Legislative roundup

Week of Feb. 24-28, 2025

From staff reports

Taxes

The Senate’s long-awaited tax plan, SB 3905, has passed out of the Senate. As a reminder, their tax plan would reduce the income tax to 2.99% within four years. The Senate will also reduce the grocery tax from 7% to 5% by July 2026 and raise the gas tax by 3 cents per year over three years to help pay for critically-needed upkeep of roads and bridges upkeep.

The House’s tax plan would eliminate the personal income tax over the course of 10 years. Speaker Jason White passed that plan, HB 1, right out of the gate and has spent the ensuing weeks rallying support for the plan while rolling out endorsements from Mississippi business leaders. Expect this to be the biggest potential standoff of the session as it draws to a close.

Children’s Promise Act

If you ask the folks supporting the Children’s Promise Act, they’ll tell you the millions of dollars in tax credits being offered to organizations that provide care for children in the foster system is to benefit our most vulnerable children. What they won’t tell you is that while the intent behind this program is noble, millions of dollars in tax cuts are also going to Mississippi private schools. They’ll also leave out that the state has zero idea how these funds are being used or who is actually benefiting from the tax credits. HB 1903 would seek to grow this program from $9 million to $16 million. HB 1902 and HB 1894 are also still alive, which could allow for expansion of this program.

As reported last year in Mississippi Today, the Department of Revenue admitted that – despite being responsible for certifying the private schools that are eligible to receive funds through the Children’s Promise Act, they do not have any information on how the funds are spent or how many students are benefiting from the program, or even if those children are still enrolled at the institutions receiving those tax credits. Yes, you read that correctly.

Furthermore, the program has extremely broad parameters, meaning that a school only needs one student who fits the criteria to qualify for the program. That can be a child in foster care or a child with asthma or ADHD. And once a school has qualified, they don’t need to be recertified for seven years.

With the death of HB 1433, the House’s voucher plan, these bills seem like the next most convenient vehicle for school choice. And, to no one’s surprise, the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools has voiced their support for tax credits in lieu of traditional vouchers as their preference for getting public dollars for private schools. Now, we wait to see what the Senate decides to do with these bills.

Paid parental leave for state employees

There seems to be real momentum for paid leave for state employees this session. HB 1063 was passed out of the House unanimously earlier this session, paving the way for caregivers to receive eight weeks of paid leave. And this week, the Senate passed its version of a paid leave bill for state employees, adding teachers and community college teachers as eligible recipients but only offering six weeks of paid leave.

With both these pieces of legislation, which many consider long overdue, now having passed from each chamber, paid parental leave looks to be headed to conference at the end of the session, at which point representatives from each chamber will negotiate on the details of the final compromise before it would head to each chamber for a final vote.