By 11 a.m. on Wednesday of the coming week, I - like each of the other four college deans - will submit prioritized potential cuts to the FY '10 - '11 (next year's) college budget in the range of $2 million. $2 million constitutes about 17% of the total College of Health budget, including both the Hattiesburg and Gulf Coast campuses; to call the impact of losing $2 million "staggering" grossly understates the case.
July 2009 Archives
It's hard to imagine two states more unlike than glitzy California and "buckle-of-the-Bible-Belt" Mississippi. They do share one unattractive political trait, however - neither state can produce a budget on schedule!
I heard yesterday, the start of the new fiscal year, that California had started to issue IOU's instead of checks, but banks weren't exactly lining up to take them. Is this the next chapter in a sad political-economic story for Mississippi? Not likely, fortunately, as the budget impasse seemed to at last be breaking up, with the Mississippi Hospital Association bitterly throwing in the towel and capitulating to Gov. Barbour on the "hospital tax."
The big hang-up in our state (unlike California, which has even bigger and more diverse problems) is, of course, Medicaid, site of a long-running and bloody battle among House, Senate and governor. Even with a new budget, though, the picture isn't a pretty one. With 1/3 of Mississippi citizens dependent on Medicaid for health care, many are predicting a sharp curtailment of already inadequate services for the state's neediest people.
I heard yesterday, the start of the new fiscal year, that California had started to issue IOU's instead of checks, but banks weren't exactly lining up to take them. Is this the next chapter in a sad political-economic story for Mississippi? Not likely, fortunately, as the budget impasse seemed to at last be breaking up, with the Mississippi Hospital Association bitterly throwing in the towel and capitulating to Gov. Barbour on the "hospital tax."
The big hang-up in our state (unlike California, which has even bigger and more diverse problems) is, of course, Medicaid, site of a long-running and bloody battle among House, Senate and governor. Even with a new budget, though, the picture isn't a pretty one. With 1/3 of Mississippi citizens dependent on Medicaid for health care, many are predicting a sharp curtailment of already inadequate services for the state's neediest people.