Lieutenant Governor and Chairman of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee Tate Reeves has submitted the official budget recommendation for the 2019 fiscal year, which will be reviewed during the upcoming legislative session.
The estimate for the 2019 fiscal year comes out to be $5,998,036,289. This figure includes General Funds, Education Enhancement Funds, Health Care Expendable Funds, Tobacco Control Funds and Working Cash-Stabilization Reserved Funds. The total budget figure is a $76.1 million shortfall from the 2018 fiscal year budget, which is a 1.3% decrease.
In an effort to cut wasteful spending, the committee is recommending that legislators either defund or delete most of the 2,687 vacant positions, reduce funding for travel and contractual services, reduce spending of agency cash balances, and eliminating funding for one-time expenditures such as capital improvements.
A few key areas will see an increase in their budgets under this recommendation.
While others will remain the same.
