Appropriations bills are expected to be finalized early this week as lawmakers work through an extended legislative session. Lawmakers delayed debates over the budget measures as they prioritized legislation to reduce or eliminate the state income tax. Leadership gave staff the weekend to finish paperwork on the bills, and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn says it should only take one day to finish the session.
“The budget will be around $6.2 billion which is very conservative given the fact that we have included the teacher pay raise in that, we include a variety of other smaller items in that,” says Gunn. “So it is a very conservative budget and one that will meet all the needs of our agencies.”
In addition to spending the state’s usual budget, lawmakers are also planning how the state will spend money from the federal government. Mississippi was allocated around $1.8 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act. Speaker Gunn says around half of the ARPA funds being spent this year will likely go towards updating water infrastructure throughout the state.
“Of the $1.8 [billion], I think they’re holding back about $300 million just because they seem to have covered about everything they have wanted to and we want to see if there are any unknowns out there that may surface that we could use those dollars for next year,” says Gunn. “So we’re going to spend about $1.5 [billion] of those dollars, which is good for our cities and counties and all the rural water associations and everybody else that we’re spending the money on.”
Governor Tate Reeves is expected to sign a bill this week to reduce income tax, which accounts for a large portion of state revenue.
