Gov. Barbour is proving once again that the rank partisanship in the Legislature is because of his style of slash-and-burn politics.

The governor has asked for additional power to cut agency budgets to offset the budget deficit we are facing. NEMS Daily Journal reporter Bobby Harrison explains in his column:

Under current law, when revenue collections do not meet projections, the governor can cut any agency up to 5 percent. But he cannot cut any agency more than 5 percent until he cuts all agencies 5 percent.

Plus, if he takes more than 5 percent, the cuts must be the same percentage for all agencies.

Barbour wants the authority to make cuts of his choosing up to 10 percent.

Barbour already has trimmed $225 million. To make the additional needed cuts, he said, he would have to take money from areas like debt service, which the state is legally obligated to pay, and items the state must fund because of court orders.

House Appropriations Chairman Johnny Stringer, D-Montrose, proposed a bill last week that would give Barbour most of what he wanted. The only caveat was that all agencies would have to be cut equally. Nonetheless, it exempted the areas of the budget that needed to be exempted and provided the governor with more budget-cutting authority.

That was not good enough for Barbour. And it appears not good enough for Senate Appropriations Chairman Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo. Again, from Harrison’s column:

Nunnelee said he plans for his committee to take up legislation next week that gives the governor the authority he wants to make cuts.

In other words, Nunnelee plans to do the governor’s bidding. After all, Nunnelee is running for Congress in the First Congressional District. He can’t win without the governor’s help. So Nunnelee is proving to be a kept man, so to speak.

The reason Stringer and other Democratic leaders are refusing to give the governor absolute budget cutting authority is to protect larger agencies such as public health and public education — two agencies the governor has shown a propensity toward fiscally destroying.

Nunnelee, it seems, cares little to protect public education and public health. He’s voted for the governor’s budget plans most every year, and these are budget plans that usually grossly underfund education and health care agencies.

For Nunnelee, underfunding public education and public health seems to be an odd choice. He hails from Tupelo, which is home to both one of the strongest school districts in the state and one of the largest, most well respected hospitals in the state.

That’s just more reason we don’t need dictatorial leaders in Jackson and blind followers in Washington.