Legislative session crashes, budget dies over feuding between GOP House, Senate leaders: Legislative recap
Source: Mississippi Today
Legislative session crashes, budget dies over feuding between GOP House, Senate leaders: Legislative recap
A special session, which could cost Mississippi taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, is looming after lawmakers blow deadline to agree to a state budget.
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by Geoff Pender
March 31, 2025
The 2025 regular session of the Mississippi Legislature appeared to come to a halt on Saturday, after the over 100 bills that make up the state’s $7 billion annual budget died in a standoff between the House and Senate — primarily over whether to work over the weekend.
To revive the budget bills and end this year’s legislative session roughly on time, the House and Senate would have to agree to a parliamentary extension of deadlines and the session, or Gov. Tate Reeves would have to force them into special session sometime before the new budget year starts July 1. Numerous senators, on both sides of the aisle, on Saturday vowed they wouldn’t vote for extending the session.
That would appear to leave one option, have Gov. Tate Reeves force lawmakers into special session sometime between now and the end of the state’s fiscal year June 30th.
Besides costing taxpayers easily $100,000 a day to pay, feed and house lawmakers, staff the Capitol and legislative services offices and other expenses, a special session also gives the constitutionally weak governor a little more control over legislation, in that he can control what items are on the agenda.
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Read more: https://mississippitoday.org/2025/03/31/legislative-session-crashes-budget-dies-over-feuding-between-gop-house-senate-leaders-legislative-recap/