Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Senate Leadership Announces Tax Relief Plan

 Leftenent Governor Gilbert Hosemann issued the following statement. 

Committed to cutting taxes without any offsetting increase, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann and Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins unveiled a $446.6M tax relief package today.   

 

The proposal includes: 

  • An immediate reduction in the grocery tax from 7 percent to 5 percent, at a cost of about $118.4 million; 
  • An immediate elimination of the state’s fees on car tags going to the general fund, to the tune of an estimated $13.3 million; 
  • A 2022 rebate of up to $1,000 for citizens with tax liability, which totals about $130 million; and 
  • The elimination of the 4 percent tax bracket over the next four years, at a cost of $185 million. 

 

“Around the kitchen table, Mississippi families are talking about the significant impact of inflation on the cost of groceries and other goods and services which are necessities in daily life,” Hosemann said. “The Senate’s plan is sustainable and directly tackles inflation without increasing any taxes.”

 

The Legislative Budget Office and Mississippi Department of Revenue have vetted the numbers in the Senate plan. Harkins plans to bring the bill before the Senate Finance Committee in the coming weeks. 

 

“Mississippi has had a record year in terms of revenue, so it was imperative to me we develop a durable tax relief plan which returns taxpayer money to taxpayers without raising any rates," Harkins said. “The most important thing we can do as conservatives is get this right—and this plan allows for a substantial cut while still balancing the budget.”

 

In total, the Senate’s proposal would eliminate more than $316.6 million in recurring revenue from the budget by 2026.  In 2016, the Legislature passed a bill phasing out the 3 percent tax bracket by 2022.  The same legislation phased out the franchise tax on businesses over a ten-year period ending in 2028.

 

“Governor Reeves and legislators gave us a great roadmap on how to do this with the 2016 tax cut package,” Harkins said. “We intend to follow that lead.”

 

Revenue for the last fiscal year (FY 2021) and current fiscal year (FY 2022) are above projections, but budget analysts have advised revenues are likely buoyed by the significant federal recovery funds flowing into the state.  This makes it difficult to discern how much revenue is one-time and how much is recurring.

 

Additionally, both the House and Senate have made recommendations for additional spending on necessities, including a $200 million-plus pay raise for teachers across the state. The Senate position accounts for these promises and the instability in the economy.

 

“We need to continue to trim the fat while taking care of the core functions of government, including funding our schools and infrastructure. I believe we can responsibly accomplish both of these goals,” Hosemann said. 

 

For more information about Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, visit www.ltgovhosemann.ms.gov.

 


47 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lt Gov Half Measure at his RINO best.

Anonymous said...

Best legislation since the repeal of prohibition-

Anonymous said...

Republicans in action!

Anonymous said...

"Only the little people pay taxes."

Anonymous said...

Ain't we the cat's pajamas? We are first to holler about the wild spending federal government and how irresponsible stuff like medicaid expansion and such are long-term irresponsible policy yet we are plenty ready to make long term cuts when our own shaky economy is buoyed entirely by short-term federal dollars. Ain't we a card? Ha Ha!

Anonymous said...

Get her done.

Anonymous said...

Reducing the grocery tax from 7% to 5% is really just window dressing. My $200 grocery bill will be . . . $4 lower. Savings = $150-$175 per year.
The state tag renewal fee is $12.75 annually ($14 for new car). Household with two cars, savings = $25.50 per year.
Mississippi currently has 4 income tax brackets: 0%, 3%, 4%, and 5%. From Dilbert’s press release it appears the 5% bracket will remain in place. Anyone making over $10,000 is in the 5% bracket, which is everyone who works. So, no state income tax reduction for anyone who works?? Savings = $0.
A 2022 (one time?) rebate up to $1,000 for paying taxes. How calculated? Does it phase out above certain income level? Savings = ?
None of this moves the needle for the long-term future growth of MS. Only a RINO would claim that these moves constitute a meaningful reduction in taxes for Mississippians. None of these moves will do anything to lure businesses to Mississippi, to encourage business activity by Mississippians, or to enable Mississippians to put more savings in the bank. If MS wants to compete economically, then eliminate the state income tax entirely, TO ZERO, like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. Anything else is just window dressing, so our RINO officials can go to conferences and brag to their RINO counterparts from other states what a great job they did “lowering taxes” (wink, wink) in Mississippi.
With RINOs like Dilbert and his gang, who needs Dems??

Anonymous said...

Pandering to those with insufficient brain power to really understand.

Anonymous said...

1:26 - quite the opposite.

The State of Mississippi is going to have a ONE BILLION dollar increase in revenues over spending for this fiscal year.

