JACKSON (AP) — Mississippi Public Service Commission chairman Lynn Posey said Thursday it would cost the state less than $250,000 a year if the PSC were allowed to hire three new staff members.

Commissioners want people with expertise in law and accounting who can help evaluate financial information about utility companies.

‘‘We’re asking for three people who would work as a deliberative staff to help us,’’ Posey said.

Legislators start a special session at 10 a.m. Friday to consider the PSC budget, and it’s not clear whether commissioners will get the new staff positions they’re seeking. House Democratic leaders have supported the request, but Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and Republican leaders in the Senate have opposed it.

The PSC and the related Public Utilities Staff were the only government agencies without a spending plan when Mississippi’s budget year started July 1.

About 80 employees at the two agencies were told last week to go home until the budgets are resolved. About a dozen PSC employers are still working.

Sen. Terry Burton, R-Newton, said he hopes negotiators have an agreement on PSC staffing when the special session starts. ‘‘I think that would be absolutely the wrong thing to do, is just show up and wait,’’ Burton said.

The director of the Public Utilities Staff is appointed by the governor. The agency monitors utility companies’ finances and evaluates the companies’ requests for rate changes, then forwards its findings to the three elected members of the Public Service Commission.

Commissioners Posey and Brandon Presley, who are Democrats, and Leonard Bentz, who is a Republican, are relatively new to their jobs. They say they need more employees to help them analyze information received from the Public Utilities Staff.

The PSC currently has only one attorney. Commissioners have said that in most other states, utility regulators have more than one person to offer legal guidance.

Barbour has said with the struggling economy, this is no time to expand state government.

However, legislators have given other state agencies permission to hire more workers. Senate Appropriations Chairman Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, said 353 new positions were authorized, including 141 in the Department of Health, 132 in the Military Department, 38 in the Department of Rehabilitative Services and 10 in the Department of Marine Resources. Nunnelee said some of the Health Department jobs will be paid with federal money.

Nunnelee also said 630 state jobs were taken off the books. He said many of those jobs were vacant.

Legislators were in special session for three days last week to finish most of the budget. Special session in Mississippi costs about $60,000 for the first day, which includes lawmakers’ round-trip travel expenses; and $40,000 for each subsequent day. Only the governor can call a special session, but he cannot order legislators to go home.