Jan. 6, 2021 

Amanda Gorman was trying to finish her poem on national unity when scenes burst upon the television of insurrectionists attacking the U.S. Capitol. 

The 22-year-old stayed up late, writing new lines into the night. Two weeks later, she became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, joining a prestigious group that included Maya Angelou and Robert Frost. But few faced as difficult a task, searching for unity amid violence, a deadly pandemic and polarizing partisanship. 

She described herself as a “skinny Black girl, descended from slaves and raised by a single mother” who can dream of being president one day, “only to find herself reciting for one.” 

She shared the words she wrote in the wake of the nation’s first attack on the Capitol in more than two centuries:

“We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation

rather than share it

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy

And this effort very nearly succeeded

But while democracy can be periodically delayed

It can never be permanently defeated.”

In the wake of the attack that resulted in five deaths and injuries to 138 officers, she penned that the nation would endure:

Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed

a nation that isn’t broken

but simply unfinished

She reminded those present that “history has its eyes on us” and that this nation will indeed rise again:

“We will rebuild, reconcile and recover

And every known nook of our nation and

Every corner called our country,

Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,

Battered and beautiful…

For there is always light,

If only we’re brave enough to see it

If only we’re brave enough to be it”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Mississippi Today politics team, including its two newest members, Simeon Gates and Michael Goldberg, outline the major issues lawmakers face as the 2025 legislative session begins this week.

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi legislators will gather under the Capitol dome at noon on January 7 for their 2025 session. This will be the second year of the ongoing four-year term, and lawmakers are expected to address a raft of issues including tax cuts and shoring up the state’s public retirement system. 

Capitol leaders will forego much of the pomp and circumstance that dominated the first portion of the 2024 session because both House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann will not have to appoint new leaders to lead the dozens of legislative committees.

Instead, the 174 legislators can dive headfirst into some of these issues that could be debated and considered:

Tax cuts 

Both House Speaker Jason White and Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann have pitched separate tax cut proposals. White, a Republican from West, has said he wants to lower the grocery tax, eliminate the income tax and ensure the Department of Transportation has a secure revenue stream to build and maintain state roads. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has also said he wants to eliminate the income tax. 

Hosemann, the leader of the Senate, has said he wants to cut the grocery tax, the highest of such a tax in the nation, but he has not mentioned the income tax as an area of concern. 

Medicaid expansion 

After efforts to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor sputtered at the end of the 2024 session, will lawmakers reach a compromise this year? Both Hosemann and White have signaled they plan to push expansion legislation, again, in 2025. 

Hosemann previously said Senate leadership will not consider a proposal unless it includes an ironclad requirement that Medicaid recipients are full-time workers or are seeking full-time work. White has been quiet on what the House leadership plans to introduce.

A work requirement is more likely to be approved by the federal government this year than last, since President-elect Donald Trump will be in office and approved work requirements in his last term. 

Ballot initiative 

For the fourth year in a row, lawmakers plan to introduce legislation to restore the ballot initiative, the way for citizens to circumvent politicians and place issues directly on a statewide ballot. The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the prior initiative process was invalid. During the last three years, the House and Senate failed to reach an agreement over how the process should be replaced. 

Felony suffrage 

House leaders are expected to file legislation again that would create an automatic path for some people convicted of nonviolent felony offenses to regain their voting rights. 

Mississippi has one of the harshest felony disenfranchisement practices in the nation. After someone is convicted of one of 23 felony crimes, they have their voting rights stripped away for life – even if they never commit a crime again after leaving prison.  

The House approved legislation to give non- former people convicted of a non-violent disenfranchising crime  a path to suffrage restoration as long as they have paid all the terms of their sentence and not committed another crime for five years. 

But Senate Constitution Chair Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, killed the House proposal without bringing it up for a vote and never gave a clear answer why she opposed the policy. 

Judicial redistricting 

State lawmakers will be required to redraw Mississippi’s 23 Circuit Court and 20 Chancery Court districts. State law mandates the Legislature must complete judicial redistricting  by the fifth year after the U.S. Census is administered. The last Census was performed in 2020, meaning the Legislature’s deadline is 2025. 

If the Legislature does not redraw the districts by the deadline, state law requires the chief justice of the state Supreme Court to modify the districts.

Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, told Mississippi Today he wants to substantially change the districts based on population shifts and caseload data. House Speaker Jason White said he is consulting with House members to address judicial redistricting.

Legislative redistricting 

The Legislature will have to redraw some of its legislative districts after a federal three-judge panel determined the districts that were drawn in 2022 diluted Black voting strength. 

The Court determined the state had to, at least, create an additional majority-Black Senate district in the DeSoto County area in north Mississippi and one in the Hattiesburg area in south Mississippi. The panel also ruled the state must create a majority-Black House district in the Chickasaw County area in northeast Mississippi. 

Public Employee Retirement System

There will be discussions on whether to provide a cash infusion into the massive Public Employees Retirement System. Last year legislations pumped $110 million into the system to try to help ensure the financial viability of PERS that provides retirement benefits for most state employees, local government workers and school personnel from the kindergarten to higher education level. Some argued that a much greater sum of money than was provided last year is needed to prop up the system.

Legislators also might consider changing the benefits — essentially guaranteeing fewer benefits — for new hires.

School choice

Speaker White and some special interests groups are pushing to expand school choice legislation, setting up a clash with public education activists and potentially Senate leadership. 

Mississippi currently does not have a school choice law on the books, which would allow families to use public funds for a variety of K-12 education options, including private education.  

Proponents say it would improve outcomes and give parents greater autonomy over their children’s education. Opponents of school choice say that the policies take money from already underfunded public schools and give it to private schools with limited oversight or improvement in academic performance. 

College financial aid 

Lawmakers will be asked to consider legislation to expand the state’s college financial aid programs for the second session in a row. 

Interest groups and higher education advocates are asking Capitol leaders to double the amount of money some students receive through the Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant and open up the program to adult and part-time college students, many of whom have never before been eligible for aid. 

The main heartburn for legislators is the proposal’s price tag: it would cost $31 million a year, an increase by more than half what Mississippi already spends on its state financial aid programs.

Certificate of need laws 

House Public Health Chairman Sam Creekmore IV, R-New Albany, wants to make it easier for medical facilities to add in-demand health care services by loosening provisions in a law that requires health facilities to seek state approval first. 

The time-consuming and sometimes costly application process, which requires facilities to seek a “certificate of need” for health care planning purposes, can hinder needed services from opening, especially in rural areas, according to health officials.

Critics of CON laws argue they stifle competition and fail to decrease costs. Advocates say it ensures that communities have access to a range of health services, not only those that are profitable. 

Mississippi Today reporter Bobby Harrison contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.