The 14-member Legislative Budget Committee, which consists of Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, Lt.Gov. Amy Tuck and other key House and Senate members, began the process of hearing from agency heads this afternoon. In the past, the budget hearings have gone on for a better part of a month. This year the hearings have been shortened to less than two weeks.
After the hearings are completed, the committee will meet with the governor and adopt a revenue estimate of the amount of money expected to be collected during the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. Barbour and the Budget Committee will then submit separate budget recommendations.
There has been a strong uptick in revenue collections, caused in large part, experts say, because of the Katrina recovery effort. Still, Barbour said for the Budget Committee "the most important thing we need to be conservative in our spending."
Michael Bailey will be attending the meetings on behalf of the Mississippi Hospital Association. For more information or an update, contact Michael at (800) 289-8884, (601) 368-3208 or mbailey@mhanet.org.