Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. Most sane people who have witnessed the way the Mississippi Legislature sets a final state budget – all willy-nilly in a flurry of last minute haggling late of a Saturday night – have come away thinking there has to be a better way. House Speaker Jason White is one of those. A veteran House lawmaker, when he became speaker in 2024, he vowed to end the college-student-who-put-off-writing-a-paper method of setting most of a multi-billion dollar state budget late on a Saturday night. Last year, he put that into action, with House leaders going home for the week and declining to parlay on “conference weekend.” But things had already gone off the rails before then, when the Senate accidentally agreed to a sea-change tax policy bill because of typos in their offer. Instead of allowing the Senate to fix its error – as is custom – the House adopted the typo tax bill and sent it to the governor, who signed it into law. The House and Senate GOP leadership were so sideways with each other they ended the session without setting a budget. The governor used one of his few powers over the legislative branch, and called them back into special session. A governor cannot control what lawmakers pass in a special session, but he sets the agenda on what they can consider. House and Senate leaders have been pretty sideways with each other this session on most major issues. That has most people at the Capitol, including many lawmakers, wondering, first, if there will be a true conference weekend this coming Saturday and Sunday and, second, whether the Legislature will again cede some of its budget-setting power to the governor this year. This brings up a legislative conundrum: Scurrying at the last moment to set a budget can be a bad way to do things, and mistakes happen. On the other hand, legislatures require deadlines to ever get anything done, else the 174 elected A-type personalities would keep debating ad infinitum. Also, legislatures typically don’t like handing any of their power over to a governor. Here’s a refresher on how budget setting went last year: House gives Senate 5 p.m. deadline to come to table, or legislative session ends with no state budget Legislative session crashes, budget dies over feuding between GOP House, Senate leaders Mississippi lawmakers end 2025 session unable to agree (or even meet about) state budget Tempers flare, ‘Demon chipmunk’ reads bills as Mississippi lawmakers try to pass a belated state budget Gov. Reeves will call special session next week to pass state budget House passes bill that threatens Mississippi’s Medicaid funding, then skedaddles, leaves Senate holding bag Quote of the Week “Is that even legal?” – Rep. Dan Eubanks “It’s not illegal.” – Rep. Lee Yancey This was an exchange on the House floor between the two lawmakers over a bill that would allow people outside of Mississippi to be certified by a Mississippi physician to use medical marijuana. In Brief State’s credit outlook improved from negative to stable SP Global Ratings has moved Mississippi’s outlook from negative to stable, a move that can help the state and taxpayers with better rates when borrowing money. The agency had lowered Mississippi’s outlook to negative in 2024, citing concerns about weak state economic trends, continuing tax cuts the the state’s government pension plan. SP’s new outlook cites the state’s “commitment to structural budget balance and maintenance of healthy reserves … despite modest revenue decline from recent tax reductions and generally slower economic growth compared with that of the U.S.” It also cites pension plan changes lawmakers made last year that it said should help stabilize the system. – Geoff Pender Wiggins wants to revive civics ed proposal Before the legislative session ends, Sen. Brice Wiggins wants to reup his proposal to require civics education in high school. SB 2292 would have required high schoolers to complete a civics class before being able to graduate,  but it was never taken up by the House Education Committee. Though no bill has been altered yet, Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, said that “options exist” to revive the proposal and he’s looking into doing so. – Devna Bose Prison health measure in negotiation The House has invited further negotiation on legislation introduced for a second year by Rep. Justis Gibbs, a Democrat from Jackson, that would ensure that if prisoners are forced to use strong cleaning chemicals, prison officials must provide them with protective equipment such as face masks, gloves, protective helmets and eye protection. The measure is a response to the case of Susan Balfour, who died of breast cancer after she said prison health care providers failed to offer her necessary medical screenings and treatment. Last year, the measure died in negotiations with the Senate. The Senate has been reluctant to advance proposals to improve prison health care in Mississippi. The House bill came out of the House Corrections Committee with the support of Republican Chairwoman Becky Currie, who has vowed to continue pushing to pass a slate of prison health care reforms before the legislative sessions concludes. – Michael Goldberg Ice storm aid bills considered House and Senate bills to defray the costs of repairs from the damage of the recent winter storm are headed to final negotiations. Both HB 4069 and SB 3229 would allow the state to borrow money to loan to Entergy and other electric providers to help with the cost of repairs from the recent winter storm. The bills are similar to one that was passed to assist after Hurricane Katrina. Legislators have said that this would prevent providers from passing along the costs to customers. They estimate costs to Entergy alone will be around $200 million. – Katherine Lin Diaper tax break added to ag bill The House last week passed an amendment to exempt diapers from sales taxes to a bill that would provide an exemption for some agricultural and logging equipment. The Senate has invited more debate on the issue. Rep. Dana McLean, a Republican from Columbus, successfully offered the amendment for the tax break on diapers. She said that when lawmakers passed a ban on abortions, they vowed to help mothers and babies, “and that includes what we can do in terms of tax exemptions to help take care of children.” – Katherine Lin By the Numbers $390 million Amount of annual budget increase the Mississippi Division of Medicaid is asking lawmakers for, after federal COVID-19 dollars for the agency have dried up. More Legislative Coverage Senate revives PERS proposals. Plan would pump $1B into retirement system Senate proposals that would put more than $1 billion into Mississippi’s government pension system are back in play after being killed by the House earlier this legislative session. Read the story. Lawmakers in Mississippi consider bill to restrict abortion medication House lawmakers are deliberating sending a bill to Gov. Tate Reeves that would make it illegal for doctors to prescribe medication that could be used to induce abortion to patients in Mississippi. Read the story. Mississippi Medicaid asks legislators to boost budget after COVID-19 funds run out Lawmakers have been stunned by the agency’s request for a significant increase from last year and baffled by budget requests made by the agency and governor’s office, which differ by tens of millions of dollars. Read the story. ...read more read less