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.

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