Mississippi’s legislature will not eliminate income tax this legislative session, but millions of dollars in state revenue will be reduced by shrinking the tax. During a meeting of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee on Friday, the state economist shared estimates with lawmakers projecting the state will have a budget surplus of more than one billion dollars next year. After the meeting, Speaker of the House Philip Gunn said this money needs to be returned to taxpayers.
“We have addressed every concern that’s been raised, by business entities, by the Senate, by the governor. And every excuse that has been raised has now been eliminated,” says Gunn. “And so as I said a minute ago, there appear to be zero reasons why we can’t go forward and make this happen.”
On Saturday, House and Senate lawmakers came to an agreement on a plan to eliminate the 4% tax bracket and lower the 5% bracket over three years. Single filers will have tax-free income of up to $18,300, and married couples up to a combined income of $36,600. Later that day, House lawmakers voted to adopt the plan. And yesterday, Senators debated if the bill would prevent the state from funding essential projects.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Josh Harkins, who spoke in favor of the bill, says“We’ve had time to start going through the budget, we figured this was a deal that we could live with, that we could do barring any natural disaster that we don’t know about. But in the normal course of events, we feel like this is a plan that we can absorb, and we can come back in four years and reassess and see where we are.”
Senate lawmakers passed the legislation 39-10. Although Governor Tate Reeves says he wants to eliminate state income tax, he is expected to sign the bill.
