It’s the enemy of all campaigning politicians, but two local senators say a tax hike has become the way out of the educational funding maze.

Sens. Bob Dearing and Kelvin Butler, who represent portions of Adams County in the state Senate, said if the legislature doesn’t tax on the state level, the cost is only going to be passed down to the counties.

&uot;We know where the buck is going to lie,&uot; Butler said. &uot;It’s going to come back home. (The state) has more ways of raising taxes, but the county doesn’t have but one way.&uot;

In Natchez and Adams County last year, the failure of the state to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program coupled with a decrease in ad valorem taxes forced the school board to raise property taxes, Superintendent Anthony Morris has said.

The school board increased the county milage rate from 51.74 mills to 59.83, a 15.6 percent increase.

Morris and school board members have said repeatedly that another increase is a very real possibility if the $2.08 billion requested from the Department of Education doesn’t come.

But that’s not looking likely, Dearing and Butler said on their 80th day of legislative session.

&uot;We are no closer than we were when we first walked through the door,&uot; Sen. Kelvin Butler said Thursday.

Legislators face a Saturday deadline for budget bills, but Dearing said there are loopholes that will allow them to stretch it beyond that, though everyone was pushing for Saturday.

Dearing said the Senate education chairman was trying to do everything to get as much funding possible into K-12 education, but he didn’t think full funding would be a reality without additional revenues.

&uot;I’m not going to rule out new taxes,&uot; he said. &uot;There’s a lot of support out there for a cigarette tax, but according to the finance chairman, it won’t come up for a vote.&uot;

The House passed a 50-cents-a-pack increase in January, but the bill never made it to the full Senate. The House has discussed reviving the bill, but because of filing deadlines it would take a two-thirds majority in each chamber to revive the bill. In the Senate, it would take 35 votes.

In a Thursday poll conducted by the Capitol press corps, 26 senators said they would vote in favor of a 50-cents-per-pack increase on cigarette taxes. Twenty voted no, four were undecided and two would not answer. Dearing and Butler voted yes.

Dearing said he would need to know the tax increase would go directly to certain programs, including education and mental health.

Dearing said he was prepared to vote no on an education funding bill that requires cuts in other areas.

&uot;I would not want to see other agencies get cut past where they are right now,&uot; he said. &uot;You just can’t cut services people depend on.&uot;

Programs he would be unwilling to cut included, mental health, community colleges, state parks and the highway patrol.

&uot;It’s not going to be pleasant if there is no additional revenue,&uot; he said.

Butler agreed, saying he regretted his signature on an earlier pledge against new taxes.

&uot;I know that there’s some fat, but you can only cut so much,&uot; Butler said. &uot;We are already looking at areas we are saving in. We are going to have to come up with new monies, and that’s something no one wants to hear. I do not support raising any taxes, but I can see raising taxes now. We have to do something to generate some kind of new money.&uot;