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The post Marshall Ramsey: Far Apart appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House and Senate negotiators tentatively agreed Wednesday — pending the numbers crunch out — on a massive Mississippi teacher pay raise, one that would provide an average raise of $5,100 in the coming school year.

The proposed raise has now grown from about $210 million early in this year’s legislative session to $246 million, with Senate negotiators adding about $20 million, mostly for larger five-year pay “bumps” for experienced teachers in their counter offer to the House Wednesday. Otherwise, the Senate leaders agreed to most of the proposal the House sent them late last week, including doing the raise in one year instead of stretching it out over two.

“Let’s get this (agreement) knocked out and maybe get this passed in the next day or two,” Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar told House colleagues at a conference meeting on House Bill 530.

Rep. Kent McCarty, part of the House delegation that met with Senate leaders Wednesday, said, “We want to see this pay raise done as quickly as possible … I certainly have no issues, as far as policy, this accomplishes our mission. We will just have to look at the plan with our budget people … We will act very quickly on this and respond promptly. Let’s get this done.”

Reps. Keven Felsher and Jansen Owen also expressed optimism that a final deal is nigh after meeting with senators.

The potential deal marks rare detente between the House and Senate near the end of a legislative session dominated by a standoff between the Republican leadership of the chambers over tax cuts. The House wants to eliminate the state personal income tax. The Senate is proposing tax cuts, but says the House plan is too risky during uncertain economic times. Speaker Philip Gunn has threatened to hold up other measures and spending over the income tax issue, including spending of billions in federal pandemic stimulus spending.

READ MORE: House offers ‘compromise’ teacher pay raise, but Senate says it wasn’t in on the compromising

Education advocates have feared the teacher pay raise would get caught up in the tax standoff. Earlier in the session, the House killed the Senate pay raise bill without a vote. The Senate reluctantly passed the House bill after making changes to keep the pay raise alive.

“We believe the Legislature is working together to deliver this,” said Antonio Castanon Luna, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Educators. “We are glad they are moving quickly.” Many teachers attended the conference meeting Wednesday, and Luna said more than 100 teachers were visiting the Capitol as part of a previously planned conference.

Mississippi’s teacher pay by several metrics is the lowest in the nation, and the state has struggled to recruit and retain teachers.

The latest proposal would raise starting teacher pay to an average of $41,638, higher than both the southeastern starting average of $39,754 and the national average of $41,163.

With the Senate’s proposed changes Wednesday, teachers would receive pay increases from $1,200 to $1,300 every five years of service, depending on education and training. Senate leaders said teachers at hearings over the summer said such incentives would help retain experienced teachers.

READ MORE: House vs. Senate: How do their teacher pay plans compare?

The post An even larger teacher pay raise appears to be on track in Mississippi Legislature appeared first on Mississippi Today.

This past weekend, the Mississippi Golf Association celebrated its sport with the annual Mississippi Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at Country Club of Jackson. Jim Gallagher, Jr. and Randy Watkins, two of the inductees, join the Crooked Letter sports podcast to talk about Mississippi’s golf boom, their careers and fellow inductees Ben Nelson and Lou Weddington-Hart.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Mississippi golf celebration appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A watchdog group tasked with overseeing the state’s psychiatric facilities is suing the Department of Mental Health for withholding information – again.

Disability Rights Mississippi, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Mississippians with disabilities, filed its second lawsuit this year against the state Department of Mental Health (DMH) after the agency denied records requests related to an investigation of the treatment of individuals with mental illness in the forensic unit of Mississippi State Hospital.

The investigation was partially inspired by Raffell Franklin who was charged with first-degree murder in April 2017. Franklin has been in the Jasper County Jail for three years despite being found incompetent to stand trial by doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital in 2019.

DRMS initiated an investigation into the treatment of Franklin after receiving a call from Franklin’s family and other civil rights organizations. After receiving Franklin’s medical records, the advocacy group sought to investigate how patients similar to Franklin are treated in the state hospital’s forensic unit. The unit serves patients who have been diverted from correctional settings, typically due to a mental illness that renders them unfit for trial. 

The advocacy group additionally requested waiting lists for individuals needing evaluation or services from the hospital’s forensic unit, as well as records from South Mississippi Regional Center after being contacted by an anonymous whistleblower who alleged there was potential abuse and neglect at the facility. 

The agency denied both requests. 

