We will start with department heads getting their budgets ready. Then we will have internal discussions in June,” he said. “We don’t base our budget on getting funds from the state in the future. Our budget is based on our General Fund that is in place.”

Lafferty said the county proceeded with budget preparations like normal. 

“The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors is aware of the state of Mississippi budget cuts,” Lafferty said in an email. “As proactive leaders, we anticipate possible funding shortages and plan accordingly for the following budget year. In addition, the leadership of Lauderdale County takes great pride in saying that there will not be any reduction in services, or staff for the current fiscal year. The end goal is fiscal responsibility in Lauderdale County government while engaging in conversations with state leadership to minimize any perceived local impact.”

While Whitaker and Lafferty anticipate no real impact from the proposed FY18 budget plan, Meridian Public Works Director Hugh Smith said state budget cuts could possibly affect some programs.

“We haven’t been affected by the cuts as of yet, but the cuts could affect some programs like Safe Routes to School, the Pedestrian Enhancement Project and roadway projects funded by state grants,” Smith said. “All of our grants have been received.”

The Safe Routes to School Project included repairing sidewalks and streets so children could walk to school safely.

Funding for the Old Highway 80 Pedestrian Enhancement Project included the city receiving a $750,000 grant to build 1.5 miles of sidewalks along Highway 80 from the intersection of Highway 19 to Meridian Community College. 

Art programs, library

President Donald Trump’s proposal to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities came as no surprise to those associated with the arts, who have become accustomed to bearing the brunt of budget cuts. While not eliminated, the agencies received major cuts, which trickled down to their state counterparts.

“The sad part about this whole cycle of budget cuts for the arts is that for Mississippi, the arts is one of the state’s major industries, in my opinion,” said Mark Tullos, president of the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience, a museum under construction in downtown Meridian.

“Theater, museums and arts councils around the state that produce programs for youth and children, all of these things are at stake. That’s the real challenge. It’s going to take Mississippi awhile to dig out of this if we continue to chip away at the arts’ funding,” Tullos said.

The Max, as the museum is called, will showcase Mississippi’s worldwide legends in arts and entertainment. Tullos said the proposed FY18 budget cuts will not affect the facility’s expected grand opening in 2018, however other areas will be affected.

“It’s not going to affect our capital building project, but anytime they cut state funding for the arts in general, that means lesser allocation from the federal level: National Endowment for the Arts,” he said. “It also means fewer private support grants coming into institutions that usually use those state grants as a match opportunity to go to private foundations or individuals and say, ‘The state’s awarded us $5,000. We need to raise another $5,000, will you be willing to help us?’”

Tullos said once the museum opens, the goal is to use the arts funding to develop education programs and partnerships.

“However, if it’s (funding) not there, it’s just going to be that much more challenging to do it,” he said.

The center is already faced with a number of challenges, including funding for operations such as staff and transportation.

“The food and beverage tax and other funding are helping to build the facility and the exhibitions. There are some things in the operation of the museum we need to account for, we need to raise private support for,” Tullos said. “We’re going to have close to 15 full-time staff members on site. And we also have an active collections department that has to transport artifacts, either for the museum that is on loan or they may be taking education programs out to other counties from the museum.”

For Meridian Museum of Art, the proposed budget cuts will mean having to accommodate a budget that is already streamlined.

“Additional grants or sponsorships would have to be sought,” the museum’s executive director Kate Cherry said.

“We always try not to subsidize our losses with additional fees because we like to keep costs to our community as small as possible. We hope not to charge additional fees for our after-school and summer programs or to increase our membership fees,” Cherry said. “We have made cutbacks already on the number of exhibits we hold each year. The remainder of our costs are normal operating expenses and cannot be cut unless we want to significantly change the scope of our programming.

Laura Carmichael, who leads the Cultural Affairs initiatives for the city of Meridian and serves as executive director for the Meridian Council for the Arts, said she does not anticipate an impact from the proposed state budget cuts to the arts.

“We do receive operating funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, but fortunately they are not impacted as much as some of the other art agencies,” Carmichael said.

The two local art entities receive less than $10,000 from the Commission, which, Carmichael said, has always been supportive of Meridian’s art endeavors and projects. Additional funds are generated through donations from local businesses.

“We are so blessed to have so much community support for our programs,” she said.

And while Meridian/Lauderdale County Public Library received a budget cut of $26,750, effective July 1, 2017, it will not affect the facility’s operations, the library’s director Barbara Gough said.

“We don’t anticipate it affecting any of our services right now. I think we will be able to continue what we provide to the public,” she said.

Meridian Star reporters Whitney Downard, Randall Hammons and Cheryl Owens contributed to this report.