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Briggs HopsonGuestBrandon JonesPanelistLucien SmithPanelistWilson StriblingHostKobe VanceWhy does this process, which can be so overwhelming almost and seem kind of mind numbing, but why does it matter to the average Mississippian? Brandon, I'll start with you.
All of those different programs that you mentioned fund some essential service that the state provides, whether it be roads and bridges, whether it be libraries, whether it's schools.
Those essential functions that we think of as state functions, this is how they figure out what money they're going to have to spend for the year so that they can provide those services.
It's easy to get lost in the abstraction of somebody wants a 4.1% increase here or there.
But at the end of the day, every dollar that gets appropriated to one of these agencies translates into some sort of service that directly affects you.
They can only have trooper schools if the legislature appropriates them enough money to actually have a trooper school to bring in more highway patrolmen.
There was a period of time after the Great Recession in 08, where there was just not enough money for a trooper school.
So every year you would have troopers retire, but you weren't able to bring more people in to be troopers.
And the net effect of that, if any of you remember driving in 09 or 10, if you were speeding, you were fairly unlikely to get a ticket.
But if you had an emergency and needed the assistance of the highway patrol, there might not be a trooper as close as would be under normal budgetary times.
And you can translate that into multiple different agencies, depending on which one's you interface with the most.
And to that end, you mentioned the Highway Patrol, which falls under the Department of Public Safety.
It's one agency that's asking for a pretty big increase over last year, $30 million more for the Department of Public Safety is their request this year.
The principal request there is for salary increases for law enforcement personnel.
And similar to the conversation we just had about the trooper schools, if they can go somewhere else and make more money, you're going to start losing troopers.
Why does this process, which can be so overwhelming almost and seem kind of mind numbing, but why does it matter to the average Mississippian? Brandon, I'll start with you.
All of those different programs that you mentioned fund some essential service that the state provides, whether it be roads and bridges, whether it be libraries, whether it's schools.
Those essential functions that we think of as state functions, this is how they figure out what money they're going to have to spend for the year so that they can provide those services.
It's easy to get lost in the abstraction of somebody wants a 4.1% increase here or there.
But at the end of the day, every dollar that gets appropriated to one of these agencies translates into some sort of service that directly affects you.
They can only have trooper schools if the legislature appropriates them enough money to actually have a trooper school to bring in more highway patrolmen.
There was a period of time after the Great Recession in 08, where there was just not enough money for a trooper school.
So every year you would have troopers retire, but you weren't able to bring more people in to be troopers.
And the net effect of that, if any of you remember driving in 09 or 10, if you were speeding, you were fairly unlikely to get a ticket.
But if you had an emergency and needed the assistance of the highway patrol, there might not be a trooper as close as would be under normal budgetary times.
And you can translate that into multiple different agencies, depending on which one's you interface with the most.
And to that end, you mentioned the Highway Patrol, which falls under the Department of Public Safety.
It's one agency that's asking for a pretty big increase over last year, $30 million more for the Department of Public Safety is their request this year.
The principal request there is for salary increases for law enforcement personnel.
And similar to the conversation we just had about the trooper schools, if they can go somewhere else and make more money, you're going to start losing troopers.
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