Last Thursday the Simpson County Development Foundation held their annual membership meeting.
The event was sponsored this year by Southern Pine and, as always, it was a time to recognize standouts in the community for their achievements. Business of the year went to AirSouth, and our two hospitals were recognized for their service to the community.
Donnie Caughman, executive director of the Foundation, updated the membership on prospects and actions over the past year, stating that progress has been a bit slow largely due to Covid-19 restrictions. He reported the sale of the property located just out from Mendenhall and said efforts are underway to locate additional properties that may be suitable for new business and industry within the county.
As part of the program Philip Gunn, Speaker of the House for the State of Mississippi, spoke to the membership.
Gunn told the crowd of almost 100 that he was quite proud of some work that was completed during this term of the legislature, which included teacher pay raises. These would range from $4,000 to $6,000 per year. He said that according to his sources in the education field, this increase alone has prevented planned retirements of some teachers. In addition to the teacher pay raises, he also touted raises for teaching assistants.
Gunn said that while the legislature did not approve abolishing the state income tax, it oversaw the largest reduction in taxes ever with the reduction of 4 percent on earnings of everyone between the income of $5,000 to $10,000 as well as 5 percent on all additional income.
He had advocated for a consumption tax base. Currently, according to Gunn, half of the state’s tax collections, $1.8 billion, comes from only the upper income level, which is the top half of the population. He said the annual budget is $6 billion. He noted that the increase in sales of merchandise in the last year alone was $371 million. This was based on consumer spending.
He discussed how the state had received $1.8 billion in ARPA funds, American Rescue Plan Act. Thus far the state has qualified for $1.5 billion in funding, which he said should be spent on infrastructure projects like road and bridge repair as well as broad band expansion.
He said that the legislature was able to adopt a bill to address the medical marijuana issue for the state and that an additional issue that the legislature had approved was the passage of a tax credit of up to 50 percent for funding a teen pregnancy center.
Gunn did his undergraduate work at Baylor and entered law school at the University of Mississippi. He practices in Ridgeland with Wells, Marble and Hurst, PLLC.
