JACKSON, MISS.
Mississippi’s top budget writers are recommending spending cuts to schools, universities, community colleges, prisons, Medicaid, and mental health and human services for the coming year.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee met Tuesday and approved an initial blueprint for fiscal 2017, which begins July 1.
The blueprint recommends how to spend nearly $6.2 billion in state money. That’s a 1.6 percent decrease from the current year because of slow economic growth.
The plan approved by the 14-member committee is only a starting point. Detailed budget discussions will take place starting in January, once members of the House and Senate begin a new four-year term.
“While we certainly would have loved to see more revenue growth, this committee has done the fiscally responsible thing,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, the Budget Committee chairman.
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