NATCHEZ &045; Legislators will face a tight budget and not enough revenue to meet state needs when they convene for the 2005 session on Tuesday, said Sen. Robert M. Dearing, D-Natchez.

&uot;Everybody said last year was a rough session. Well, this session is going to be rough and mean,&uot; Dearing said. &uot;Both sides are going to draw the lines.&uot;

Where to make cuts and where to find money to fund the $3.8 billion budget are questions legislators must address, he said. No easy solutions exist.

&uot;There are no formal proposals yet that I know of, but I hear about maybe a $350 million cut from IHL (Institutes of Higher Learning), maybe $200 million from community colleges and $120 million from mental health,&uot; said Dearing, a 25-year veteran of the Senate.

Even with cuts as deep as those, legislators in addition have to find money to repay funds borrowed from agencies such as Mississippi Department of Transportation and others in 2004.

&uot;I didn’t vote to take that money from MDOT last time. That’s money from taxes taken from purchase of gasoline. People don’t complain about that tax because they see the good roads we have in Mississippi,&uot; he said.

Some legislators are proposing a tax on cigarettes, as much as $1 a pack, to generate revenue. Others have suggested a state lottery.

&uot;People I talk to say a tax on cigarettes wouldn’t bother them. It wouldn’t bother me,&uot; Dearing said. &uot;One poll says that maybe 65 percent of the people wouldn’t mind that. But it would raise only about a fourth or maybe a third of what we probably will need.&uot;

The problems are mind-boggling, he said. &uot;The only way to raise a big chunk of revenue is to raise sales taxes. I’m against that unless we could take all sales taxes off essential, or staple foods.&uot;

Another suggestion is to raise corporate taxes. &uot;But that would be biting the hand that feeds you. We’re known as a state friendly to industry that way, not having a high corporate tax,&uot; he said.

Further, Gov. Haley Barbour has said he will veto any tax increase. &uot;And it’s hard to override a veto.&uot;

The Legislature about 10 years ago eliminated the constitutional provision against a lottery. Today, Mississippians go to Tennessee and to Louisiana to play state lotteries, Dearing said. &uot;It would take just general legislation to create a lottery, but I don’t think it would pass. There’s a general feeling that a lottery takes money from people who can least afford it.&uot;

Dearing is chairman of the Senate Oil and Gas Committee. He also serves on Appropriations, Insurance, Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and Public Health committees. He is chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee and the Parks Subcommittee.

He fears another stalemate in the Legislature over appropriations to state agencies. &uot;For instance, I could not vote to cut $120 million from the mental health bill. In fact, I’m not going to vote for all these cuts.&uot;

If the IHL budget is cut, universities will pass on the shortfall to students in tuition increases, he said. &uot;That is in fact a tax on the families who have children in college,&uot; he said.

The mental health agency has no way to make up for any budget cuts. &uot;They would just not be able to see a lot of the patients they see now.&uot;

Medicaid continues to be a controversial and serious problem. &uot;We can’t even put up the matching dollars we need to get the full funding from the federal government,&uot; he said. And there is still the question to be answered about the highly debated cuts made to the program last year.

About 90 percent of the general bills have been pre-filed, Dearing said. Those will be assigned to committees, and work will get under way soon after the session begins.

&uot;I don’t look for a lot of controversy in the general bills, but there will be plenty with the revenue enhancement bills and appropriations bills,&uot; he said.