“Ensuring people with disabilities are protected from abuse and neglect is our mission, always,” Polly Tribble, executive director of Disability Rights Mississippi, said in a press release. “We would hope that would be DMH’s same goal. Why they have chosen, yet again, to deny vulnerable Mississippians access to meaningful and effective protection and advocacy remains a mystery.”

DMH declined to comment and referred Mississippi Today to the attorney general’s office. The attorney general’s office also declined, saying they do not comment on active cases.

The agency’s attorneys are using similar arguments used to deny the requests at the center of the initial lawsuit. In regards to the request for a list of MSH patients who have pled “not guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect,” the mental health agency is arguing that Disability Rights of Mississippi hasn’t shown it has enough evidence to warrant an investigation.

DMH also says since the list of individuals waiting to be evaluated or admitted to the state hospital are not under the direct care of the hospital at this time, the watchdog group has no basis for investigating it. 

“Once again, DMH has deemed itself the judge and jury on the determination of probable cause, which is not the case,” the lawsuit reads. 

The U.S. Department of Justice pointed out in an amicus brief filing in the first lawsuit that protection and advocacy groups like Disability Rights of Mississippi have the authority to make probable cause determinations, and they do not have to justify them with specific evidence.

“The applicable regulations also do not require that any specific type of evidence support the (protection and advocacy system’s) probable cause determination,” the amicus brief reads.

Disability Rights of Mississippi maintains that the state mental health agency is continuing to violate federal law in denying its request and is preventing the oversight group from doing its job.

“This goes far beyond paperwork and records,” Tribble said. “It is about the fact that, in denying access and in refusing to be transparent, DMH is interfering with (our) ability to carry out our federal mandate to protect people with disabilities in Mississippi.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, which originally sued the state over its lack of community-based services for people with mental illness in 2016, sided with the watchdog group on the issue. 

Attorneys for the federal government filed an amicus brief, in which a non-party in the case with expertise on the issue weighs in with a legal filing.

The Department of Justice argues in the brief that the federal laws that give state protection and advocacy (P&A) systems like Disability Rights of Mississippi their power grant them broad authority to investigate abuse or neglect. 

“Access to this limited set of records is entirely consistent with DRMS’ broad investigative authority and statutory mandate to ensure that individuals with mental illness or disabilities are not abused or neglected,” the brief reads.

U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves will soon weigh in on whether the state agency must release the records.

The post Watchdog group again sues mental health agency appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Senate passed a new tax cut bill Tuesday, the day after the House passed its newest version of a bill to eliminate the state income tax.

Both Republican-led chambers billed their changes this week as compromise. But the two are not openly negotiating and appear to mainly be communicating through press conferences hyping their own plans and criticizing the other’s and sending dueling bills back and forth.

The two chambers remain far apart on tax cuts as the 2022 legislative session enters its final three weeks. The impasse threatens to hinder setting a budget, spending billions of federal pandemic stimulus and other work. It also raises the specter of an extended or special session into the summer.

Republican Speaker Philip Gunn and his House leadership are set on eliminating, not just cutting, personal income taxes. But Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and his Senate leadership believe that’s too risky and propose smaller tax cuts, rebates and suspension instead. House leaders say the Senate plan is a half measure. Senate leaders say the House is being foolhardy trying to eliminate one-third of state revenue during uncertain economic times.

After a public speech at the Capitol on Tuesday, Gunn — flanked by dozens of House members — called for Hosemann and Senate leaders to “get into a room and talk with us about this” to come up with a deal. But Gunn also made clear he’s dug-in on “elimination of the income tax, without further legislative action required, and as quickly as possible.”

Gunn also called for Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who is currently out of state, to throw his full support behind the House plan. “(Reeves) has said he supports eliminating the income tax, and this is the only measure to do that,” Gunn said.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime, ladies and gentlemen,” Gunn said in his Capitol speech. “… This is the opportunity to do something right now that we will never have again in our lifetimes.”

READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Great Mississippi Tax Cut Battle of 2022

But Senate leaders have countered that there should be plenty of opportunities down the road to cut or eliminate taxes — depending on what the economy does.

“This is very fragile right now, and we are at risk — with Ukraine, inflation …” Hosemann said.

On Monday, Hosemann held a press conference where he announced a proposal to suspend the state’s 18.4-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax for six months and expansion of the Senate’s income tax cuts, but not elimination.