Your comparison to the Democrats in DC and their spending is comparing opposites: They have a budget shortfall; MS has a budget surplus.

The options are: Spending that surplus on more government programs, or returning the surplus to those that provided it, the taxpayers.

I for one see this as good conservative government policy. You are taking in too much money - so quit. Don't figure out how or where to spend it, but quit taking it.

And this plan of actually cutting taxes rather than swapping one for another is a much better plan than that coming from the House and its leadership. This plan actually CUTS taxes - and does so in ways to help all brackets of income.

Glad to see that the Lt Gov and Chairman Harkins are working in lockstep (or close thereto) with the Governor in providing actual tax reduction.

Anonymous said...

2:16 PM
I actually did the calculation and it saves me about 200-something a year. Which comes out to be about 3/4 a quarter of a tank of gas for me per month.

Here's the info from DOR: https://www.dor.ms.gov/individual/tax-rates

Let's say you make $40,000

Old brackets
$3,000 x 0% = $0
​$2,000 X 3% = $60
$5,000 X 4% = $200
$30,000 X 5% = $1500
Total = $1760

New Brackets
$3,000 x 0% = $0
​$2,000 X 3% = $60
$30,000 X 5% = $1500
Total = $1560

Basically to calculate you take your Gross and subtract $10k with the old system and multiply by 5% and then add the other brackets. The new brackets is subtract %5k multiply the gross left over and add brackets. It's not that difficult.

Anonymous said...

No inflation i guess

Anonymous said...

We GOP LiberaLtarians are proud to announce we have "reformed" taxes to cut out 100% of the state tax on buggy whips and are mailing a $5 coupon for Applebee's (*only valid on Tuesday nights from 11 PM TO 3 AM) to each taxpayer!!!1

Woo hoo!!!!!

I guess someone who can do math spoke to the Guv and Dilwad.

Tax theatre. Somewhere in there is hidden an amendment or rider completely eliminating all taxes for country club members who own private planes.

Anonymous said...

“Leftenent.”

Hip Hip - Sign Me Up! said...

So..If a family of six (both parents working and not dependent on SNAP) spends 150 bucks a week on groceries, that would come to $645 per month. The Hose-Man has hosed us with the proposition of a 2% reduction in grocery tax. That would mean a monthly grocery bill reduction for this family = $12.90...roughly THREE BUCKS a week. CASINOS here we come!

Reminds me of the state employee pay raises a few years back that came out to Twelve cents an hour after taxes and insurance escalation. How dumb do these recalcitrant bastards think we are?

Anonymous said...

What a colossal waste of time and money.

God save us from our "leaders".

Anonymous said...

Like 2:22 said......whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ?

Anonymous said...

This confirms that Delbert thinks most Mississippians are stupid.

Anonymous said...

2:16
Hey Trey and Speekuh!

These are such House of Sheep... Representatives, talking points.

Have a good day!

Anonymous said...

3:02
Thanks for the comment Senator fill in the blank !

Anonymous said...

3:02 There is the question though: Is this budget surplus a one shot deal or will we have years and years of federal COVID/disaster relief? If it's one shot then there is no such thing as "too much money". What you give back this year you may mot have in years to come. There will always be need. Just wait. But you are right, we should not compare to D.C. cause we cannot print money, but there's no law against saving it.

Anonymous said...

Hey, 3:02, the surplus will be closer to $2 billion than $1 billion.

Anonymous said...

And isn't the "Surplus" in the state coffers actually the federal CARES act money that hasn't been distributed? So there is actually no surplus. And why hasn't it been distributed?

Anonymous said...

One more do-nothing RINO. So sick of this

Anonymous said...

And a 300% increase in real estate taxes and an increase of the sales tax to 10% in about 12 months.

Anonymous said...

406 - details matter. Someone receiving SNAP benefits do not pay Sales Taxes on their 'grocery' purchases. (Non-grocery purchases that occur in a grocery store are taxed.)

So - the grocery tax reduction would be for those citizens that actually do pay sales taxes.

Anonymous said...

Just cut the sales tax on groceries completely and leave the rest alone. Keep it simple, flag boy.

Anonymous said...

516 - No.

Again, No. The CARES money is not figured into the surplus I referenced. The billion dollar surplus if from tax receipts and the relatively controlled expenditures.

Anonymous said...

Love all the idiot comments here calling a plan to reduce taxes (in any manner) a RINO move. What the hell do you want, a complete removal of all taxes, but no reduction in the things that government provides that you support?

Lowering taxes - in whatever manner works - cannot be called liberal, non-conservative, or not Republican principles. Unless, of course, you have no idea what Republican principles are, which probably fits every damn one of you.

