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Mississippi prisons, mental health, Medicaid seek more money

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Mississippi’s prison and mental health systems and Medicaid program are seeking millions of extra dollars to get through the budget year, then more money on top of that for the coming year.

Agency leaders appeared Tuesday before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to request money for fiscal year 2014, which ends June 30, and for fiscal 2015, which begins July 1.

State revenue has increased roughly 5 percent a year for each of the past two years, and the state-funded portion of the current budget is about $5.8 billion… […]