Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, speaking Wednesday in McComb, said Mississippi needs performance-based budgeting to deal with today’s economic climate.
Addressing the McComb Rotary Club after appearing at a Veterans Day ceremony at the Pike County Courthouse, Bryant said the current budgeting process, dating to the 1930s, is outdated and incapable of producing a realistic and efficient plan for financing state government.
Legislators, who write and approve the state’s annual line-item budget, tend to over-estimate revenue, he said, because they find it difficult to say no to constituents. Then when revenue comes up short, the governor has to make across-the-board cuts in state agencies.
The presiding officer of the State Senate and a former state representative and state auditor, Bryant said legislators “are all my friends, but they work in a system that is broken.”
He is heading a commission that he says by the end of November or in December will recommend performance-based budgeting — establishing a plan to tie outcome to spending.
Bryant has previously said that he and his colleagues on the commission are expected to release a report that will focus on a “three-legged stool” approach to reforms that centers on planning, performance-based budgeting and the creation of a performance review agency.
Meanwhile, Bryant says he favors a proposal by Gov. Haley Barbour to give the governor more discretion in making cuts during revenue shortfalls, which the state is experiencing.
Bryant also advocated consolidation of state services such as having human resources and computer services personnel working for various agencies rather than each state agency having its own people handle those chores.
Bryant, a Republican, is widely considered to be a major contender in the 2011 governor’s race.
