Jackson Free Press

"When you consider the fact this (Legislative Budget Recommendation) holds the line on spending while investing in our priorities and maintaining adequate reserves, this is the most fiscally responsible budget plan released in many, many years."

—Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves on the Joint Legislative Budge Committee's proposed budget for the 2015 fiscal year.

Why it stinks: Since capturing control of the Mississippi Legislature, and therefore the budgeting process, Republican lawmakers have boasted about putting aside about $100 million per year into reserves, or what is colloquially called the Rainy Day Fund. Republicans such as Reeves like to point out that state law requires following the 98 percent rule, or budgeting all but 2 percent of revenues, to allow for adequate funds incase of emergency. 


But "adequate" is in the eye of the beholder.

What's most hypocritical about bragging about meeting the statutory requirement for reserves is that under leadership of Reeves and other Republicans, the Legislature has repeatedly failed to fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding formula, which lawmakers created in the 1990s to determine public-schools funding. In total, MAEP has been shortchanged more than $1 billion or between $250 million and $350 million per year. Considering the troubled state of Mississippi's public education, Reeves and his colleagues should realize that it's raining now.