Mississippi lawmakers return for new legislative session

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Mississippi lawmakers return to the State Capitol on Tuesday for a new legislative session.

It begins at noon, and it looks like lawmakers will have their hands full this session.

They plan to tackle a number of big issues over the next three months.

Both the Governor and Lieutenant Governor say teacher pay is one of their priorities.

Governor Tate Reeves is calling for a $3,300 raise per teacher to be spread across the next three years.

Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann says investing in children is the best workforce development plan for the state.

A state medical marijuana program is also a high priority on the to-do list.

There is a drafted bill that lawmakers signaled had a consensus last year.

The hope was the legislation would have been signed into law during a special session, but the governors had concerns about the bill and he never called for a special session.

There are also some other major items lawmakers are expected to tackle.

Governor Tate Reeves says, “The elimination of the income tax is a priority of mine. And we’ve talked a lot about it with leaders in the House in the Senate. And there’s general consensus that we want to do it, we’ve got to work out the details, which is always the case. But I’m optimistic that we’re going to get serious movement this year, to head us towards the elimination of the income tax, we also got to invest in our people.”

Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann says, “I think in the Senate sad, we’re very reluctant to raise anybody’s taxes. We’re not interested in a tax swap. We’re interested more in tax relief. And I think that came out of this last year.”

There will be some precautions during the start of this session due to the rise in COVID numbers.

We’re told members will be spread out in the chambers but no mask mandate is in place.