FERRIDAY — If the walls of the Delta Music Museum could talk they would belch out a rockabilly tune praising the Town of Ferriday for educating new and old generations about the importance the Mississippi River played in cultivating Southern music.

But unless revisions are made to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed budget for 2012-2013 — which forces the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office to close 15 museums, including the Delta Music Museum — those twangy tunes won’t be heard by anyone.

The threat of closure, however, has been looming over the museums head for more than a year.

In July, budget constraints reduced the museum’s operating hours from welcoming eager tourists Monday through Saturday to its new days of operation — Thursday through Saturday.

The reduction in funding also cut down on the museum’s staff from one full-time director, four part time employees and a maintenance man to just one full-time director and one part-time employee.

Director Judith Bingham said the staff has learned to deal with the cutbacks, but that the visitors of the museum pay the ultimate price.

“We’ll pass through downtown by the museum and see people standing outside wanting to take the tour,” Bingham said. “It makes us sad.”

In 2002, the museum changed its name from the Ferriday Museum to the Delta Music Museum and moved to its current location on Louisiana Avenue.

With that move the museum also began to fall under the umbrella of the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office to fund operating and maintenance costs.

Ten years later, Jindal has proposed a $70 million budget for all of the operations of Secretary of State Tom Schedler’s office.

While that number may seem like plenty to run small town museums, director of communications Sailor Jackson said the office is also responsible for elections and the state archives — along with the 17 museums.

In order to meet a required $1.5 million in savings from the Secretary of State’s Office proposed by Jindal, all museums except the Old State Capitol in downtown Baton Rouge and the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport would be shut down

Jackson said those two museums alone consume $2.3 million of the $3.9 million museum budget.