JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers are starting to look at agencies' budget requests for the coming year.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee is holding public hearings Monday. It's an early step in writing a state spending plan for the 2020 budget year, which begins in July.
The 14-member committee used to hold several days of hearings each September to ask questions of state agency leaders. The schedule has been condensed to a single day with only a few agencies, including the departments of corrections, education and public safety. More requests appear on the Legislative Budget Office website .
Mississippi's current budget is just over $6 billion. The budget office says that for first two months of the fiscal year, state revenue was $17.8 million, or 2.6 percent, higher than predicted.
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