Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson confirmed Wednesday his chamber will soon introduce a bill countering the House’s plan to cut taxes at a record rate.
A year after Mississippi’s two legislative chambers hit a stalemate on Medicaid expansion, the prevailing contentious issue this time around is tax policy. “The Build Up Mississippi Act” in the House would net an estimated $1 billion tax cut by phasing out the income tax in just over a decade, while significantly cutting the nation’s highest tax on groceries over a slightly shorter period.
The House bill flew through by a vote of 88-24 last week. But even as a bipartisan group of representatives overwhemingly gave their approval, it appears the Senate is readying their own legislation regarding tax policy, according to Hopson.
“We have been working on a tax policy bill since last year,” said the Republican from Vicksburg, noting a fiscal policy study committee was formed to begin cobbling legislation together. “The House came out of the chute early with their proposal. We had some individual meetings, Senator (Josh) Harkins, Lieutenant Governor (Delbert) Hosemann, and myself.”
As Hopson alluded to, the legislation could take a more comprehensive approach with concern to other fiscal operations that would be affected by decreased tax revenue.
“We look at this as putting every tax on the table and every spending issue on the table too,” Hopson continued. “Because we can’t just talk about tax policy without talking about some of significant concerns in the state – one of which is [the Public Employees’ Retirement System], two would be sustainable infrastructure models, some way to sustain our buildings, roads, and bridges.”
Another issue that complicates matters on the Senate side is a potential expansion of the state Medicaid program and related increased expenditures coming in the future.
“Our Medicaid ask will be significantly higher this year. And we expect, unfortunately, that it’s going to be significantly higher for many years to come,” Hopson said. “We will put all that on the table. Not just tax, but other issues that we need to be looking at to be forward thinking in our analysis in putting together a bill.”
Both House and Senate Republicans have noted that, when it comes to Medicaid expansion, the legislature is playing a waiting game. President Donald Trump and other Republicans on Capitol Hill have publicly hinted at making wholesale changes to Medicaid or potentially axing the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.
The Senate bill Hopson referred to has not been released as of yet. As the session wears on, fiscal policy will continue to play a leading role as lawmakers attempt to come to an agreement.
