FLOWOOD, Miss. ( WJTV ) – The Mississippi Legislature may not be in session, but that’s not stopping lawmakers from talking about tax reform.

The lawmakers gathered for a policy summit on Tuesday at the Sheraton in Flowood, which was hosted by House Speaker Jason White (R-Miss.). There were guests speakers from out of state and from Mississippi. They talked about reducing the burden on taxpayers in the state.

“Being able to have these conversations away from the Capitol in somewhat of an informal setting, also without the time constraints that a normal Legislative Session puts on you to where we get in all out, we want to hear from everybody regardless of if we all agree on it. We want to hear from everybody and figure out the best path forward,” White said.

The summit focused on eliminating the income tax, reducing the grocery tax and overhauling the funding mechanism for the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT). Governor Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) made his case to lawmakers about why they shouldn’t believe the myths about eliminating the income tax.

“The reality is when we started cutting taxes in 2016, our annual operating budget was $5.7 billion, that’s in fiscal year 2017. Just seven years later, fiscal year 2024, we collected $7.707 billion. After enacting the second largest tax cuts in Mississippi history, we still collected $2.1 billion more revenue. I believe that money should be returned to the people of the great state of Mississippi,” said Reeves.

Democratic House members said while they support tax reforms, they’re cautious about which taxes to cut.

“Even though we passed a good public education bill, there are still infrastructure things that need to be met in the public schools, and more importantly, we have hospitals closing, emergency rooms that don’t exist all over the state. We have needs in this state that need to be met, which is what we were elected for, and so, tax cuts sound good, but delivering services is more important,” said House Minority Leader Robert Johnson (D-Miss.).

White said tax reform will be a top priority in the 2025 session, along with Medicaid expansion.

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