Jackson Jambalaya

Tens of thousands of residents don't pay property taxes. Sales tax on groceries is the only diverse, equitable, and inclusive revenue source. (See what I did there?)

The state budget is determined by revenue estimates and if you cut one place unless the Legislature adjusts, taxes will have to be raised somewhere else. The legislature is NOT going to adjust expenditures down so where do you want taxes to go up? Your choice as a voter but one down, one up.

If you don't have children in public schools, you shouldn't have to pay property tax. Biggest scam of taxpayers there ever was.

Tens of thousands don’t pay state or federal income taxes, yet receive a “refund” or “credit” every year.

Flat Tax - 10%

Fixes everything…

How about instead, we trim the fat from these bloated school budgets and cull the amount of useless administrators?

Also, combine all these districts.

"Also, combine all these districts."

Here would be a tremendous savings. There were 144 school districts for the 2022-2023 school year. 82 counties in the state, one per county should be the goal, or something similar.

When did Mississippi become such a wealthy state? I see roads in poor conditions, PERS in poor financial condition, the list goes on and on. I am all for cutting taxes but Mississippi is still one of the poorest states in the country. Why not address our many problems since the state is flush with cash, then maybe we can keep our young folks here and attract new jobs which will lead to long term prosperity.

This is Mississippi: Raise the grocery tax. We are the poorest and the fattest. The poor pay the largest percentatge of their income for groceries and essentials. Raise their taxes. Eliminate the income tax. This is Mississippi on a diet. Right Tater?

3:32 Mississippi doesn’t have a grocery tax. It would therefore be impossible to raise the grocery tax.

Mississippi does have a sales tax (7%) on all items ~ or a consumption tax.

Mississippi also has an income tax (4%) but a couple pays 0% income tax on first $36,000 of income.

So a Mississippi family who earns almost twice the federal poverty level pays no state income tax.

10:10 a.m. - You're late to the dance. Or you've not even arrived. Tens of thousands of Mississippians pay zero sales taxes for groceries either, already.

80% of the residents of this state (politicians, the poor, the handout crowd and the rest of us) would prefer to see 90% of us receiving SNAP, Medicaid and/or disability.

Are you listening "Uncle Delbert"?

Typical B.S. Do you know that Texas has a state senate that meets for about 2 weeks a year. They are paid a very small per diem and that is all! Apparently, they are not provided copious amounts of free alcohol and food. Do you think those might be the reasons they are at the top and the great state of Mississippi is at the bottom? I have seen legislators return drinks at nice restaurants because they were not up to the standards (non paying) they were expecting. Please respond.

Mississippi's "educational" systems (PreK - 12th Grade & Higher Ed) are where all the jobs are for the connected Kayla Dawns and Joe Bobs. Without "education" there would be no middle class in Mississippi.

I can’t believe someone actually wrote an article suggesting Mississippi should address this issue. I usually don’t think much of Crawford’s pieces but this one is right. Local school districts can demand that the local taxing authority give them up to a 4% increase in their budget every year until they hit the maximum millage allowed by state law. It is past time for this law to be changed. Local school boards can be very tyrannical. Let’s get them reigned in.

For anyone thinking a reduction in property tax isn’t a fair tax cut - when taxes increase even renters pay more. Those property owners have to increase rent to pay the taxes, so everyone is affected by this issue, whether they own their home or rent.

Yeah, that's one of Mississippi's biggest problems. Too much money for schools. 🙄

The problem with cutting property taxes is that it reduces local revenue and local officials would look to the state to make up the lost revenue. The legislature is not about to enact anything that makes them spend more money, especially when they get no political benefit from it.

@3:54 Can you share where you get the $36,000 from?

Per DOR: https://www.dor.ms.gov/individual/tax-rates
For 2024,
Married filing joint gets an exemption of $12,000
Married filing joint gets standard deduction of $4,600
The first $10,000 of taxable income is not taxed $10,000
So, a married couple does not pay taxes on $26,600

@5:49

The regular session for the Texas legislature is 140 days, but they meet every other year.
https://lrl.texas.gov/sessions/sessionyears.cfm

Texas legislators get a per diem of $221.
https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=1&pt=2&ch=50&rl=1#:~:text=Texas%20Administrative%20Code&text=(a)%20The%20legislative%20per%20diem,day%20during%20any%20special%20session.

