Mississippi’s 2022 legislative session is scheduled to end Sunday, a session that will be remembered for misguided moves, missed opportunities and the typical bait-and-switch shenanigans that keep our poor, ignorant and unhealthy.
How bad was it?
The legislature only cut revenue by a half-billion dollars. If you expected the state to seriously address massive shortfalls in mental health, public education, foster care, prisons or a state crime lab that is hopelessly back-logged, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Even so, that $525 million cut in the state income tax represents a compromise to the House Bill pushed by Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, which would have eliminated the state income tax altogether to the tune of $1.8 billion, about 30 percent of the state’s non-federal budget.
Finally, Gunn Control has arrived in Mississippi.
Instead of eliminating the income tax altogether, the legislature eliminated the 4 percent tax bracket on taxable income between $5,000 and $10,000. The state phased out the 3 percent tax bracket between 2018 and this year, cutting $415,000 from its revenue.
The latest bracket elimination will be phased in over four years. When fully implemented that means the state will have reduced its annual revenue by a whopping $940 million per year.
The fight over the income tax cuts dominated the session, pitting Gunn against Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, whose earlier tax package would have reduced state income by “only” $215 million.
But there was another casualty in the fight over income tax.
Gunn held Mississippi’s $1.8 billion in American Rescue Plan Funds hostage during the session, at one point saying no action would be taken on those funds unless the state eliminated the state’s income tax. But with the income tax question not settled until Sunday, there is little chance that the legislature will commit those funds before the end of the session.
Mississippi is one of only a few states that have not designated those funds. In fact, by September, 32 states had committed ARPA funds for projects in their states.
Gunn’s hostage taking of ARPA funds has put cities and counties in a difficult position.
Cities throughout the state hope to be able to leverage their own APRA funding with matching ARPA funds from the state, but the demand of the state money is almost certainly going to far exceed the amount available. Cities have until the end of 2024 to commit funds to approved projects and must have spent that money by 2026.
Unless there is a special session called to distribute those funds, a lot of cities are going to be playing a dangerous game: Do they proceed with their plans in hopes that the state funds do come their way? Or do they pursue projects that they can fund with only their own ARPA money?
The needless delay could seriously affect plans for projects that likely will never again come their way.
You could make the argument that the opportunities these one-time funds represent should have been the legislature’s top priority. But instead, we got three months of political pandering of a state income tax reduction nobody asked for.
The legislature did have time to pass a bill that prohibits teaching Critical Race Theory, a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist but did not expand Medicaid to up to 300,000 working Mississippians who currently are without health insurance.
In the final week, the legislature will likely pass a bill that restores the citizens initiative, although it’s a bait and switch. Instead of simply correcting language in the citizens initiative process that was struck down by the Mississippi Supreme Court in May, the legislature will advance an initiative amendment that will allow a vote to change statutory law only. Legislators who vowed to restore citizens’ right to amend the state constitution proved to be lying. Imagine that, huh?
The best thing that can be said about the 2022 session is that it will soon come to a merciful end.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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