State Budget and Tax Basics: The Importance of Mississippi’s State Budget

by Kyra Roby

Every family has a budget. Each month a family brings in a certain amount of income, and each month a family must decide how to spend the money. Some expenses are absolutely necessary — like food, shelter, and utilities. Other expenses are much more flexible — like entertainment. During tight months, families face tough decisions about whether cuts in “flexible” expenses must be made.

Regardless of whether or not a family uses a formal budget document, each family must plan and account for its needs, often with an income that can’t pay for everything. Mississippi is no different.

The Mississippi budget provides a blueprint for how our state government funds services for each of its 2.9 million residents. Budget decisions directly influence the quality of education that our children receive, the condition of the roads that we travel, the safety of our communities, and the level of trust we can place in professionals such as doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and nurses.

Each of these services—education, road maintenance, and public health and safety—comes at a price and must be paid for through taxes, fees, or borrowed funds. Our state needs strong fiscal systems to ensure that the necessary funds are available– in a good economy and in a slow economy – to cover the costs of the services that all Mississippi residents depend on every day.

There are many stages in the state budgeting process, many players that affect the outcome of budget decisions, and many sources of revenue—to name just a few complexities. At One Voice, we support budget decisions that contribute to the state’s economic growth, adequately funds the state’s services, and promote the economic well-being of all of the state’s residents.