STARKVILLE — Medicaid expansion and the question of income tax might take top billing in the upcoming state legislative session, with progress less likely on proposals to consolidate Mississippi State University and Mississippi University for Women.
Those projections come courtesy of Lucian Smith, a senior adviser to two Mississippi governors and current manager of the government affairs office at the Balch and Bingham law office who spoke Monday to Starkville Rotary Club about legislative priorities in the upcoming session.
“This is going to be a very interesting legislative session,” he said. “We’re in the second year of everybody’s terms, and a lot of times the second year is when big things happen. Everybody’s figured out where the power is, how the system will work, the new people have gotten their bearings.”
Smith suggested abolishing the income tax is the most likely headliner issue after the session begins in January, with House Speaker Jason White holding a fall policy summit about it after his predecessor Philip Gunn greatly reduced income tax but failed to eliminate it entirely.
“I get a fair amount of skepticism from senators,” Smith said. “They’ve said publicly that they support the concept of full elimination, but the question is whether we should do it over several successive sessions. But it’s clear that the House position will be full elimination of the income tax.”
Medicaid expansion is also likely to see action in the coming year. Today, Mississippians are only covered by Medicaid if they fall into a narrow set of demographics, but a proposal to cover everyone with sufficiently low income passed the state House in 2024.
That measure floundered in the Senate, where it was eventually killed by disagreements over what that income limit should be and an insistence upon a work requirement the Biden administration would never approve.
With more time and the possibility of a more agreeable executive branch under the Trump Administration, Smith thinks 2025 may be the year Mississippi finally passes some form of Medicaid expansion.
“One of the first things the new speaker did was hold a press conference calling for expanding Medicaid,” Smith said. “As speaker, you don’t have to be public to get things done. You can just tell your chairman you want it to happen and not have full ownership. But Speaker White made the choice to say, ‘This is my policy. This is what we ought to do.’” That’s not something a speaker does if he plans on being unsuccessful.”
University consolidation, other issues
Less certain is another vital issue for the Golden Triangle – university consolidation. While there have been past attempts to rebrand the Mississippi University for Women or fold it into Mississippi State University in the face of flagging enrollment, Smith isn’t convinced there’s enough political will to take action this session.
“There will be a bunch of talk about it, but I mean, nothing’s scarier than MUW alumni,” he said. “I think the right thing is probably to consolidate it into a satellite campus of MSU. I’d assume there would be significant savings, but I said that once on television and my opponent immediately leaned into the microphone and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen if you’re listening, that was Lucian Smith…’”
He also spoke to a range of smaller issues, like his expectation that the state will likely allow parents to send high schoolers to another district even if their home district disapproves. The same fall forum held for income tax also considered raising the gas tax, which Smith thinks might get through this session. He’s heard discussions that mobile sports betting and loosening of wine shipping laws could be on the table as well.
While restructuring the Public Employees’ Retirement System will likely be a question, Smith assured Rotarians that “what’s not going to happen is anyone who is vested seeing their benefits going away.” He suggested the PERS board might be more achievable.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
