Top political issues affecting Mississippi in the 2025 legislative session

Editor’s note: This is the first entry in an eight-part series previewing some of the most impactful legislation coming to Mississippi’s 2025 legislative session.

The 2025 legislative session begins on January 7, and many of the issues discussed this year in press releases, news stories, and legislative task force committees will be at the center of debate and possibly adopted into law.

But what bills will make headlines? What will parliamentarians debate most often? how many bills will miss deadlines passed by the Legislature or die at the hands of House and Senate lawmakers?

Below is a look at some of the biggest issues facing Mississippi lawmakers in 2025.

Tax cut debates are coming

Mississippi’s legislative leadership is considering cuts to the state tax code.

This year, potential tax code goals will largely take the form of income tax and sales tax cuts, with also talk of loosening state restrictions on local option taxes and funding for the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

On one side of the Mississippi State Capitol, House Speaker Jason White, R-West, wants to cut the state’s personal income tax, which will be 4% by fiscal year 2027. Meanwhile, Gov. Delbert Hosemann wants to cut the state’s 7% grocery sales tax, one of the highest in the country.

“The positive thing is that both chambers seem very interested in tax reform in a way that we can hopefully reduce the income tax burden on Mississippians as we continue to maintain these surpluses while also hopefully looking for a way to reduce the tax some food. maybe not for all, but for some, and it will bring some relief to Mississippians,” White told reporters after a September tax policy summit.

Income tax makes up almost one-third of the state budget, which could prompt lawmakers to look for other ways to raise state revenues to supplement it. Meanwhile, many cities in Mississippi rely on grocery sales tax revenues to fund local governments.

Whether one, both or neither is cut, government spending will likely increase in 2025.

Medicaid expansion will return to debate in 2025

During the 2024 session, state lawmakers failed to reach a final resolution on Medicaid expansion, postponing the issue until 2025.

Both White and Hosemann vowed to reintroduce the full legislation in the coming year in an attempt to ensure tens of thousands of poor working Mississippians have access to government-funded health care.

House Public Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Sam Creekmore of New Albany hinted earlier this year that his chamber would likely come up with a similar proposal for Medicaid expansion legislation, House Bill 1725, proposed in 2024. The Senate plan assumes that, like in 2024, will likely also have similar features to its proposal.

As things currently stand, if the Legislature were to pass full Medicaid expansion alongside Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, a rabid opponent of expansion, it would likely benefit more than 200,000 Mississippians and the state would bring in about $1.2 billion in economic incentives by expanding the program program. The federal government will foot 90% of the bill and the state will foot the remaining 10%.

Earlier this year, the Clarion Ledger identified several areas where Mississippi’s Medicaid plan could be on hold due to President-elect Donald Trump’s likely intention to cut the Affordable Care Act, of which Medicaid is a part.

Government structure

Beginning in the fall, Senate leadership publicly stated that it was exploring ways to reduce the financial and regulatory burdens that state government places on taxpayers.

Hosemann told the Clarion Ledger in the upcoming session that he would likely support legislation to create a commission to study how to reduce the size and costs of government.

Around the same time, State Auditor Shad White, a Republican, released a government waste study that identified $335 million in government waste at 13 state agencies as a result of underutilized government assets, state contracting and procurement policies that “waste ” time and money and other means.

While the study and the $2 million paid for it have come under scrutiny from lawmakers and leading members of the Mississippi Republican Party, it could still serve as a guide for lawmakers looking to cut the budget, White said.

Public pension system

During the 2024 session, the Legislature passed legislation to remove regulatory authority from the Mississippi Public Employment Retirement System board in order to increase funding requirements from cities and counties for the state pension plan.

Over the summer, a follow-up report was released that found that lawmakers’ actions in 2024 have done virtually nothing to address PERS-related issues, including a $25 billion funding shortfall, a declining number of public employees contributing to the system, and a growing number of beneficiaries .

To try to address the long-term sustainability of the system, the PERS board released its legislative recommendations this month, which included a new class of benefits for new public sector employees. Some of the suggestions for this new tier, called Tier 5, are that new government employees will receive less guaranteed cash when they retire than current retirees.

More about PERS:

Legislation, changes in judicial districts, court reforms

In 2025, state lawmakers will need to address several areas of legislative redistricting to state district and chancery court lines and possibly those defining juvenile courts.

Thanks to a federal court order, the Mississippi Legislature will have to redraw some of its legislative districts because the court found that the lines of several districts diluted black voting power.

The reshuffle could impact dozens of districts, prompting a special election after the session.

Judicial redistricting, required within five years of the U.S. Census, will apply to district and chancery court districts. During the 2024 session, efforts to redraw judicial lines ended before the legislative deadline.

One issue that can be linked to the judicial debate in the judicial district is juvenile courts, as identified in the task force committee reports. Major reforms are needed to fix some of the fundamental problems with the state’s youth court system.

One recommendation to fix systemic problems would be to merge the courts with chancery courts. Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee A, said it is possible that youth courts could be drawn into the district court redrawing debate.

“I haven’t thought that far yet,” Wiggins said after a November committee hearing on juvenile courts. “I think it’s imperative that we look at our court systems, juvenile courts, county courts and chancery courts for all the reasons that we heard about last year and that we heard here today.”

Education problems in 2025

Lawmakers will need to come up with another $38 million in the coming year to fully fund Mississippi State’s new student funding formula, which was fully funded this year with about $2.95 billion.

Other issues that may come into focus are school choice and private school vouchers.

House Speaker Jason White said in a public interview earlier this month that he plans for the House to make the school choice decision to give parents more options for transferring children from one public school to another.

House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, said his committee would take up school choice bills, charter school bills and establishing legislation requiring the Mississippi Department of Education to study ways to deal with failing school districts.

Senate Education Chairman Dennis Debar, R-Leakesville, said he is pursuing similar goals and would also like to address the issue of teacher pay raises.

Grant McLaughlin represents the Legislature and state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at [email protected] or 972-571-2335.