Special to Wesson News
Making tax policy a priority for the 2025 legislative session, Mississippi House Speaker Jason White has named an 18-member committee to explore ways to reduce the state’s grocery and personal income taxes.
“The House will continue its pursuit of bold initiatives and policies to improve our great state, focusing on the betterment of Mississippi and all of her citizens,” White said.
The select tax committee will have two primary leaders: House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, and House Appropriations B Chairman Scott Bounds, a Republican from Philadelphia.
The committee is expected to hold hearings sometime in the fall or summer, but it’s unclear when exactly the group will meet to hear testimony from advocates and policy experts.
White wants to see the state’s 7% grocery tax, the highest statewide tax of its kind in the nation, cut at least in half as soon as possible, and would like to completely eliminate the personal income tax, which provides just under one-third of the state’s general fund revenue, over time.
While White says the state has the capacity to implement more tax cuts, he also wants to provide the state Department of Transportation (MDOT) with a new revenue stream to fund infrastructure now depending on an 18.4-cents-per-gallon fuel tax and to continue fully funding public K-12 education under the new school funding formula he championed earlier this year. MDOT officials have argued for years that they need more money for new road and bridge projects and maintenance.
If White, who holds enormous power in the 122-member House, shows that a tax cut measure is one of his top priorities for the 2025 session, it’s almost certain he can get his fellow Republicans, who make up a supermajority in the chamber, to fall in line on the issue. But the larger question is whether he and House leadership can convince the Republican-majority Senate, led by Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, to agree to a tax cut plan along with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has continued to advocate for eliminating the income tax.
In addition to Lamar and Bounds, White’s new committee includes Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville; Karl Oliver, R-Winona; Shane Aguirre, R-Tupelo; Clay Deweese, R-Oxford; Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia; Billy Adam Calvert, R-Meridian; Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi; Randy Rushing, R-Decatur; Lee Yancey, R-Brandon; Hester McCray, D-Horn Lake; Dana McLean, R-Columbus; Ronnie Crudup, Jr., D-Jackson; Otis Anthony, D-Indianola; Lawrence Blackmon, D-Canton; Justin Keen, R-Byhalia; and Tracey Rosebud, D-Tutwiler
Comentários