With state revenues worsening month-to-month, Gov. Haley Barbouris seeking increased authority from the Legislature to cut statebudgets deeper than the 5 percent allowed.

It’s not going to happen, local legislators say. The responsesgiven by the Lincoln County area’s four legislators were perfectlypartisan.

“I kind of like the way we do business now,” said District 53Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto. “He can make cuts and then comeback and do them again if he needs to instead of one big hit. Ilike the slow, careful approach.”

Moak said increasing the governor’s authority to make cuts tothe state budget would upset the system of checks and balances thatkeep the executive, legislative and judicial branches of governmenton the level with each other. Allowing the extra authority wouldupset the balance by permitting the governor to “totally undo whatthe Legislature has done,” he said.

Furthermore, with the 2010 legislative session beginningTuesday, Moak said the full Legislature would be on hand to addressshortfalls in the current fiscal year budget.

District 91 Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello, argued the same point,saying that granting more budget-cutting authority to the governorwould weaken another branch.

“There’s 175 people elected to the legislative branch, and onlyone person is elected to the executive branch,” he said.

District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, D-Brookhaven, doesn’t foreseethat authority being granted, either. She said the Legislatureshould be privy to cuts above the governor’s regulated 5 percentauthority because a single executive can’t dig down and find thebest areas to cut.

“You have got to sit down with the people who are in thetrenches every day, and it’s usually not very hard to find outwhere the cuts can be made. But from the outside looking in, youhave to bring more folks in with you and make the decisiontogether,” Hyde-Smith said.

District 92 Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, said the governorwould have to have the increased budget-cutting authority, giventhe tough economic times the state continues to see. She pointedout that letting the governor make the cuts instead of calling theLegislature in periodically would save taxpayers money.

“Either he can have the authority to make cuts or he can call aspecial session and spend money to get us back up here,” Curriesaid. “Everyone gripes when he calls a special session, and they’regoing to gripe no matter which way he does it.”

Currie said the uncertainty involved in using projected revenueestimates almost demands the governor be given the authority.

“That’s exactly what happened this year – we worked offprojections, and the projections were wrong. When we leave, thegovernor has to deal with it,” she said.