Legislative Look!!!

January 16, 2009

Gov. Barbour has made plans to cut MAEP by $76.6 million. Please look for future alerts to act regarding this issue.

Gov. Plans for $87.8 Million in Education Cuts Tuesday night in his State of the State address, Governor Haley Barbour announced his plan to cut funding to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). In November 2008, Gov. Barbour cut many state agencies and programs to make up for the $42 million deficit. Fortunately MAEP was spared from these cuts. Tuesday night Gov. Barbour announced that cuts will have to be applied to other areas left untouched last November. While he did not announce in the State of the State address how much funding will be cut from MAEP, Barbour warned Mississippians to expect these cuts to make up for a projected revenue loss of $175 million to $310 million by July 2009. Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Barbour announced a total cut from education in the amount of $87.8 million with $76.6 million coming from MAEP. Gov. Barbour has announced a $76.6 million cut from MAEP with a total cut from MS Dept. of Education in the amount of $87.8 million. Congregations for Children will continue to monitor this situation and provide an action alert as soon as plans are devised to reverse these cuts. To view current bill texts or search for bills, go to http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us and enter the bill number under “Quick Lookup.” For questions or comments, please email Michelle Foster at michelle@mississippi-umc.org