A favorite political topic was in the news at both the federal and state levels last week – fiscal management.
Actually, fiscal mismanagement was the topic at the federal level.
Mounting deficits have led some lawmakers to call for a BRAC-like commission to do the heavy lifting of designing a realistic approach to address ballooning debt. “A fiscal commission is direly needed," said Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, reported Reuters.
Hmmm. Remember the 2010 Simpson-Bowles Commission? The bipartisan group worked hard and came up with reasonable recommendations to balance revenues and spending. Then, several Republican commissioners who helped draft the plan scuttled its final adoption. Still, that plan along with the comprehensive Back in the Black plan developed by the late Sen. Tom Coburn, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma, laid out steps still relevant today.
So much for talk. The bitter polarization now infecting Congress makes the notion of much needed bipartisan agreement on taxes and spending an absurdity.
For those who like details, read the 60 page Simpson-Bowles summary plan here: https://www.ssa.gov/
At the state level, Gov. Tate Reeves and key legislators could not agree on an official revenue estimate for fiscal year 2025. Such estimates are needed to guide the Legislature’s annual budget process and set a revenue threshold below which mid-year cuts must occur.
“Reeves balked at adopting a $7.5 billion revenue projection that was $117 million less than the most recent projection from a group of state financial experts,” reported Mississippi Public Broadcasting. “For those of us who, for instance, are very interested in cutting taxes in this legislative session, arbitrarily lowering the number, for no apparent reason, hurts our ability to justify those tax cuts,” Reeves said.
Expected new House Speaker Jason White said he did not think the less than two percent reduction would have any impact on cutting taxes. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the group preferred using the same revenue estimate used this year “because revenue for the past two months has been lower than the official estimate approved for the current budget year.” The impact of year one of the massive income tax cut passed in 2022 was the reason cited for the revenue slowdown.
Legislative leaders are right to be cautious. There are three more years of income tax cuts to phase in, PERS costs keep escalating, inflation remains stubbornly high, and state economist Corey Miller projects that the state economy is likely to slow down.
“A wise man saves for the future” - Proverbs 21:20.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
14 comments:
Fiscal Management Jackistan version: Grease those palms.
If we stopped paying to house and feed the non-productive breeders, and if we stopped subsidizing other nation’s militaries, and if we stopped fomenting foreign proxy wars to justify the military industrial complex budget, then this nation could right this sinking ship. But we won’t.
Perhaps when the economic ship has sunk and our economy is weaker than Australia or Russia, we might turn things around. I doubt it though. Americans are like zombies. If they aren’t watching TV, they are driving their cars between the work, home, shopping, and eating. Total NPCs just copying trends fed to them on social media.
They don’t really care how much the government borrows because they are all in more debt than they will ever pay back.
Well who knew, you cut taxes, you cut programs and services unless it’s in my house.
Not that hard to reduce our budget deficits. A little bit of sacrifice and belt tightening on the part of all Americans can get the problem under control. Anyone can go to this website and come up with proposals to reduce the deficit and get the deficit under control - https://www.crfb.org/debtfixer.
How about we tax the rich, I mean actually collecting the 12%, I end up paying every year.
Nothing will change until there is a conversation about the 78% of the annual budget that is mandatory spending, apart from Congress’s annual appropriations bills.
"If we stopped paying to house and feed the non-productive breeders..."
Assume we do. Then what?
Rand Paul proposes a bill to balance the budget and pay off the national debt during every new session.
This is a strange article from a source that wants to expand the state budget by expanding Medicaid. Let us also not forget his continued campaign to have the state fund poorly managed hospitals in rural communities, but he feigns concern about the state budget. Does Crawford's hypocrisy have any bounds?
I just received my property tax bill for my Jackson home.
OUCH!!
Where does all that $ go?
You will never pay off the debt as long as every dollar printed is a loan from the large banks that own the Federal Reserve.
I will never understand why KF allows antisemitic comments like @9:38 AM
The Federal Reserve bank isn’t “owned” it serves the at the will of the US Government.
November 27, 2023 at 9:38 AM, you are correct, sir/ma'am. Very few people understand the scam perpetrated by Wilson, and his rich banker friends. From that treasonous act, the American people have been placed in bondage. For if the money is controlled, the people are not free.
November 27, 2023 at 11:59 AM, you poor thing, bless your heart, and Santa will be along later next month with your presents.
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