Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a bill to overhaul Mississippi’s tax system, aiming to eliminate the state income tax in about 14 years.

Summary

Gov. Tate Reeves signed a tax overhaul bill into law that phases out Mississippi’s income tax over 14 years, aiming to make the state more economically competitive.

Due to typos, the bill nullifies intended economic growth triggers, potentially accelerating tax elimination.

It also cuts the grocery tax from 7% to 5%, raises the gas tax by 9 cents, and changes public employee retirement benefits.

Critics warn of a $2.6B annual revenue loss, risking vital services in the nation’s poorest state. Officials remain divided on the bill’s long-term impact.

  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
    181·
    1 day ago

    It’s one thing for states like FL, TX, and WA to do this, since they have tourism, oil, and/or high sales tax to make up for it. But Mississippi doesn’t have anything going for it except for an efficient use of the alphabet in its name. This will absolutely cause the state to crumble even more and become more of a welfare state.

    • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
      61·
      1 day ago

      When the rich technically make no income then regular working Americans end up paying more income tax than billionaires

      Income tax disproportionately effects the poor unfortunately

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
      31·
      1 day ago

      It sounds like it only goes to 0 if certain goals are met, otherwise it’ll go down to, and then stay at 3%.

      So if they can’t figure something out like those other states, it won’t go to 0.

      Still a bad idea, but it’s not a lets make it 0% right away then FAFO

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 day ago

        Just a further thought…

        It’d be interesting if the tax could automatically increase if these goals that were met, were no longer met.

        So to go from 3% to 2% you need to generate an extra billion revenue, but if you lose that revenue it then climbs back to 3%.

        It would really complicate the system… you’d essentially need to always be set up to charge income tax, but then have a variable rate that updates the systems maybe quarterly or yearly. But you couldn’t ditch the system entirely since you’d need companies to have a method to suddenly start charging it again if it had to go from 0% to 0.5%