The Mississippi Legislature adjourned Wednesday, ending its three-month session with one major item of business unaccomplished: adopting a state budget.
The leadership in both chambers pointed its finger at the other for a situation that has not occurred in 16 years. Both sides probably have a point, as impasses such as this are rarely one-sided.
House Speaker Jason White communicated early-on with the Senate that his chamber was not going to play ball if the Senate, as is the Legislature’s habit, waited until the last weekend to try to hammer out a budget compromise. White said that’s fair neither to lawmakers nor to the public, since these last-minute deals don’t provide the time for anything but the most cursive of scrutiny. The rush is also a favorite way for the more powerful lawmakers to sneak in pet projects that might not be approved if the details of those “earmarks” were more widely known and examined.
The Senate tested him, and White stayed true to his word, sending his members home rather than keeping them at the Capitol for the final weekend.
Irked by White’s gamesmanship, the Senate then refused a final overture from the speaker to extend the session through this coming Sunday to try to reach a deal.
As a result, it will take a special session of the Legislature to approve a roughly $7 billion budget before June 30, or else risk a state government shutdown.
No doubt that will happen, but this extra time should have been unnecessary. There is nothing more important the Legislature is asked to do every year than adopt a plan for state spending. Lawmakers start working on this plan in the fall, months before the Legislature convenes, then spend three months at the Capitol (four months in the first year of a term) to finalize their decisions.
That should be more than ample time, and it should not have to be the last thing they do.
Special sessions cost roughly $110,000 a day. To pay lawmakers extra for work they should have done on regular time would only reward them for their procrastination and their decision to put politics ahead of efficiency.
Whenever the special session is called by Gov. Tate Reeves, legislators should voluntarily refuse to be compensated for their time. If they know they are in Jackson working on their nickel rather than the taxpayers’, it increases the odds that they will not tarry.
