Though lawmakers are back in their home districts, Gov. Tate Reeves will have to call them back to Jackson for a special session to pass a $7 billion state budget. That work will need to be completed before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1 to avert a government shutdown.
The Republican leaders of both chambers have blamed the other for the budgeting woes. House Speaker Jason White said he told Senate leaders in January the House would not participate in the last-minute negotiations which typically see budgets finalized on their deadline day. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said House leaders repeatedly dodged Senate attempts to negotiate budget bills before then.
“They have ignored the deadlines, failed to show up repeatedly, taken their marbles home at least twice, and given us conflicting statements every other time,” Hosemann said.
This infighting took center stage during the final days of the 2025 session, but tensions between the two leaders and their top lieutenants had been building for months. White’s top priority for the session was eliminating the income tax, while Hosemann wanted lawmakers to take a more cautious approach to new tax cuts.
When the Senate did propose a bill that included a path to full income tax elimination, it tied cuts to economic growth triggers that made the process much lengthier than the House wanted. The Senate passed that bill without realizing it contained typos that would see the income tax eliminated much quicker than they intended. The House then took advantage of the chance to pass an aggressive income tax elimination bill and send it to Gov. Reeves, who signed the error-laden legislation into law.
Senate leaders saw that move from House Republicans as pure political opportunism, and the discord it created affected all subsequent efforts to negotiate budget bills and other legislation.
Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson of Vicksburg said leaders from both chambers were around two-thirds of the way through crafting a state budget when negotiations fell apart last week. Hosemann said those efforts culminated in the House budgeters walking out of a meeting Friday night. The House didn’t come in the next day for further negotiations so lawmakers missed the March 29 deadline for filing budget agreements.
The House’s absence during that “conference weekend” Saturday frustrated their Senate colleagues, many of whom said they would not support any effort to suspend legislative rules and revive the budget bills during the final week of the session.
Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula said suspending the rules would open the door for House leaders to revive other legislative priorities the Senate had killed, like mobile sports betting.
“It's been my experience that certain members and certain leadership, they always want to throw something in, in exchange for that,” Wiggins said.
The House unanimously passed a suspension resolution on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to resume budget negotiations with the Senate. After Senate leaders didn’t meet the self-imposed deadline of 5 p.m. White set for responding to that offer, the House ended its regular session. The Senate followed suit the following day.
Legislative Democrats were only able to watch as the conflicts between their Republican colleagues caused major dysfunction. House Minority Leader Robert Johnson of Natchez said he thinks both sides of those debates could have been more cooperative and gotten a budget passed. He also thinks Republican leaders’ focus on the tax cut bill drove much of the session and prevented pressing issues from being addressed.
“I think this session has been a complete waste,” Johnson said. “We have not done anything that's been good for the people of the state of Mississippi.”
During a Wednesday press conference, Gov. Reeves said that while the situation isn't ideal, it has happened before, and he's confident lawmakers will be able to work out their differences when he calls them back to Jackson.
“I want to assure our taxpayers, there is no imminent threat of a government shutdown,” Reeves said. “Our state government is going to be just fine as we work through this process.”
Reeves said he does not know when he will call the special session, or if he will task lawmakers with anything other than budget work. Reeves did say that "a lot" of conservative priorities didn’t make it to his desk and is considering adding them to the session’s agenda.
This is the first time since 2009 that the Governor will have to call a special session to pass a state budget. The special session will cost taxpayers around $100,000 each day it lasts.