“We need both meaningful and sustainable tax reform,” Hosemann said.

While some Democrats in both chambers are voting for the tax cut bills, others question whether tax cuts are in order for a state with so many needs in roads, water and sewerage and education.

“It just seems like we’re stumbling backwards into the future, trying to impress somebody with tax cuts, when we need to be doing so many other things,” said Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood.

READ MORE: Tax cut battle continues: Hosemann wants to pause gas tax, House overhauls its plan

Here are highlights of the House and Senate’s latest proposals on taxes. To see earlier iterations of the plans, click here.

The House tax plan

• Eliminate the state personal income tax, through exemptions, over years. It would start with exempting $25,000 in income for individuals, $50,000 for married couples — down from its previous proposal of first-year exemptions of $40,000 and $80,000 respectively. The first year the plan would cut about $700 million from the state budget, eventually increasing to about $1.5 billion.

• Phasing out the rest of the income tax using a “growth trigger” of 1.6% a year. This means state revenue over 1.6% growth would be used to buy down the income tax. This buy-down would be capped at $150 million a year, meaning money collected over that amount would stay in the state budget. Previously, the House growth trigger was at 1.5% with no cap. The latest proposal would take about 15 years to eliminate the income tax, up from about 10 years in its previous proposal.

• No sales tax increase. The House has since last year pushed for sales tax increases to go along with its income tax elimination. But this week it dropped that part of its proposal.

• Reducing the grocery tax more slowly, from 7% to 4% at a quarter point a year.

• No car tag reduction. The House had proposed cutting car tag fees in half, using state funds to subsidize local governments who levy most of the fees on car tags. House leaders said the Senate opposed this, so they dropped it, despite it being popular with constituents.

• Setting aside $500 million in state funds to cover any budget shortfalls “out of an abundance of caution” and to allay Senate concerns that the House plan would sink the budget.

The Senate tax plan

• Reduction of the state’s top, 5% tax bracket to 4.6% over four years, then elimination of the lower 4% tax bracket over the next four years after that. Originally, the Senate had proposed only the phase out of the 4% bracket. The new, eight-year Senate tax plan would cost about $439 million a year when totally implemented.
• Suspending the state’s 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax for six months, using about $215 million in tax dollars on hand to reimburse the Mississippi Department of Transportation, which uses the gas tax for roads, bridges, and matching federal dollars. House leaders said Mississippians would probably barely notice such a break with gas prices currently so high.
• Reduction of the state grocery tax from 7% to 5%, starting in July.
• Up to a 5%, one-time income tax rebate in 2022 for those who paid taxes. The rebates would range from $100 to $1,000, for a one-time coast of about $130 million.

The post Philip Gunn and Delbert Hosemann remain at an impasse on tax cuts appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After Speaker of the House Philip Gunn killed a Senate bill last week that would have extended postpartum Medicaid coverage for thousands of Mississippi mothers, he claimed he had not seen data or been part of discussions showing that the extension would save lives.

But five of the state’s major medical associations penned a letter to Gunn in February that laid out the relevant data and directly stated extending the program would save mothers’ lives.

The letter to Gunn and other members of the House detailed how extended coverage would reduce the state’s high maternal mortality rate and save the state money by reducing premature births. 

“Postpartum coverage also lowers the risk of pregnancy-related deaths,” the letter stated. “37% of these deaths occur (more than) six weeks after delivery, when these moms would traditionally have lost their healthcare coverage. Extending coverage to moms for 12 months would save many mother and baby lives.”

If postpartum Medicaid coverage is not extended, it would affect thousands of Mississippi mothers and their children. About 60% of mothers who give birth in Mississippi are covered by Medicaid. The state’s maternal mortality rate is nearly twice that of the national average, and Black women are nearly three times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy than white women, according to a 2019 report from the Mississippi Department of Health.

The speaker, defending his decision to kill the postpartum coverage bill that passed overwhelmingly in the Senate with bipartisan support, likened the program to expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

“I have been very clear that I oppose Medicaid expansion, and that I believe we should be working to get people off Medicaid as opposed to adding more people to it,” Gunn said last week.

A spokeswoman for Gunn told Mississippi Today his office has not received the letter and reiterated that Gunn is opposed to expanding Medicaid. The extension of postpartum coverage would not add individuals to the Medicaid rolls, but instead extend already enrolled mothers’ eligibility.

