Gov. Tate Reeves has never called a special session since he’s been governor — but that could change soon.
Legislators still seem divided over dueling proposals to cutting the state income tax.
The House remained obstinate that that the income tax needs to be abolished.
The Senate wanted to take a more measured approached and said full elimination was off the table.
Then Reeves entered into the picture.
The first-term governor at a press conference last week said he would consider calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to take up tax cuts if the 174 lawmakers under the Capitol dome don’t vote to eliminate the income tax before the end of the session.
“I’m certainly not going to take anything off the table,” Reeves said. “I am very reluctant to call special sessions because I think it needs to be an issue that is of significant importance to do so. And I think that the elimination of the income tax … is an issue that certainly could rise to that level.”
After Reeves comments last Friday, lawmakers starting singing a different tune.
Both the House and the Senate revised their initial tax cut plans to make them more agreeable to the other chamber.
The House decided to take a sales tax increase out of their plan, and the Senate decided to cut more taxes.
Was it a coincidence, or was this already in the works? That’s not clear, but what is certainly happening is lawmakers are getting closer to reaching a deal.
Make no mistake, the two bodies are still leagues apart on a final deal, but this week was the first sign that the two chambers are willing to budge.
We could still not have an income tax cut plan sent to the governor come sine die. But one thing is for certain: the thought of a special session with only income tax cuts on the agenda is making some senators very uncomfortable.
We’re around three weeks away from sine die. Lawmakers this week had to deal with revenue and appropriations bills that originated in the other chamber. For the next two weeks, legislators will try and craft conference reports.
The next deadline to watch for is March 30, which is when lawmakers must first consider a conference report.
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Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a controversial bill into law that prescribes public educators cannot force students to affirm “that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or nationality is inherently superior or inferior.”
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