Mississippi Today
As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs
A legislative panel looking for ways to cut or eliminate state taxes in Mississippi on Wednesday heard from city, county and transportation officials about their need for adequate and stable infrastructure funding.
“Infrastructure, that’s our main need,” said Ocean Springs Mayor Kenny Holloway. “We’re an old city, and we’ve got crumbling water pipes, sewer pipes, sidewalks and roads. We’re growing, and it’s hard to keep up with needs.”
Holloway was one of four mayors to address the House Select Committee on Tax Reform during its second of several planned hearings for the summer and fall. The committee also heard from a representative of the association for counties, a transportation expert about the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s need for more funding, and the Department of Revenue.
Reps. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, and C. Scott Bounds, R-Philadelphia, co-chairmen of the tax committee, said helping keep up with infrastructure needs statewide and cutting taxes โ potentially eliminating the state income tax โ are not mutually exclusive. State coffers have remained flush since an influx of federal pandemic relief spending, even as the largest income tax cut in state history has been phased in over the last few years.
“There are three goals,” Lamar said at the outset of Wednesday’s hearing. “One, to learn as much as we can and recommend policy to the Legislature that will be transformational and provide us with the most competitive, most fair tax structure … Two, to be sensitive to the needs of local governments … government closest to the people … and three, to fix the funding model for the Mississippi Department of Transportation for the long haul.”
House Republican leaders have for several years promoted elimination of the state’s income tax. Their efforts have fallen short of elimination, but in 2022 resulted in passage of a $525-million a year income tax cut. When fully phased in in 2026, Mississippi will have a 4% income tax rate, one of the lowest among states that have an income tax.
Senate leaders, who have also formed a fiscal study committee to make recommendations for next year, previously balked at full elimination of the income tax that provides nearly a third of the state’s revenue. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and other Senate leaders have appeared more focused on cutting or eliminating the state’s 7% sales tax on groceries โ the highest such tax on groceries in the nation.
But city leaders โ especially those in small cities โ have for years been leery of talk of cutting the sales tax on groceries. Many small city budgets rely on sales taxes, and in many small rural cities, the main source of sales tax is from grocery stores.
On Wednesday, mayors of several Mississippi cities stressed to lawmakers how much their budgets rely on sales taxes and use taxes โ sales taxes collected on internet and other sales outside of the state. The state collects the taxes, then provides cities a “diversion” of part of the taxes collected inside each city.
DOR officials said Mississippi appears to be the only state that provides such a diversion of sales taxes, but many other states allow cities to levy their own “local option” sales taxes on top of the state’s. But state lawmakers have been loath to allow cities to levy local option sales taxes. Lamar told the panel Wednesday he recently went to a seminar in West Virginia, and he got an itemized bill that showed nearly 20% in sales taxes all told.
“We in local government don’t have any problems that money can’t fix,” Louisville Mayor Will Hill joked with lawmakers. “… We have the infrastructure issue, and the increased cost of policing and fire protection. We’re interested in having conversations on the importance of sales taxes, whether it’s increased diversions of local options.”
Steve Gray with the Mississippi Association of Supervisors reminded lawmakers that counties do not receive such a sales tax diversion, but he said they are thankful for lawmakers diverting some use taxes to county road and bridge needs starting a few years ago.
Gray said needed road and bridge work โ and the skyrocketing cost of construction and materials โ are the biggest fiscal challenge facing counties.
“We’re excited to be at the table and helping work toward a solution,” Gray told lawmakers.
The panel also heard from an expert with a company that has helped the Mississippi Department of Transportation for decades with its long range planning.
Paula S. Dowell, with HTNB Corporation, said MDOT has perennially been short of money to maintain all its roadways, much less build new ones to keep up with demand. The agency is primarily funded by a flat, per-gallon gasoline tax that is not indexed to keep up with inflation.
Mississippi, at 18.4 cents a gallon, has the second lowest motor fuel tax in the nation โ which hasn’t been raised in 30 years. Dowell said lawmakers could consider diverting more existing state dollars to MDOT, increase current taxes or enact new ones, such as an indexed sales tax devoted to transportation infrastructure.
She said other states have also implemented road user charges, or mileage fees, package delivery fees or container/cargo fees to help fund infrastructure. Dowell said some states have built toll roads, but that would have limited benefit in rural Mississippi.
In addition to the select committee hearings, House Speaker Jason White recently announced a tax policy summit, open to the public, on Sept. 24 at the Sheraton Refuge in Flowood.
“This Policy Summit is another step in the House’s commitment to building Mississippi up to have the most appealing tax structure in the nation,” White said in a statement. โIt is the vision of the House of Representatives that we accelerate our pathway to eliminating the personal income tax so that we reward Mississippians‘ hard work, not tax it. The Select Committee has been working hard in studying our grocery tax and providing relief to Mississippians when they go through the checkout line to provide for their families.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Crooked Letter Sports Podcast
Podcast: New Orleans sports columnist and author Jeff Duncan joins the podcast to talk about his new Steve Gleason book and the new-look New Orleans Saints.