Anonymous said...

Least intelligent leaders appealing to the least common denominator. Most republicans don't even grasp that there is nothing in this for them. Just following the script.

Anonymous said...

What happened to the Covid Relief prohibiting tax cuts using Covd money. IF we sent it all back, could we still do all of this?

Anonymous said...

Does about as much as the CRT bill..

Anonymous said...

The state budget surplus is due to all of the sales tax collected on spending on stuff using money people should have spent on rent and student loans. Two years of no rent and no student loan payments results in lots of spending. That will stop soon.

Look out Tennessee and Florida for the influx of citizens.

Anonymous said...


Well 4:11, look at Jackson......you can already see what the Dim-O-krats have in mind for the whole state.

BUT!!! Progressive woke Dim-O-Krats and liberals love living in a blue city (notice I left out sh*thole to appease all the butt hurt Shirley Temple drinkers) that provides absolutely no services.

Anonymous said...

807, will try again. This plan has nothing to do with any of the federal dollars from CARES or ARPA. Those dollars are all being spent on one-time deals.

The tax cut is due to the regular budget surplus. This year's, following last year's, which followed the year before.

General fund money from tax income.

Git it know?

Hip Hip - Sign Me Up! said...

"406 - details matter. Someone receiving SNAP benefits do not pay Sales Taxes on their 'grocery' purchases. February 1, 2022 at 6:04 PM"

I mentioned nothing in the 4:06 post about SNAP being taxed. I only mentioned SNAP to distinguish the example as a hard-working, dual-worker family...as opposed to those getting free groceries.

Anonymous said...

Fix my roads and bridges
Fix water systems
Fix PERS
Pay cops more

Quit trying to kill government by defunding it

If you can’t build consensus to reform what you don’t feel benefits society get out of leadership

Anonymous said...

I have lived in Missippi for 22years making over a 100k and I have never paid more than $300 in state income taxes, I really don’t see the fuss I leave and throw out that much food every month.

Anonymous said...

Don't ask taxpayers for any more help 'fixing' PERS. No more money from us backstopping that failure.

Anonymous said...

But, but, but the Repulsicans forcast economic gloom and doom from Covid pandemic policies. How could there possibly be a financial surplus? That doesn't fit their narrative!

Anonymous said...

The current surplus is not because "the government is making too much money," the surplus is because the legislature is not spending what it should on real government functions. I have seen many articles on here about our awful roads, bridges, state parks, teacher pay, drivers license stations etc, etc. That's a deliberate plan by our "leadership" to not spend money that we do have. As others have said, Mississippi is not a high tax state no matter what ALEC, the Koch Brothers and the MS Center for Public Policy say.

5 years ago Gov. Bryant was on TV every six months saying we had to cut the budget because the money wasn't there. Those spending levels were not restored, so now we have extra cash. They should figure out where the money needs to go, not just try to get praise from the talk radio crowd.

Anonymous said...

@5:51 - well then you've been lying and cheating on your tax returns, maroon. But I doubt you made over 100k.

Anonymous said...

Well 4:11, look at Jackson......you can already see what the Dim-O-krats have in mind for the whole state.

BUT!!! Progressive woke Dim-O-Krats and liberals love living in a blue city (notice I left out sh*thole to appease all the butt hurt Shirley Temple drinkers) that provides absolutely no services.


The Troglodyte Kim Wade Award goes to the genius that made this comment.

Anonymous said...

Hell, people in Canton lined up to get covid shots in exchange for a gift card. Gunn and Hoser think the citizen-peons will piss their britches over 200 bucks a year. And, sadly, they may be right.

It's illegal to buy votes with whiskey. But it ain't illegal to trade $200 a year for a vote.

Anonymous said...

Spending the surplus on infrastructure would be too obvious. You will spend more on shocks and replacing blown out tires from roads that need to be repaved. I guess we will have to wait until we have a major bridge collapse to get people interested in fixing our roads and bridges statewide. Increase Gas tax in 2023?

Anonymous said...

@ 8:29 I am compensated well to manage my companies business in this dump and no one wants my job. Every time they put someone in the succession plan they leave in 3 to 5 years!

Anonymous said...

You ignorant trolls keep posting shit like this, not realizing that not once, never, ever, have you seen any tax increase used to fund PERS. If you think you have, come out of the shadows and verify it.

"Don't ask taxpayers for any more help 'fixing' PERS. No more money from us backstopping that failure. February 2, 2022 at 7:33 AM"

Anonymous said...

Should pay off our debt including PERS. adopt pay as you go plan. The state may go bankrupt and default on PERS unless they start funding it adequately.



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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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