The Senate, including Sen. Sally Doty, voted 33-14 Tuesday to give Bryant permission to take the money from the $350 million rainy day fund.

The House voted today, a move that Rep. Becky Currie said will cost taxpayers $43,000 for the extra day legislators were in the special session.

The House needed a two-thirds vote to consider the bill the same day it passed the Senate. But, Democrats blocked Republican leaders’ effort to get that majority.

Democratic lawmakers say Republican leaders have shut them out of the budget process and have been irresponsible with state spending.

Currie said the vote Tuesday should have taken only a few hours, but Democrats stalled the process.

“It’s going to pass,” said Currie, who represents District 92 of Copiah, Lawrence and Lincoln counties, said Tuesday.

“I don’t understand what they’re griping about. They want money for education. They want money for mental health. They want money for all of the other agencies. We’re trying to take money out of the rainy day fund to finish the fiscal year. If we don’t take it out, those agencies will have to have a cut. It cost the taxpayers $43,000 for us to go back in.”

Currie said she’s hopeful enough sales tax revenue comes in before the end of the month, which would reduce how much they’d need to balance the budget.

“We may not have to spend all that,” she said.

Doty, who represents District 39 of Copiah, Lawrence, Lincoln and Walthall counties, said legislators did a good job of estimating the budget.

“Our revenues this year are higher than they were last year, but our expenses are higher as well,” she said. “When we estimated what our number would be that we could spend this year, we were a bit optimistic.”

She expects Bryant will need to take about $30 million to $40 million to balance the budget.

“We’ve given the authority to move that money over from the rainy day fund,” she said. “I think this is exactly what that fund should be used for. It’s difficult to estimate with certainty what your budget numbers are going to be and that’s exactly what that fund is there for.”

While it is not clear exactly how much money will need to be transferred from the rainy day fund to fill the budget holes, the latest numbers from the Department of Revenue show through Monday that tax collections are $44.1 million below the estimate.

Even if the estimate is reached in the final days, it is not expected to be enough revenue to plug the budget hole because of poor collections throughout the fiscal year.

Recurring revenue projections are $206 million below the estimate used in the 2015 session to build the current budget. But because of past cuts and transfers, it is estimated that it will take between $50 million and $70 million to plug the current shortfall.