This year was the first time since 2010 that Mississippi lawmakers voted to end a regular session without first agreeing to a state budget.
Much of the 2025 session was instead spent on removing the state's personal income tax, good for about 1/3 of the state's annual budget, and infighting between the House and Senate over how to best do that.
And because lawmakers will reconvene in Jackson this week for a special session to settle -- and pass -- the state's budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Mississippi taxpayers will be on the hook for tens of thousands of additional dollars.
Reeves and the leaders of each chamber, House Speaker Jason White and Lieutenant Gov. Delbert Hosemann, will oversee a more than $7 billion state budget set to begin at the turnover of the fiscal year on July 1.
In announcing the special session Tuesday afternoon, Reeves says he expects it to wrap up by Friday, May 30. Most state government agencies will remain at level-funding from the 2025 fiscal year, creating well over $1 billion in unspent funds that can act as a salve of sorts to sweeping federal budget cuts.
Much of the time spent between the end of the regular session and the announcement of the special session centered around understanding differences between the two chambers, which have been locked in bitter disputes over tax cuts, ‘pet’ capital projects and efforts to expand Medicaid in the state.
“What we found as we were working with the leadership in the House and the Senate is that there weren’t a lot of huge disagreements on funding the core functions of government. There were quite a few disagreements on items [out here] which led to them not funding the core functions of government,” Reeves said at the Walter Sillers building in downtown Jackson on May 27.
“So, at this time, I only anticipate that the call will include items that are specific to funding the core functions of government…that doesn’t mean that only appropriation bills will be in the budget, because there will be a bill that also deals with deficits for the current fiscal year.”
Reeves now hopes the legislature can start to address some of his leading policy priorities.
“One of the things that we’ll need to continue our historic momentum is a budget. We have to fund positions at [the] Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to ensure all of these new projects get the permitting they need for construction; speed to market demands it,” he said.
“We have to continue to invest in education from pre-kindergarten, to workforce development, to continue to grow the ‘Mississippi Miracle.’ Our current and future employers demand it.”