Pay off $700M deficit with no new taxes nor funny money
When times were good Mississippi went on a spending spree. The Treasury bulged, and every interest group got the money it requested from the Legislature. Prioritizing in state government wasn’t seen as necessary; there was no “living within our means.”
When tax revenues slowed, the state began raiding special accounts & using one-time money to plug the hemorrhaging of red ink. That worked for a couple of years; but now the bill has come due & Mississippi finds itself in a $700 million budget hole.
Mississippi did not get into this budget crisis overnight, and it will not be fixed overnight. After examining what I found upon arriving in office two months ago, I offered an honest, straightforward plan to eliminate our shortfall in two years.
My plan, “Operation: Streamline,” is based on simple principles:
No New Taxes
Control Spending
No “Funny Money Accounting”
Fund Teachers/Education
Source: Governor’s Column
, Mar 9, 2004
Reduce government programs for more economic growth
We get too much government at much too high a cost.
This lavish government costs us the valuable products and services we would otherwise have, resulting in a smaller economy that grows more slowly than it could.
Source: Agenda for America, by Gov. Haley Barbour, p. 10-11
, Apr 25, 1996
