JACKSON (AP) — The House Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday to use money generated by a proposed tobacco tax to restore $68 million of the funding that has been cut from public schools.

The plan is a long-shot solution to the funding problem for schools because the tax proposal hasn’t come up for a vote yet in the Senate where similar plans have faced strong opposition in the past.

Gov. Haley Barbour cut state agencies last week, citing Mississippi’s declining revenue collections.

The Mississippi Adequate Education Program was cut by 3.2 percent. The complex formula is used by the state to determine how much money school districts receive to operate.

The $76.6 million reduction in MAEP could leave about two dozen of the state’s 152 school districts out of money by the time the fiscal year ends June 30.

House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, said many school districts may not be able to meet payroll, while others likely will shut down sports and other extracurricular activities.

‘‘We don’t have a Plan B. This is Plan A,’’ Brown said Wednesday after another Appropriations Committee member asked if there were other options for restoring money to schools.

‘‘Districts, if necessary, will shut down and go to a four-day week,’’ Brown said.

Department of Education spokesman Pete Smith said some districts are in extreme financial danger. Districts that could run into problems making payroll within the next few months are Greenville, Hazlehurst and Kemper, Benton, Noxubee, Tate, Jefferson Davis and Covington counties, Smith said.

Last week, the House approved a bill that would add 82 cents to the cigarette tax on March 1, up from the current 18 cents a pack. Supporters say if the proposed $1-a-pack tax becomes law, it could generate $68 million to $70 million before the budget year ends.

Rep. Bill Denny, R-Jackson, said he voted against the school funding bill because it was predicated on the outcome of the tax proposal.

‘‘I’m not going to vote for something that’s based on ghost dollars that are not going to appear,’’ Denny said.

Mississippi Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds met with school administrators from across the state on Wednesday to discuss how the budget cut would impact districts.

‘‘He told them the picture’s not pretty,’’ Smith said. ‘‘He also wanted them to be thinking about the next fiscal year because the funding situation is not going to get any better.’’

————

The bill is House Bill 1383.