Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and State Auditor Stacey Pickering talk about the state’s frugality

Rain soaked the first day of political speeches at this year's Neshoba County Fair

Balancing the state budget and the accountability of stimulus funds are hot topics for this year’s Neshoba County Fair Political Speeches. MPB's Lawayne Childrey reports

During a morning of steady rain about a dozen speakers at the Neshoba County Fair gave ten minute speeches to a crowd of people gathered under the tin roofed pavilion. The topics ranged from energy, to transportation to the economy. Lt. Governor Phil Bryant honed in on the difficulty of writing a state budget this year. And offered targeted tax cuts like the inventory tax cut recently passed by the senate as a possible future solution.

“Don’t you know now if you make something to produce a product and you go and store it in your own warehouse we tax you again on that. So we said let’s cut it in half. We’re going to protect cities and counties. We’re not going to let that happen so some of that revenue will come out of their budget, we understand how strapped they are. But if we can cut that inventory tax in half, if we can have a trigger on it, show five percent growth before we do that business will look at the state of Mississippi and say we need to go there.”

Lawmakers used portions of Mississippi's nearly 2.8 billion dollar share of the national economic stimulus package to help balance the state budget and stimulate the local economy. But with Mississippi being one of 16 states being monitored by congress on the way the money is used, State auditor Stacy Pickering told fair goers that it's incumbent upon him to protect the states reputation.

“We made such great gains after Hurricane Katrina in the nations eyes, we don’t need to let a handful of bad apples destroy those gains. It’s a whole new pot of money. You know you got 2.8 billion dollars, some programs in the past received roughly a million dollars, now we’re dealing with 12 million dollars. And so this is an issue that we’ve gotta make sure we have an additional set of eyes and hands looking at the money so no one person will be tempted and have the opportunity to take advantage of the system.”

Other speakers included Attorney General Jim Hood and Central District Public Service Commissioner, Lynn Posey. Today fair goers are expected to hear from Governor Haley Barbour. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey