Legislative budget writers want to slash the state general fund appropriation for the state Department of Health to $20.7 million - the lowest level it has seen since 1990, when it received $20.3 million.

That recommendation comes at a time when the state ranks first in the nation for adult obesity, teen birth rate and infant mortality; second for hypertension; and third for diabetes and cancer death, according to the 2012 Public Health Report Card the department and the Mississippi State Medical Association released Thursday.

If the $20.7 million budget is approved, "it would devastate the critical functions of the Health Department," said Dr. Luke Lampton, chairman of the state Board of Health. "The state would pay a huge price in infant mortality, in HIV prevention and treatment if we don't fund the department at its basic, functional level."

He said the cuts would actually go much deeper because much of state funding goes to match federal funds, which provided $169 million last year - more than half the department's $351 million budget.

The state budget starts with education, which takes up 60 percent of that spending, Sen. Burton, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said. Of the 40 percent that remains, "what do we do with the Health Department?" he asked. "We can only give them so much and fund everything else.