The House has recently advanced a bill that would force Jackson to use the revenue from its 1% special sales tax exclusively on the city's water system. The tax was established in 2014 and originally intended to fund multiple types of infrastructure. In a press briefing held yesterday, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called the proposed changes "short-sighted."
He claimed that the state-appointed commission that oversees the special sales tax does not agree with the bill either.
"Their own appointees don't agree with limiting it in that way," he said. "I think we need to have a more broad and expansive way of dealing with the multitude of issues we have to address in our city."
Lumumba believes the special sales tax has seen overreach from the state government since its inception. He went as far as to claim the state may have potentially violated federal law when the legislature amended the special sales tax referendum that had already been voted on.
"EVen after the referendum passed, there was an amendment to the referendum," he said. "I believe that's a violation of the Voting Rights Act. People went to the polls, they voted for something in the state they believed it to be in, and then it was changed."
Two representatives attempted to amend the bill before it passed the House and both failed. The bill's author is Trey Lamar, who does not represent Hinds County.
