Dem Support for Power Grab Not Likely, Holland Says

Adam Lynch

Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, said he doubted if a majority of the House would vote to give Gov. Barbour the power to cut up to 10 percent of the state budget without legislative input.

by Adam Lynch
November 10, 2009

Joint Legislative Budget Committee member Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, says House Democrats will not readily agree to hand Gov. Haley Barbour more power to personally cut the state budget. "We're likely to give the governor that kind of authority on the same day we'll agree to consolidating the school districts and universities and reorganizing government," Holland said.

Barbour is asking lawmakers to consider a serious change in state government, handing him and the governors that come after him the power to cut state budgets by a maximum of 10 percent even when the state Legislature is out of session. The governor says it is important for his office to have the power to drastically cut the state budget in the aftermath of severe budget constraints.

"It's clear we're continuing to feel the effects of the national recession, and as we deal with these shortfalls and plan for the next fiscal year, it's equally clear this cannot be business as usual," Barbour stated in a release. "There's nothing on the horizon that would indicate state revenues are going to recover anytime soon, and that means state government needs to do the same things families all around Mississippi are doing—set priorities and reduce spending."

The governor already has the power to order department heads to slash up to 5 percent of their budgets—and Barbour has already made that request this year. However, any more cuts cannot be orchestrated without the approval of the legislature, which primarily holds the purse strings of the state budget.

Legislators have no idea when or even if the governor would be approaching legislators with his request anytime soon. House Speaker Bill McCoy, who has opposed Barbour over the last four years on some key financial issues such as education cuts, said he could not comment on how the Democratic majority in the House would handle such a request.

"I wouldn't want to speak on that right now," McCoy said. "We've not had enough time to look at all these requests and talk to the committee chairs and so forth. It's a very democratic body we have on this side of the Capitol. There are 122 members, and each member has to exert full responsibility in the legislative process."

Marty Wiseman, director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government in Starkville said legislators will have to contend with surrendering power for good if they side with the governor.

"When you give away some of your power, you generally don't get it back. The more budgetary authority they cede to the governor the more they shift from the legislative side, so they better think long and hard on this before they do it," Wiseman said. "What you need to do in a partisan world is consider if you would want this power transfer to be in effect if there was a Democrat in the governor's office. The budget is a check-and-balance thing. It is the means by which Congress or the Legislature can exercise a check on the executive branch. Doubling the amount of a legislatively passed budget that the governor can do away with is power they are surrendering."

Wiseman said Barbour has, so far, succeeded in maneuvering himself into a position where his authority is recognized and accepted. In the words of Wiseman, Barbour has refused to become a lame duck, and can use the suffering economy as a good argument to back up his desire.

"Barbour can make the case that this is a crisis the likes of which we've never known before, but you've got to sit down and analyze how you would handle this kind of power shift over the long haul," Wiseman said.

Holland said he doubted a majority of legislators would cede that kind of power to Barbour.

"I love Haley. I really do. But I wouldn't care if Musgrove was governor or William Winter. The governor is the governor, and the Legislature is the Legislature and the Constitution, in my eyes, is pretty clear about who's supposed to do what. It's the purview of the Legislature to levy the revenue and spend it in this state, and I'm not willing to give anymore than what's already been given up," Holland said, adding that if Barbour wants to cut more than 5 percent out of the budget he can call a special session to "let legislators decide where the cuts should be."

Holland said he believed many Republicans would side against the transfer of power.

"I predict that we're fixing to have more Republicans jump ship from Captain Haley's boat than you'll have Democrats to oppose him on this one," Holland said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Dean Kirby, a Republican from Pearl, isn't one of the boat-jumpers. Kirby said he was already prepared to cede the power to the executive.

"I'd rather the governor make the cuts than the Legislature, if you want to know the truth," Kirby said. "It's something I would seriously consider giving him."

When asked if he was prepared for a Democratic governor to wield the same power in the future, Kirby argued that the power transfer only amounted to a matter of degrees.

"Barbour can already do a 5 percent cut now, so it's just whether or not 5 percent is out of date now is what it gets down to," Kirby said. "We need to look at that, and we need to consider it."

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