Republican lawmakers in both chambers are exploring different plans to cut taxes in Mississippi.
The House has passed a bill with sweeping tax cuts, with some increases to balance revenue. Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann says the Senate plan will not have any increases. But, he says it takes a more conservative approach at reducing the state’s revenue streams in the face of a potential party shift in Congress.
“Particularly if the Republicans take over the House of Representatives, this part about them sending billions of dollars down here is gonna stop. When that stops we have to make sure that the production from our taxpayers is sufficient to do roads, bridges, education and the other things. So we’re very leery of putting ourselves in a position that we would have a significant decrease off three, four, five years from now.”
Lawmakers are also looking at ways to use one-time funding from the federal government to make long-term changes in the state. Mississippi has received nearly two billion dollars in federal relief through the American Rescue Plan Act. Lt. Governor Hosemann says updating the state’s infrastructure will be a critical part of spending that money.
“We want to match what cities, counties, and rural water actually to make things and fix old pipes and get sewer lagoons up to speed and to really dictate the growth of their communities. That’s what this is doing. And the same thing with broadband. We’ll probably spend somewhere around $500 million on broadband in the next year or two.”
Bills to address state revenue, raise teacher pay, and reinstate the ballot initiative process are expected to face additional debate in the coming weeks of the legislative session.