Jeff Duncan went from the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday to Jerry World in Dallas on Sunday where he watched and wrote about the Saints’ total dismantling of the Dallas Cowboys. We talk about both events and also about what happened in high school and college football last weekend and what’s coming up this weekend.
Stream all episodes here.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1899
Sept. 18, 1899
Scott Joplin, known as โthe King of Ragtime,โ copyrighted the โMaple Leaf Rag,โ which became the first song to sell more than 1 million copies of sheet music. The popularity launched a sensation surrounding ragtime, which has been called America’s โfirst classical music.โย
Born near Texarkana, Texas, Joplin grew up in a musical family. He worked on the railroad with other family members until he was able to earn money as a musician, traveling across the South. He wound up playing at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, where he met fellow musician Otis Saunders, who encouraged him to write down the songs he had been making up to entertain audiences. In all, Joplin wrote dozens of ragtime songs.
After some success, he moved to New York City, hoping he could make a living while stretching the boundaries of music. He wrote a ragtime ballet and two operas, but success in these new forms eluded him. He was buried in a pauper’s grave in New York City in 1917.
More than six decades later, his music was rediscovered, initially by Joshua Rifkin, who recorded Joplin’s songs on a record, and then Gunther Schuller of the New England Conservatory, who performed four of the ragtime songs in concert: โMy faculty, many of whom had never even heard of Joplin, were saying things like, โMy gosh, he writes melodies like Schubert!’โ
Joplin’s music won over even more admirers through the 1973 movie, โThe Sting,โ which won an Oscar for the music. His song, โThe Entertainer,โ reached No. 3 on Billboard and was ranked No. 10 among โSongs of the Centuryโ list by the Recording Industry Association of America. His opera โTreemonishaโ was produced to wide acclaim, and he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his special contribution to American music.ย
โThe ragtime craze, the faddish thing, will obviously die down, but Joplin will have his position secure in American music history,โ Rifkin said. โHe is a treasurable composer.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Insurance chief Chaney hopes Mississippiโs homeowner rates are stabilizing
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says he is hopeful that the homeowner insurance rates that have spiked in recent years are now beginning to stabilize.
Chaney said he is hopeful that legislation passed during the 2024 session that provides grants to help homeowners put more wind resistant roofs on their homes will help lower the cost of premiums. He said the Legislature placed $5 million in the program.
โWhile this will help launch the program, the Legislature will need to provide additional annual funding well above this amount so that the program can provide the necessary benefits to reach a significant number of policyholders across our state,โ Chaney said via email.
While homeowners’ insurance rates in Mississippi have risen significantly, the increases have been less than in many surrounding states, according to various studies.
Chaney said his agency, which regulates the insurance industry in Mississippi, has received requests for double digit increases.
โWe worked with companies to consider less than what their indicated need was โฆ We feel that rate pressures will begin to stabilize along with inflation. Some companies that requested rates over 15% last year are now seeing a much lesser need โ many are now in single digits,โ Chaney said.
Inflation and the frequency of severe weather causing insurance claims are the two primary reasons for the increases in the homeowners’ insurance rates, according to Chaney.
Earlier this year the U.S. Senate issued a report addressing the rising costs of homeowners insurance premiums. The Democratic majority cited weather associated with climate change as the primary reason for the increase. Republicans discounted climate change and blamed the increase on inflation.
According to data compiled by Insurance.com and updated this month, the average cost of a policy for a $300,000 home in Mississippi is $3,380 per year, which is $779 or 30% above the national average.
The cost in Mississippi, though, is lower than many other Southern states. For instance, the cost in Louisiana is 38% above the national average and 52% above the national average in Arkansas. Florida is 70% above the national average while Texas is 48%. Other Southern states — Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky — are below the national average.
Realtor Magazine in May cited a report from Insurify, a virtual insurance company, saying, โThe states with the highest home insurance costs are prone to severe weather events. Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi are vulnerable to hurricanes. Texas, Colorado and Nebraska face a growing wildfire risk. Nebraska, Texas and Kansas are at high risk for tornadoes, being located in an area nicknamed โTornado Alley.’โ
Chaney said there are two types of processes for how insurance companies get rate increases. He said Mississippi is โa prior approvalโ state where the companies must receive approval from the regulator before an increase can be enacted. Other states –file and use states โ allow the company to enact the increase before receiving approval.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
-
Mississippi News Video5 days ago
Woman arrested after reposting school threat in Calhoun County
-
News from the South - Louisiana News Feed5 days ago
Food drive underway for Hurricane Francine victims in Kenner
-
Mississippi Today2 days ago
On this day in 1925
-
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed4 days ago
The search for Joseph Couch intensifies
-
News from the South - Alabama News Feed2 days ago
Diddy Arrested In Manhattan | September 16, 2024 | News 19 at 10 p.m.
-
News from the South - Alabama News Feed4 days ago
Sylacauga Church welcomes Haitian migrants amid speculations
-
Mississippi Today2 days ago
Another Midwest drought is causing transportation headaches on the Mississippi River
-
News from the South - Florida News Feed6 days ago
Tropics update: Tropical Depression 7, 2 other disturbances brewing in Atlantic