Treasurer Hopes Mississippi will Spur Business During Downturn

Mississippi Treasurer Tate Reeves speaking during a press luncheon in Jackson.

With the economy sagging, Mississippi's elected officials are looking for ways to help the state weather the storm. MPB's Stephen Koranda reports on what State Treasurer Tate Reeves hopes to see.

State tax revenues have taken a hard hit because of the recession. In February tax collections were down three percent, or around nine million dollars. Reeves says this leaves the state 100 million dollars below the revenue estimate for the fiscal year, and a large portion of that is coming from one sector: corporate income taxes.

“Corporate income tax comprises less than ten percent of our total budgeted numbers, but in fiscal year ‘09, our year to date corporate income taxes are 51 million dollars below estimate.”

Federal stimulus dollars could be important in reversing that trend. Reeves hopes the funding will help create a better climate for business to help companies make it through the recession to be in a position to grow quickly after it ends.

“That includes and awful lot of things. That includes investment in education. We need to think big, we need to think infrastructure and we need to think what can we do to help encourage the private sector to invest in MS.”

Mississippi is in line to get more than 2 billion dollars in federal stimulus funding over two years. Reeves hopes the money will allow lawmakers to boost economic development without tapping into the state’s more than 360 million dollar rainy day fund.