Balancing the Budget

In a world-wide recession, hard times hit even my humble state of Mississippi – as if we weren’t already facing hard enough time. In response, Governor Haley Barbour (R) has announced yet another round of budget cuts. What started at a $6 billion state budget has now faced cuts of 5%, 8.2% and an additional 3.2% based on yesterday’s executive statements. In all, this only amounts to $437 million cut, but many state officials are up in arms over the cuts. “These cuts will be devastating to Mississippi schools,” said state Superintendent of Education Tom Burnham in a press release. If only this were the case. If only the spending of taxpayer money was so streamlined, so effective, so waste-less that a 3.2 percent cut would cripple them. As I have reported on in the past, the Mississippi education system is fraught with waste. There are literally superintendents being paid to oversee districts with no schools. I think education is a wonderful thing and believe in fully funding public education, but part of the government’s job in funding anything is to make sure the money is well spent, not wasted or grafted. Before I will listen to any state office complain about wanting more money, let’s see just how those budgets are being used. . . . . . More than that, what I love about the south is the fact that common sense still applies. The world is in a recession, revenues are down, so what happens in Washington? We borrow more! In Mississippi, we lower spending and spend only what we have. It’s called fiscal responsibility and it’s something Obama promised us. The 2008 campaign promised us a balanced budget. Instead it has resulted in enormous, trillion dollar extensions on US debt? How long can this keep up? Mississippi was faced with a similar situation in 2003. A Democrat executive branch had continued to spend Mississippi into the red despite increases in revenues! People were sick of it. In 2003 Mississippi elected a Republican Governor and a Republican Treasurer. And not just Republicans, actual conservatives! Within only a few years, Mississippi had not only a balanced budget, but had paid off its debt entirely and was actively putting money into a rainy day fund. In the south we don’t spend money we don’t have, we don’t take things that don’t belong to us, and we show a little self-control. When we had a governor who didn’t, we threw him and his posse out. It seems that this attitude is spreading. Notoriously liberal Massachusetts made a similar decision only days ago? You hear that Washington? Take a look at Mississippi 2003. Learn from it.