JACKSON, Miss.–Passing a state budget has turned out to have its troubles. In the state Senate Thursday an argument over funding the state Dept. of Health turned into an argument about the federal money that has been withdrawn because of federal budget cuts.
Sen. Derrick Simmons, a Democrat from Greenville, argued that $238 million should be taken from the state’s “rainy day” fund to replace that federal money.
“The rainy day fund has roughly about $700 million in it right now. Well, at the Dept. of Health it’s raining. So, I want to pull $238 million to restore them,” he said.
Simmons argued, when defending his amendment, that the department is administering critical programs that are vital to his constituency.
Sen. Daniel Sparks argued that any money taken from that fund to replace federal dollars lost should be done in a careful and concise fashion, asking Simmons if he had examined which programs might be worthy of that consideration.
“They were doing fine before we actually heard about those cuts over there. So, I just want them to actually continue what they were doing before the federal cuts,” said Simmons.
The Senate was in a quandary because some of the language in the public health bill would pose legal problems that could jeopardize the state’s Medicaid program. Their plan was to pass the bill anyway and have Gov. Tate Reeves fix the issue with a line item veto.
Sen. Rod Hickman argued that to rely on that, in his interpretation of the state constitution, would be improper.
