Last week, Governor Bryant announced that he is cutting public school budgets for the current year. Other state agency budgets are being reduced, as well.
You can see here how much your school district will lose due to the cuts – all of which will be deducted from your district’s MAEP payments for May and June, the last two months of the fiscal year.
The cuts are necessary because state revenue is not coming in at a rate that is sufficient to fund state agency budgets at the levels appropriated last year, due largely to the $350-million in corporate tax breaks handed out in the 2012 through 2015 legislative sessions.
Despite declining revenue and serious cuts in state services, the 2016 Legislature passed yet another corporate tax cut before leaving town last week – an act that has drawn broad criticism (see here and here). If Governor Bryant signs onto the Legislature’s tax cut plan, it will take another $415-million annually from state coffers in the years to come, a reduction that our state clearly cannot afford.
Governor Bryant has an opportunity to stop what The Clarion-Ledger has called “madness.”
Please call his office and ask him to veto the tax cut bill, SB 2858.
Governor Phil Bryant: 601.359.3150
The people of Mississippi expect and deserve roads and bridges that are in good repair, safe communities, and an adequate education for our children – all of which have a real impact on our quality of life, and all of which are being sacrificed as legislators pander to corporate lobbyists. Please make that call and ask Governor Bryant to stand up for the people who elected him by vetoing the tax cut bill.
