Mississippi lawmakers have passed the final bills of the legislative session leaving only a handful of bills to die on the calendar. Late Tuesday evening, members of both the Mississippi House and Senate adjourned sine and die, ending the session. Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann says many things were accomplished throughout the 90 days, such as teacher pay raises, medicinal cannabis, and redistricting.
“The other thing everyone needs to appreciate I think is the Mississippi legislature is not doing bonds this year. We’re not incurring any debt,” says Hosemann. “And in fact, over the next two years, we will write off approximately half a billion dollars in debt in Mississippi.”
Many bills faced lengthy debate between the two chambers, and dozens of bills were adopted in the final weeks through conference reports. Among those issues was the debate over income tax reduction or elimination, and an agreement was made that will reduce the tax by around one-third. The bill was signed into law yesterday by the Governor, and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn says it is a way to return part of the state’s $600 million revenue surplus back to taxpayers.
“It took a lot of work, but I’m glad we were able to get there. The only one that we didn’t come to an agreement on was the initiative. But all those others that I mentioned, teacher pay, the income tax, broadband, we came to an agreement with them on all those issues. And I feel very happy and very glad that we were able to get all those issues resolved.”
Although the 2022 legislative session is complete, officials say they will begin the process of preparing for the next session as early as today.
