While the voters can expect to see some of the same old battles in the 2010 legislative session — loot the rainy day fund or leave it alone, the usual plight of Medicaid and MAEP and likely raids of every special fund not nailed down — things will be different.

Voices on both sides of the partisan aisle in both the Senate and the House and Gov. Haley Barbour have made clear that any general tax increase proposal is politically dead-on-arrival. Some fees and some tax exemptions may be tweaked, but in the broad sense new revenue really isn’t on the negotiating table in this difficult economy.

Cattle call likely

With the state’s current revenue shortfall at 8 percent less than anticipated for the current fiscal year and 12 percent less than collected last year, the lack of a vehicle for substantial new revenues leaves few alternatives — historic budget cuts, consolidation or elimination of some functions of government. But, there is a new political paradigm — the targeting of a few political sacred cows:

• Legislators have steadfastly refused to even talk about K-12 school consolidation or the consolidation of school districts. This year, that talk has already begun when state Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, brought it up at a recent Mississippi Economic Council event.

• Legislators haven’t talked seriously about consolidating duplicating programs in higher education. This year, those discussions are already under way between the College Board and key lawmakers.

• Legislators have rarely paid attention to governors, state auditors or other officials who make speeches about consolidating or eliminating state agencies, bureaus or departments within them. But in the current fiscal crisis, that conversation is under way as well.

Four day weeks?

Around the country, state governments in far worse fiscal shape then Mississippi are resorting to all manner of schemes to cut state government spending. A number of states — California, Hawaii, Nevada and Massachusetts for example — are resorting to furloughs after watching the private sector employ that strategy.

Other states like Utah have adopted or are considering a mandatory four-day work week with operating hours from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Unlike Mississippi so far, a number of states have already implemented state worker layoffs.

Mississippi taxpayers are like Mississippi journalists. We’ve all heard and used and ignored the phrase “budget crisis” until it has become so much government and media background noise.

Folks, this year Mississippi has a bona fide, genuine state-of-the-art budget crisis. Nobody’s crying wolf, nobody’s posturing and nobody with any sense thinks this is going to end particularly well in the short term — least of all 174 state legislators who will be operating in this new paradigm at the Capitol.

Contact Perspective Editor Sid Salter at (601) 961-7084 or e-mail ssalter@clarionledger.com. Visit his blog at clarionledger.com. His talk radio show, On Deadline with Sid Salter, is broadcast on the SuperTalk Mississippi network.