When asked how the extension could be described as Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, the spokeswoman did not respond. 

READ MORE: Medicaid coverage helped this Mississippi mom fight postpartum depression. Now, she’s set to lose it.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is attempting to revive the extension via two other bills or through the appropriations process. A visibly frustrated Hosemann condemned Gunn in a Monday press conference for killing the bill and said he would work to convince the speaker to change his mind before the legislative session ends on April 1. 

“This is a good faith effort to keep our babies healthy and our mothers healthy,” Hosemann said in response to Gunn’s suggestion that this is considered Medicaid expansion. “And when our mothers are healthy, what do they do? They take care of their children, and they go back to work.” 

Hosemann plans to appeal to Gunn’s faith, he told reporters in his Capitol office on Monday. 

“Sometimes we get into the heat of legislation, and we forget where we came from,” Hosemann said. “I’d like to appeal back to his (Gunn’s) Christian values that we need to take care of these kids in addition to helping moms out.”

In a time when the state is flush with cash and legislative leaders are poised to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts, the estimated cost for the state in the first year of extending coverage would be $6 million, according to the Division of Medicaid. That total represents less than 1% of the state’s general fund budget. In the second year, which would be the first full year of the extension, the state’s portion would be around $11.5 million.

Several other Southern states have extended the coverage as allowed by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, including Georgia, Florida, Texas and Tennessee. 

“It’s really a disappointment because it sends a very disconcerting message to expectant women … about how far we are willing to go as a state to ensure that they are not just valuable to us during the time they’re pregnant” but also after they’ve given birth, said Dr. Michelle Owens, the division chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

“This is a very small step to at least ensure that when that baby has its first birthday, the mom is there to celebrate.” 

Dr. Anita Henderson, the president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said new moms who have access to health care after giving birth are more healthy for their next pregnancy. 

Mississippi leads the nation in both preterm birth and low birthweight. A premature baby can cost up to $500,000 compared to a full-term birth, the letter adds. 

“Our point has been we want to continue that coverage. We want those moms to be able to get birth control and space their pregnancies so they’re healthier and more likely able to have a full-term baby the next time around,” said Henderson. “You actually would save the Division of Medicaid money if you could cut down on preterm birth.” 

Some Capitol observers believe Gunn killed the postpartum coverage bill because of the ongoing fight between House and Senate leaders over Gunn’s proposal to eliminate the state’s income tax. Senate leaders, including Hosemann, have adamantly opposed Gunn’s tax plan because they say the financial risks and economic unknowns are too great.

READ MORE: The Mississippi Republican income tax bet

No state has ever eliminated a personal income tax as Gunn has proposed. Senate leaders and other economic experts believe the plan could gut the state’s economy and drastically change the way government functions in the short and long term.

Several other Senate measures have been killed by Gunn and House leaders in recent days, and Gunn is threatening to hold hostage $1.8 billion in federal stimulus funds until Senate leaders adopt his income tax elimination plan.

A spokeswoman for Gunn’s office did not respond Tuesday when asked whether Gunn would be open to reconsidering the postpartum Medicaid extension.

But on Tuesday morning, Gunn told reporters at the Capitol: “My position on the postpartum bill has not changed.”

Hosemann said this week that he is going to try to change the speaker’s mind. 

“I’m hoping that given the chance to look at it again, it won’t be tied up in some tax bill,” Hosemann said on Monday afternoon. “Those aren’t the same. There’s no quid pro quo here, there should never be. We all took the same oath when we came to work here.”

The post Doctors asked Speaker Philip Gunn to extend health coverage for moms and babies. Then he blocked it appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Despite widespread opposition from Black lawmakers, civil rights organizations, and educators across the state, on Monday Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law Senate Bill 2113, legislation that seeks to ban the teaching of critical race theory in Mississippi’s K-12 schools, colleges and universities. 

In a three-minute video, Reeves claimed that, because of critical race theory, students are being “dragged to the front of the classroom and … coerced to declare themselves as oppressors” and “taught that they should feel guilty because of the color of their skin or that they are inherently a victim because of their race.” 

“I know that you’ll agree with me when I say that there is no room for this type of indoctrination in our state,” Reeves said. 

The Mississippi Department of Education has repeatedly said that critical race theory is not being taught in K-12 schools. In fact, critical race theory, a high-level academic and legal framework, is taught in just one class in Mississippi – Law 743, a course at the University of Mississippi School of Law. 

