JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Mississippi legislators returned to the State Capitol Sunday to work on a budget some say is 95% complete.
Most bills were approved before Saturday's deadline.
Sunday house and senate members continued to hash out the state's proposed $5.6 billion 2013 budget.
Lt. Governor Tate Reeves said for the most part the budget is resolved.
Reeves said spending is estimated to have increased by less than 4/10 of a percent above last year's or about $20 million dollars.
"We've prioritized by shifting money from the traditional state government agencies into our priorities of education, because I believe very strongly that if we're going to improve job creation in Mississippi which has to be our number one priority we must improve our education attainment level of our citizens," said Lt. Governor Tate Reeves (R).
House Speaker Phillip Gunn said lawmakers have created a responsible budget that's resulted in major savings for the state.
"We've worked very hard and made many promises that we would stay within our means, and we would spend no more money that we have to spend. We have done that, and we have saved $200 million dollars for next year's budget," said House Speaker Philip Gunn (R).
But there was no agreement over the bond bill which died Saturday.
Reeves said the state bonding authority was increased by approximately $1.3 billion dollars in the last two legislative sessions.
"The house had sent us a proposal of almost $400 million dollars in new bonds to authorize. We in the senate just couldn't agree to that. We are working very hard again to reduce our overall debt burden," said Reeves.
"We calculated about $250 about what we deemed to be needs, $250 million in needs. Our position on this end was to bond no more than we retired. Each year we retire a certain amount of bond indebtedness, and we were trying to stay within that," said Gunn.
The deadline for passing all appropriations bills is 6 p.m. Monday.
The fiscal year begins July first.
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