Lawmakers in the House and Senate have a month less than they did in 2024 to get legislation across the finish line. But House Speaker Jason White says the various special committee meetings and hearings lawmakers held throughout the second half of 2024 have put them in a position to move quickly on their top priorities.
“We spent a lot of time in the offseason studying those issues, and so I think most folks know where they are on those issues now,” White said. “We'll see. As always, the devil is in all the details.”
Taxation will be one of the main issues debated throughout the session as both chambers have a desire to cut taxes but disagree about how big those cuts should be.
White says he expects the House's proposal to be filed within the next few days. That will include fully eliminating the state's income tax and cutting the state’s seven percent sales tax on groceries in half, both being phased in over a number of years. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is proposing reducing the income tax rate from four percent to three percent over four years and immediately cutting the grocery tax to five percent.
Both leaders have also said they want to pass legislation expanding Medicaid coverage to the state's working poor. But White says lawmakers need to know if federal regulators in the Trump administration will approve a work requirement before the two chambers can work on a compromise.
Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons says expanding Medicaid is Democrat’s top priority, and that the inclusion of work requirements in an expansion bill won't prevent it from receiving the Democratic support it will likely need to overcome a veto from Governor Tate Reeves.
“Those are working Mississippians who work every day, and we can't give them the health care coverage that they so desperately need without expanding Medicaid,” Simmons said.
Though Tuesday’s proceedings were mostly a celebration of lawmaker’s return, the House also took time to honor late representatives Andy Stepp, R-Bruce, and Charles Young Jr., D-Meridian. White spoke of visiting their home districts and hearing stories of how Stepp and Young helped their constituents.
"As they were laid to rest, it was very easy to see how they got here," White said. "The way they impacted their communities and outreach that they had and the feelings from their people, the people that they knew best, way better than us, the love they had for them, and the impact that they had made to their fellow men and women where they called home, it was easy to see how they ended up here representing them."