It’s unlikely the bill will prevent UM from offering Law 743. The vague language in the bill, educators and legal experts have repeatedly pointed out, does not describe critical race theory. The phrase is only in the title of the bill.

The bill, authored by Sen. Michael McClendon, R-Hernando, prohibits public schools from compelling “students to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere … that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.” It would also prevent schools from making “a distinction or classification of students based on account of race.”

Still, SB 2113 has teeth – any school that violates the bill stands to lose state funding. That’s why many educators and civil rights advocates across Mississippi are now waiting to see how SB 2113 will be enforced by education agencies across the state, from MDE and the Institutions of Higher Learning to local school districts. 

“The biggest fear we have is that it’s going to impact how teachers teach and how school districts embrace diversity and issues dealing with civil rights or Black history in Mississippi, “ said Jarvis Dortch, the executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi. “We’re afraid that you’re gonna see actions like you saw with the assistant principal in Hinds County — school districts will go overboard and try to avoid any type of litigation.” 

The bill’s impact also will likely be hard to quantify. Legal experts say SB 2113 will have a chilling effect on teachers who, fearing repercussions, will shy away from talking about the worst parts of Mississippi’s history.

The bill could also prevent public universities from recognizing affinity groups for marginalized students, such as the Black Law Students Association at University of Mississippi. Educators worry the bill could even affect science curriculum. 

“It’s easy to read this bill as prohibiting faculty to teach students about racial disparities in health and disease outcomes,” one professor wrote on Twitter. 

Last week, faculty at University of Southern Mississippi warned in a letter to President Rodney Bennett that SB 2113 could affect accreditation for the research universities in Mississippi. 

“The most serious harm of (SB 2113) will fall on our students, who will be denied the opportunity to learn and grow unencumbered from legislative dictates,” the letter reads. 

Faculty senates at three other Mississippi universities have also passed resolutions denouncing SB 2113. 

The post Bill that seeks to ban CRT signed into law appeared first on Mississippi Today.

My gut reaction to the Atlanta Braves deciding not to sign Freddie Freeman? Here goes: The bean counters — heartless, ungrateful SOBs that they are — win again. I can’t believe Freeman, a Braves company man since before he played in Pearl at age 19 in 2009, will finish his career in somebody else’s uniform.

In case you can’t tell, I did not like the news one bit. I have followed Freeman’s career with particular interest since he came through Trustmark Park — a tall, skinny kid with a goofy grin, still developing his man strength.

Freeman was called up to Atlanta at the end of the very next season and has played all of his 11 full Major League seasons for the Braves. He has hit .295 with 271 home runs and 941 runs batted in. He has been clutch. He also has played an immaculate first base. He has been one of baseball’s really good guys, really good teammates — the face of his franchise since Chipper Jones retired.

And now he’s gone, probably to the Los Angeles Dodgers. We will see. The end was signaled Monday when the Braves announced a trade that will bring Matt Olson, formerly the first baseman for the Oakland A’s, to Atlanta. Olson is a fine young player who hits for power, plays exceptionally well at first base and, at 27, is five years younger and a whole lot cheaper than Freeman.

The Braves traded four outstanding prospects for Olson. Mississippi Braves fans are extremely familiar with centerfielder Christian Pache and catcher Shea Langeliers, who have played recent seasons in Pearl. M-Braves fans would have become familiar with young pitchers Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes, who figured to be through Pearl over the next couple seasons.

Back to Olson: He hit .271 with 39 homers last season. He is an Atlanta native, from all accounts another good guy and teammate. There’s only one problem with Olson: He’s not Freddie Freeman, and he can’t help that.

Freddie Freeman’s first home run as a Mississippi Brave in 2009

So here’s my reaction to Monday’s news after much Monday cussing and fussing and then sleeping on it: I still don’t like it, but the more I look at it, the more I understand it from Braves General Manager Alex Anthopoulos’s perspective. Apparently Freeman wanted a six-year contract, and Anthopoulos was only willing to go five, knowing that precious few sluggers remain as productive into their late 30s.

Anthopoulos, it should be noted, earned his keep and then some for the Braves last year after injuries had decimated the ball club and the Braves seemed dead in the water. The GM’s mid-season acquisitions of Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall and Jorge Soler and Eddie Rosario resurrected the team en route to a World Series championship.

