Worried about a looming shortfall of state funds, Pike County supervisors voted Thursday to send a letter to Gov. Haley Barbour and other state officials asking them to approve a state budget before the fiscal year ends Tuesday.
The letter also will go to Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and Speaker of the House Billy McCoy.
Not only has the Legislature and the governor failed to pass a state budget, the Legislature never passed car tag fund reimbursement legislation, said board of supervisors president Chuck Lambert.
That means counties, schools and cities will come up short of money after July 1. The letter also will ask officials to pass the car tag fund legislation.
“We’re in a situation of uncertainty,” said District 5 Supervisor Gary Honea, echoing concerns of officials in many agencies.
As top Mississippi lawmakers continued wrangling Thursday over the unfinished budget, the Republican governor and Democratic attorney general sharply disagreed about what happens if there’s still no spending plan when the fiscal year begins next week.
Barbour said he can run government by executive order. Attorney General Jim Hood said that’s true for some agencies, but not all. Hood said Medicaid patients are at risk of losing critical services, including prescription coverage.
“Somebody’s going to die … if he lets this thing keep going in the direction it’s going,” Hood said, criticizing Barbour’s decision to reject a tentative budget deal earlier this week.
Hood said while some “core functions” such as prisons, public schools and mental health facilities could operate under executive order, other services would have to stop unless a judge issues an order to keep them going.
For example, Hood said that without a court order, state troopers could be forced stay off the roads because the Department of Public Safety is not explicitly mentioned in the state constitution.