Mississippi legislators get a higher salary ($23,500) than Texas ($7,200).
https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/2023-legislator-compensation

Mississippi 90 day annual session with salary $37,630
Mississippi 120 day annual session after an election with salary $42,340
Texas 140 day regular session every other year with salary $38,140

In 2023, Texas spent 106 days in special session so add $23,426 for that year

So, without special sessions, Texas meets less and gets paid less but not as little as you posted.

Why should people who have never had or will ever have a child in public school have to pay school taxes? Isn't that just another way the government takes money away from people and gives it to other people? What ever happened to people paying for what they demand for their children?

@549 - no I dont think that is why they are 'on the top' and Mississippi is not

The legislature in Texas is largely an impotent body - the Governor wields much of the power - and that MIGHT be one reason they are 'on the top' and Mississippi is not. But a bigger reason is what's underneath, not 'on the top'. Its that giant pool of black gold that underlies the great State of Texas, from which the state, and the universities, derive many many dollars.

What the legislature gets paid, or doesn't get paid, is of little to no consequence.

10:54 - yes, you nailed it. Public education is socialism. It is legalized theft to take from people who do not use there system to pay for the “education” of those in the system. If people are responsible to for feeding their own children, clothing them, paying for their doctor bills, etc, why are they not responsible for the cost of their education. Of course there are those who believe it is right to make the taxpayer pay for all of the above-mentioned things as well, or at least subsidize them.

In today’s world it takes very little money to get a basic education using the Internet. It doesn’t take the bureaucracy that is public education. In fact, much better results can be had than that furnished by public education. For more information, look up the free e-book “Education Without the State by Tom Woods.

" Public education is socialism. It is legalized theft to take from people who do not use there system to pay for the “education” of those in the system."

You dumb bastards keep making the same nonsensical, losing argument. We are ALL a "user" of the system; we depend on people who can speak and read correctly and coherently, and who can calculate and explain debts coherently for normal society to function. If everyone was as ignorant as you society would soon crater.

What kind of a person suggests cutting public school taxes??? Disgraceful! I have no children but I care about the greater good of my fellow citizens.

May 27 at 8:41 - you said, “ What kind of a person suggests cutting public school taxes??? Disgraceful! I have no children but I care about the greater good of my fellow citizens.”

I will tell you what kind of person - the kind who is sick of being screwed out if his hard earned money by federal, state, and local taxes, and who is sick of being lectured about how coughing it up is somehow a duty to his “fellow citizens”. In a free society we would not be forced to pay for other people’s expenses of any kind, and “he who does not work, neither should he eat” would be the law of the land. I don’t wish any harm on anyone but I don’t owe other people’s children food, clothing, shelter, Christmas presents, entertainment, shoes, or an education. If you can’t afford to take care of them, don’t have children.

The original 13 colonies made up of country boys and farmers went to war with a giant, well funded army/navy of the British empire over the last straw - their tea being taxed.

Today:

My gross income earnings are taxed by the Feds (SS and Medicare Tax)
My gross income earnings are taxed by the state (State Income Tax)
My home/property is taxed every year (even though paid for)
My car is taxed for registration/license every year (even though paid for)
My groceries are taxed
My entertainment dollars are taxed
My phone expenditures are taxed
The dollars paid to all the companies I am a patron of are taxed

We are debt slaves. Until we demand where the dollars are actually going - we are serfs no different than the original immigrants who left Europe to escape the same despotism, and create their own nation of religious and economic liberty. Our policy/procedure manuals (U.S. Constitution & Bible) were crafted to restrain the government at every turn from becoming what we see today.

Tater wants to eliminate the income tax.
Well, that only means other taxes will have to be
raised to cover the short fall then it becomes a shell
game. Removing the state income tax is not going to
work in Mississippi.

We have what 3.5 more yrs of sour Tater?