The Mississippi legislature has less than two months to pass a state operating budget ahead of the June 30 deadline. Negotiations appear to be at a standstill as both chambers attempt to find common ground.
The 2025 regular session ended on a sour note after the final gavel signaled the conclusion of the assembly on April 3 with no budget passed. Since then, a host of closed-door meetings have been conducted to allow movers and shakers space to settle the upcoming fiscal year’s financial allocations.
According to Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, the plan is to have a “general framework” established before stepping foot back into the state capitol.
“I don’t want to come in and sit around for a few days trying to figure things out,” Hopson said. “We want to have a good idea of where we stand overall – both Senate and House – to get something that everybody can be happy with. Then we’ll probably have to tweak a few things.”
Hopson underscored the importance of hammering out an agreement as soon as possible so as to allow state agencies, municipalities, and other organizations that depend on state money to plan for Fiscal Year 2026. There is “general alignment” between the two chambers, Hopson said, but a tenuous regular session that included an abundance of public jabs and disagreement could be spilling over to the political parleys.
“[Both the House and Senate] want to have a fiscally responsible and conservative budget,” Sen. Hopson continued, noting that the two sides agree on around 70% of budget items. “But those last 10 or 12 or 15 items we don’t agree on are usually the most difficult because they have a lot of tentacles.”
The web has further been tangled by discussions on what else could be addressed beyond fiscal plans. Gov. Tate Reeves, who calls and sets the agenda for special sessions, has teased revisiting legislation like school choice, mobile sports betting, and certificates of need laws, among other items.
When speaking to the media following the regular session ending, Reeves urged agency heads and Mississippians wringing their hands over a delay in the budgetary approval process to “calm down,” pointing to past circumstances in which a special session was required to pass a budget.
On Thursday, the governor expressed his chagrin that no agreement had yet been reached, explaining that he had given lawmakers a previous deadline of April 30 to reach a mutual landing spot for Mississippi’s $7 billion operating budget. Reeves also mused about potentially withholding pay from lawmakers for their work in the special session until a deal is done, highlighting his desire to spend as little taxpayer money as possible.
“The single most important thing the legislature is responsible for is appropriating money for our annual operating budget,” Reeves told the media. “I am disappointed that there’s not an agreement by our legislative leaders. I had hoped it would come by [April 30]. But that has not occurred, and so we’ve got to figure out what the next steps are.”
A potential start date for the looming special session has not been decided.
