Mississippi’s new laws include education formula, Medicaid eligibility, retirement reform

As of July 1, 406 pieces of legislation will pass into Mississippi state law.

Bills such as a historic K-12 education funding formula, expansions to the Capitol Complex Improvement District in Jackson, several individual suffrage bills and a law that gives pregnant women presumed eligibility for Medicaid benefits.

Lawmakers also passed further legislative oversight for the Public Employees Retirement System of Mississippi

Following is a look at the bills that will become law in just a few days:

K-12 education funding

Close to the end of the 2024 session, after several failed attempts to pass a new education funding formula, Senate and House lawmakers created and passed House Bill 4130, known as the Mississippi Student Funding Formula.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed that bill on May 8, only days after lawmakers gaveled out for the year.

The new law of the land will this year fund the program with $2.95 billion for public schools throughout the state, fully funding the new formula.

That bill includes funding weights to determine more need in poor districts, such as having more impoverished students, special education and other weights, as well as an objective funding formula and an inflation factor to adjust the cost of running the program.

Capitol Complex Improvement District expansion

House Bill 1487 will set in place yet another boundary expansion of the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which covers downtown Jackson and parts of East and North Jackson.

The CCID will now include Kroger off of I-55, Jackson Academy, Spann Elementary and McLeod Elementary.

The Capitol Police Department will also have primary jurisdiction within these boundaries, which will go into effect Monday, the same day as the bill.

Suffrage bills

While lawmakers did not pass a bill that would have restored voting rights to thousands of people who had previously committed nonviolent felonies, 18 people who committed disenfranchising crimes will have their right to vote back as of Monday.

Lawmakers had passed 21 individual suffrage requests from people who had been disenfranchised, but Reeves vetoed three of them.

Presumptive eligibility

Reeves signed House Bill 539 in March, which will now allow women who are pregnant to receive 60 days of prenatal care while their Medicaid application is being processed.

Presumptive Medicaid eligibility during pregnancy will be based on questions about income from health care providers such as county health department workers. If a woman’s Medicaid application is denied, the treatment she received during her processing period would still be paid for by the state.

Lawmakers also had for the first time ever a fighting chance to pass a wide-ranging Medicaid expansion for between 80,000 and 200,000. However, Senate and House members could not agree on a final version by a legislative deadline, choosing instead to let the legislation die and try again next year.

State retirement system

A few changes will also soon be coming to the Public Employment Retirement System of Mississippi as of Monday.

Toward the end of the session, lawmakers passed legislation to replace the PERS employer 2% retirement system contribution rate increase with a 0.5% increase over the next four years.

The bill also states that any rate increases need two actuarial reports to recommend them and it must be approved by the Legislature, even though the PERS Board has previously been able to make those changes without legislative oversight.

Throughout the session, several legislative reforms to the PERS board and it’s ability to control rate increases were challenged by lawmakers in both the House and Senate, which ultimately culminated in further, albeit more mild than previously, oversight.

Reeves appeared not to take much of a side in the matter by letting the bill pass into law without his signature.