Last week there was a lot of discussion and compromise in Jackson, specifically at the Capitol.
The biggie for a lot of us is the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act. The idea that we are “free” from tax is a misconception. It would be better labeled a shift in tax from items like income tax to an increase in taxes on some goods and an increase in sales tax on particular items like electronics while reducing sales tax on items like food from 7 percent to 4 percent. There are, of course, exceptions like automobiles and farming equipment. Those auto folks and farmers have some powerful lobbyists and control a lot of the purse strings when it comes to campaign contributions. These actions came through the House on Tuesday of last week. Now it has to go to the Senate before it reaches the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
We understand that Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann has a plan of his own in regard to eliminating items like the state income tax. Hosemann does not like the idea of a tax swap from one item to another. It is has been said that Governor Reeves will not support “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
The concern from the Democratic side of the aisle is that the tax reduction will leave those who can least afford it, the poor, holding the bag.
It also looks like smoke will soon be rising as medical marijuana gets the okay from the state Senate.
One of the biggest obstacles was basic control of distribution and taxation of marijuana. Because of the voters initiative being struck down by the court, the bill was tossed back into the laps of the legislature.
I recall asking Sheriff Kenneth Lewis if he ever felt marijuana in any form would be passed in the State of Mississippi. He, like me, was wrong and the bill has come out of committee and is not far from being legalized. The amount issue has been settled and is down to 3.5 grams from what was first announced as being as much as 12 joints a day. I personally feel it was because of the way the referendum was worded that it passed with so much support. Otherwise it won’t be long before we have a bunch of “Pot heads” in the state.
Another item that made the first round of cuts is a teacher pay raise that is in the neighborhood of $4,000 to $6,000. This will raise the starting teacher’s salary to between $41,000 and $43,000. It is termed as a meritless raise. That is like saying they really don’t deserve it.
I am not a teacher, but the term “meritless” doesn’t sound real smart. The problem is there are not enough people going into the education field; therefore there is a shortage of qualified teachers to fill all the vacancies. The issue is simple: if there are not enough teachers to fill the need—what do you do? You have to increase the incentive through compensation and improved learning environment.
This across the board teacher’s raise is expected to cost the state an additional $258 million. There is also conversation about raises for others like teacher’s assistants and others in the system who have not gotten raises.
These decisions should not be taken lightly. There is a lot at stake.
