Cuts

Some public school districts may have to raise taxes next year to make up for $85 million in funding cuts, state education officials said Thursday.

State Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds said Thursday he is afraid "some districts will be at a point where they can't make payroll."

That could happen before the end of this school year. "It's not up to the local homeowner to keep digging in his pockets every year to support the local school district," State Board of Education Chairman Bill Jones said. The money "should come from the state of Mississippi."

Gov. Haley Barbour announced Wednesday that an additional $158 million has been cut from the state's billion-dollar budget, including an $85 million cut to elementary and secondary schools. Declining revenues in a weak economy have caused the second rounds of cuts in the fiscal year that ends June 30. In November, the governor trimmed agency budgets $42 million, or 2 percent.