Granted, manager Brian Snitker, another former M-Brave, was terrific. So was Freeman. So was a replenished bullpen. But the Braves would not have come close had it not been for Anthopoulos’s brilliant maneuvering. You ask me, Anthopoulos earned at least some benefit on of the doubt on his decision-making. And he believes the Braves short-term and long-term future look better with the younger Olson at first base and with the club not having nearly $200 million tied up in Freeman over the next six seasons.

From all accounts, Anthopoulos was emotional when he announced and discussed the trade. He said it was as hard to pull the Freeman trigger as anything he has ever done.

Bottom line: This is baseball in 2022. And it has been this way for years. Braves fans should know this all too well. Remember, Hank Aaron retired a Milwaukee Brewer, not an Atlanta Brave. Greg Maddux played his last seven seasons with the Chicago Cubs, not the Braves. Tom Glavine spent most of his declining years with the Mets, not the Braves. John Smoltz played for two different teams after the Braves let him go. Those are all Hall of Famers we’re talking about. Freeman surely will be, too.

Olson? Time will tell.

Where Freeman and the Braves are concerned, it’s a two-way street. Freeman could have taken the Braves’ reported offer five-year deal for $135 million and retired there. Or the Braves could have done what they always did with Chipper Jones, which was sign him to a lucrative extension before he ever got into the final year of his contract.

Frankly, I wish the latter had happened. It did not. That’s baseball, 21st century style.

Today, I prefer to think back to the summer of 2009 when Freeman and his then-best pal, Jason Heyward, spent most of a season in Pearl. Heyward was the more prized prospect of the two. He was more physically advanced, more a grown man than Freeman. The ball sounded different coming off Heyward’s bat. I remember telling Phillip Wellman, then the M-Braves’ manager, I thought Heyward was going to be a Hall of Famer. Wellman responded with something like this: “Don’t sleep on Freddie Freeman. When all is said and done, he very well could be the guy people remember most.”

Here we are nearly 13 years later. Heyward has hit .259 with 158 homers. Again, Freeman has hit .295 with 271 dingers. No contest there.

We won’t know for at least three or four years whether the Braves made the right move Monday. Those of us who have watched them closely over the last 11 years know only this: An era has ended. And we will have nothing but positive memories of Freddie Freeman as a Brave, both in Atlanta and way back when in Pearl.

The post Freddie Freeman’s exit is baseball, 21st century style appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The tax cut battle between Mississippi Republican House and Senate leaders continued Monday with each chamber overhauling its proposal.

But the two sides still appear far apart as the legislative session enters its final weeks. The House wants to eliminate the state personal income tax. The Senate just wants cuts and rebates. Senate leaders have said the House plan is foolhardy during uncertain economic times. House leaders say the Senate cuts are a half measure.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, on Monday unveiled a proposal to suspend the state’s 18.4-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax for six months, to help Mississippians facing skyrocketing fuel prices and other inflation. The Senate is also increasing its proposed income tax cuts, but spreading them out over eight years.

“I started questioning what inflation was doing back in November, and it was 2.5%,” Hosemann said at a press conference Monday. “On March 8, I was informed it was at 6.7% … It cost me $106 to fill up my truck … Because of huge increases in inflation hitting everyone so hard, today I am requesting we do an immediate suspension of the state gasoline tax for six months.”

Hosemann and Senate leaders are proposing the state, with coffers overflowing largely from an influx of federal stimulus spending, use $215 million in surplus to reimburse the Mississippi Department of Transportation for suspending the gas tax for six months. This would reduce prices at the pump by 18.4 cents a gallon.

The Senate also changed its income tax cut plan. It had proposed phasing out the state’s 4% income tax bracket over four years. Now, in a plan that passed in committee Monday, Senate leaders propose cutting the state’s top, 5% income tax bracket to 4.6% over four years, then phasing out the 4% bracket over the four years after that.

In the House, leaders overhauled their plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax, phasing in elimination more slowly and removing an accompanying increase in sales taxes. House leaders said they’ve addressed every concern Hosemann and Senate leaders have raised.

The Senate plan would still include a one-time tax rebate of up to 5% for taxpayers — from $100 to $1,000 — and would cut taxes on groceries from 7% to 5% in year one.

