It remained unclear on Monday whether legislative leaders will engage in last-minute negotiations to revive around 100 budget bills that died over the weekend or adjourn this year’s session without passing a $7 billion budget to fund state agencies.
If lawmakers leave the Capitol sometime this week without passing a state budget, dozens of state agencies, which provide critical public services, could be in limbo when the new state fiscal year starts July 1.
To restart negotiations, lawmakers would have to pass a parliamentary measure to revive the budget bills and extend the session, which requires a two-thirds majority of support from the House and Senate.
“That would be my urged course of action,” House Speaker Jason White said of a suspension measure. “But it takes two. I’ve been reminded this weekend that we have a Senate, and it’s a bicameral Legislature.”
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves could also force legislators into a special session to pass a budget. This would give the constitutionally weak governor more power than he normally has over legislation. During a special session, governors have the sole ability to set the legislative agenda, and lawmakers can’t take up or pass legislation outside that agenda.
The session crashed over the weekend when the House and Senate failed to come together to negotiate a budget. White and the House refused to meet with the Senate on a key deadline day because they did not want to hurriedly pass a budget.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate leaders said they tried starting early last week to engage with House leaders on spending bills, but the House refused to engage with them.
Many senators feel burned by the House over the budget negotiations and how it handled the passage of legislation to eliminate the state income tax. This is why several senators from both political parties on Saturday said they would not vote to extend the session.
Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons said he did not support passing a resolution to extend the session and would encourage his caucus to vote against such a measure should it come before the Senate.
“We don’t want to create a situation where people can pick and choose when they want to work, and then we have to support extending the session or a suspension resolution when we believe it’s completely unnecessary and it’s uncalled for,” Simmons said.
Several Republican senators have pledged they won’t support a suspension resolution. If Republicans follow through on that promise, they’ll likely need Democratic support to clear the two-thirds requirement.
Speaker White said he would likely meet with Senate leaders on Monday afternoon or Tuesday to discuss how the two chambers should proceed.
Another sticking point appears to be using surplus cash in the budget for special projects.
White said Senate leaders told him they did not want to spend any capital expenditure money, or surplus money, for these projects. White called this move “short-sighted” and will anger mayors and supervisors around the state.
This money is used for several purposes, but the most fought over pot of this money goes toward local projects, called the “Christmas Tree” bill. This money, usually in the $200 million to $400 million range, gets divided all over the state for various projects such as renovations to volunteer fire departments, sports fields and parks and to repave rural county roads.
Mississippi Today reporter Michael Goldberg contributed to this report.
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