Temporarily Enhanced Executive Influence over Budget Decisions under Mabus

This chapter discusses budget power that was briefly enhanced under Governor Ray Mabus at the beginning of his administration. It shows how Mabus fended off an attempt by the legislature to weaken executive budget authority by vetoing S.B. 2214. Chapter 4 explains how Mabus worked with the legislature to abolish the Fiscal Management Board and replace it with the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA). This chapter also looks at the efforts made by Mabus to get more funding for public education, more specifically, funding for Mississippi’s B.E.S.T. (Better Education for Success Tomorrow) program.

Conclusion

Major budget reform in Mississippi has occurred only twice in the last four decades, with the most significant reform occurring in the mid-1980s. No reform shaped Mississippi’s budget-making process more than the Mississippi Administrative Reorganization Act of 1984 (S.B. 3050, passed during the 1984 legislative session), which was passed not voluntarily by the legislature but as a result of a court order. The drastic budget reform would have not occurred if it had not been for then–Attorney General Bill Allain’s challenge to the structural makeup of the committee responsible for the budget-making process at the time, the Commission of Budget and Accounting. The state supreme court’s decision in ...

A Progressive Approach to Budgeting under Musgrove

Chapter 7 discusses Governor Ronny Musgrove, a former member of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC), who was familiar with the budget making process. This chapter shows how Musgrove was successful in getting more funding for total education (especially K – 12) although he had a less than ideal relationship with the legislature. The constant disputes between the legislature and Musgrove resulted in the legislature overriding 47 of the 58 gubernatorial vetoes in one legislative session (2001 legislative session). Former Musgrove ally, Speaker Tim Ford, attributed the governor’s lack of fiscal success to his lack of communication with the legislature.