The House on Monday stripped a sales tax increase from 7% to 8.5% from its proposal, and slowed its roll a bit on the phase out of the personal income tax. It also removed its proposal to cut car tag fees in half, with the state subsidizing local governments who levy most of the fees on tags. It would still lower grocery taxes, but more slowly, by .25% a year down to 4%.

“Every objection the Senate has made to our plan has now been addressed,” House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia. “The only objection you could have now to the plan is that you just don’t want to remove the tax on work in Mississippi.”

The House had previously proposed exempting $40,000 in income for individuals and $80,000 for couples from income taxes in year one, then phasing the tax out from there. The new proposal is to exempt $25,000 and $50,000 in income, respectively, to start.

The House plan had included a “growth trigger” of 1.5%, meaning any revenue growth beyond that each year would further reduce the income tax until it was gone. It has increased that trigger to 1.6%, and put a cap of $150 million a year that would go toward eliminating the income tax, meaning anything over that would go back into state coffers.

House leaders had predicted the income tax could be phased out in about 10 years or so. Lamar said Monday that with the changes, that would now take about 15 years, depending on growth.

The House passed this latest version of Speaker Philip Gunn’s income tax elimination proposal Monday afternoon with a vote of 83-33. Many Democrats who supported the earlier version said they could not vote for the latest proposal because it did not cut the local tax on car tags.

“I supported it basically because of the car tag cut,” said Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville. “Now you have nothing I can support.”

Lamar said the Senate leadership had been adamant in opposing a reduction in the cost of car tags.

“My own father is mad at me about that,” Lamar said from the well of the House. “But the Senate refused to do it.”

Other Democrats expressed concerns about cutting revenue while the state still has many vital needs.

Rep. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel, pointed out needs that local governments have needs in the area of education, in health care and in other areas.

“Until Mississippi addresses all these serious needs it has, I think this bill is premature,” Scott said.

In Senate committee debate on its new proposal, Democratic Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory also made this argument, with an emotional plea to his colleagues.

“This will do untold harm to our state,” Bryan said of the Senate plan. “$439 million every year, in perpetuity, out of the general fund forever. Forever! Forever! We don’t have clean drinking water in Mississippi. We have sewer systems that are inoperable … If you think reducing the income tax will bring a single person to this state you are wrong. But not having functioning water and sewer systems will keep them out … What about our roads? Do you drive on them? Don’t you see all the cracks?”

Neither Hosemann nor Gunn had comments on the other’s latest proposals on Monday.

READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Great Mississippi Tax Cut Battle of 2022

This is the second major overhaul of Gunn’s income tax plan since he unveiled it last year and it died in the Senate. In the first version last year it would have increased the state sales tax on most retails items from 7% to 9.5%. It would have increased other sales taxes by 2.5 cents on the dollar. For instance, originally automobiles now subject to a 5% tax would have seen that increase to 7.5%.

But facing opposition from many business lobbies and Gov. Tate Reeves, Gunn reduced the general sales tax increase and did away with the increases in other sectors such as automobiles and farm equipment. He also added a measure to cut car tag fees in half, with the state subsidizing local governments who levy most of the fees on car tags. The income tax exemptions in the original plan were also lowered in this year’s first proposal.

READ MORE: Gov. Reeves pours cold water on income tax cut plan as it passes House

The latest changes to the tax proposals come after a recent article from the conservative Tax Foundation — whose policies Gunn has said were an impetus for his plan — was critical of both his and the Senate’s income tax proposals.

The Tax Foundation article questioned whether the original House plan, with its 1.5% “growth triggers” on income tax elimination, would allow the state budget to keep up with inflation.

“General fund growth limits are not fundamentally bad, but HB 531 includes a mechanism that would restrict growth to no more than 1.5 percent per year,” the Tax Foundation article said. “To put that rate in perspective, at the end of January the 12-month change in inflation was 7.5 percent, the highest rate since 1982. Considerable uncertainty exists over how long it will take for inflation to return to the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent, but it is not unreasonable to assume that rates could remain somewhere above the target rate for several years. If that occurs, a 1.5 percent cap on revenue growth will significantly diminish the purchasing power of Mississippi’s general fund.”

The Tax Foundation article said the Senate plan was simpler and less risky, but notes flaws in both and says, “Mississippi is close to making meaningful reforms, but there is still more work to be done if the Magnolia State is to sustain the intended transformation.”

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