Legislature To Fall Short On Budget Hole Cash, AG Says

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Attorney General Jim Hood says legislative efforts to use one-time cash to plug a budget hole will be at least $128 million short of the amount lawmakers originally thought they would get.

Hood said calculations by his office and the Department of Finance and Administration show lawmakers can’t legally take from various trust funds $72 million that they had counted on.

Legislators already admitted overestimating revenue by $56 million.

Lawmakers didn’t budget for debt payments and property insurance in the 2017 budget, and gave the state-federal Medicaid program less than it’s projected to spend this year.

Those additional expenses mean the state could face a roughly $250 million deficit in the budget beginning July 1, if nothing else changes. That’s about 4 percent of the overall $6.4 billion spending plan.