A bill to legalize direct shipment of some wines to Mississippians’ homes will soon be considered by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. 

After supporters fought for over a decade to get the Legislature to agree to the proposal, both chambers finally approved Senate Bill 2145. This bill allows citizens to order specialty or rare wines that cannot be purchased at Mississippi package stores.

Mississippi is one of only a handful of states that doesn’t allow direct shipment. House State Affairs Chairman Hank Zuber, R-Ocean Springs, told House members on Tuesday that some Mississippians circumvent state law by ordering wine from other states or countries, having it shipped to a friend’s house in another state and driving over to pick it up. 

“Make no mistake, this is happening now, and we are not collecting the tax revenue,” Zuber said. 

The House approved the measure 79-29 on Tuesday, and the Senate approved the measure 24-14 last week. 

If signed into law by Reeves, the legislation would enact a 15.5% tax on direct wine shipments and put a cap of 12 cases per year that a person can order. 

To ship wine directly to a Mississippian, a person must purchase a direct wine manufacturer’s permit from the Mississippi Department of Revenue. 

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

Former U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo will pay $30,000 to settle with the Federal Election Commission, which found he used campaign money for personal expenses.

Palazzo, a certified public accountant and former state legislator who lost his congressional reelection bid in 2023 to now U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell, faced ethics and campaign finance scrutiny for several years while in office.

The FEC found he paid $3,000 a month from his campaign to a company he owned for rent of a river house in D’Iberville he alleged was a campaign office despite “almost no campaign activity” being done there, a report said. In his settlement with the FEC, he agreed to pay a civil penalty of $13,500 and cover outstanding campaign debt of $16,500. The FEC noted Palazzo had already reimbursed his campaign $23,000 for personal use of a vehicle the campaign leased.

The FEC investigated Palazzo after Republican primary opponent Carl Boyanton filed a complaint.

Palazzo, who held the District 4 Mississippi U.S. House Seat from 2011 to 2023, also faced probes by the Office of Congressional Ethics and the House Ethics Committee. The OCE, in a 2021 report, claimed that Palazzo misspent campaign and congressional funds and said it found evidence he used his office to help his brother and used staff for personal errands and services. After its investigation, the OCE handed the matter off to the House Ethics Committee.

But the House Ethics Committee, after a year-and-a-half long probe, did not take any action on the issue and let the matter drop when a new Congress took office.

READ MORE: Rep. Steven Palazzo ethics investigation: Is the congressman’s campaign account a slush fund?

The allegations in the OCE report included that Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile wife nearly $200,000 through companies they own, including thousands to cover the mortgage, maintenance and upgrades to a riverfront home Palazzo owned and wanted to sell. But Palazzo said that the payments were legally made for the campaign’s rent of the home for a campaign office.

A Mississippi Today investigation in 2020 also questioned thousands of dollars in Palazzo campaign spending on swanky restaurants, sporting events, resort hotels, golfing and gifts. Federal law and House rules prohibit using campaign money for personal expenses. The Palazzo campaign at the time said it had found a few mistaken, non-permissible purchases and the Palazzo had repaid the campaign.

READ MORE: Ethics complaints against Rep. Steven Palazzo likely to ‘evaporate’ in Congress

The OCE report also claimed Palazzo had used congressional staffers for personal errands and campaign work. It said former staffers it interviewed said Palazzo’s office failed to separate official work from campaign and personal activities, including shopping for his kids. In 2011, during his first term in office, Palazzo had also faced allegations that he and his wife used congressional staffers for babysitting, chauffeuring kids around and moving.

Palazzo on Tuesday responded with written statements about the case.

“It’s not the complete exoneration we had hoped for, but I’ll take it,” Palazzo said. “My family, friends, and loyal supporters have endured 5 years of lies and half-truths created by my 2020 political opponents. They couldn’t beat me at the ballot box, so they had to resort to malicious allegations and distortions. They may have taken the seat from me, but they cannot take 12 years of successful service for our military, veterans, and families in South Mississippi. I delivered on my promise to make Mississippi stronger and more prosperous for future generations, and I’m glad President Trump is continuing what we started in 2011.”

Palazzo said: “At no time were campaign funds converted to personal income. All expenditures were approved by my campaign treasurer for ordinary and necessary campaign expenditures … “$13,500 is not a hefty fine, but it is a lot of money to me. To see this finally resolved and to be fined for technical violations is a huge win. The other money will pay off some outstanding campaign debt which is normal for all campaigns.”

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

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday morning threw cold water on a Senate plan to trim state taxes because the proposal does not fully eliminate the state’s individual income tax, injecting more tension in an already contentious debate at the Capitol. 

“It doesn’t get anywhere near eliminating the income tax so it is a non-starter for me!” Reeves wrote on X. “I’m beginning to believe that there is someone in the Senate that is philosophically opposed to eliminating the income tax.” 

If the House and Senate cannot agree on a plan to eliminate the income tax, Reeves could force lawmakers into a special session to debate the issue again and use his bully pulpit to try to sway public opinion. 

Though they haven’t introduced actual legislation, Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate leaders unveiled a net $326 million tax cut plan last week that reduces the state income tax and the sales tax on groceries and raises the gasoline tax to fund road work. 

Hosemann and Senate leaders described the plan as a “measured, careful, cautious and responsible” way to deliver tax cuts. 

The House, on the other hand, passed a more sweeping $1.1 billion net tax cut plan that eliminates the income tax over a decade, cuts the state grocery tax and raises sales taxes and gasoline taxes.

House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, said in a recent interview with Mississippi Today that House leadership likely wouldn’t dig its heels in on one particular component of its tax cut plan. Still, the speaker wants a final agreement with the Senate that puts the state on a “path to total elimination over a reasonable and doable amount of time.” 

“I would say we don’t have a hard line on anything, but I’m not interested in doing some small piece of a tax cut while not addressing our other issues that nobody disagrees are plaguing us right now,” White said. 

A similar debate raged during the 2022 session when former House Speaker Philip Gunn pushed the Senate to eliminate the income tax, but Hosemann, at the time, pushed for more austere tax cuts that didn’t abolish the tax. 

While the two legislative leaders were deadlocked, Reeves called a press conference late in the session and urged Hosemann and Gunn to adopt a compromise plan to eliminate the tax over a period of time.

The two leaders ended up agreeing on a plan that made drastic cuts to the income tax but didn’t entirely do away with it. Reeves ended up signing the measure into law.

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