Special session imminent as Mississippi lawmakers scuttle state budget proposals. Read why

Mississippi Senate leadership on Saturday blasted the House for refusing to show up for a conference weekend to hammer out more than 100 budget proposals.

Without a signed budget agreement, lawmakers now have two options. They can either suspend the rules of the Legislature and extend both deadlines and the session past April 6, or the governor can call lawmakers into a special session to negotiate a budget.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said House members, by not attending conference weekend, imperiled state-funded agencies.

"We all took the same oath. We adopted the rules," Hosemann said. "We all agreed to be here. If we can’t set a budget, that means, for Child Protective Services, we have little girls tonight having to stay in hotel rooms. Teachers can’t sign their contracts for their jobs. Highway patrolmen are out there not knowing how much they’ll get paid."

Hosemann said he would now rather have a special session to deal with state government funding.

House Speaker Jason White, R-West, said House members did not meet Saturday because it was a known priority for the lawmakers not to work on the budget at the last minute. When the Senate refused to go along with that plan, he didn’t budge.

For years, including last year, the legislature has finalized a budget proposal during conference weekend and then passed it right before the end of the session. White said he wanted that to change that so House members could thoroughly look through appropriations bills before passing them.

White also said the House passed and sent the Senate a budget proposal already this session, but the Senate made several amendments that made it impossible to finish those talks on time.

"Contrary to comments made by Senate leadership, the House did indeed debate and pass the entire budget and sent a combination of both House appropriations and Senate appropriations bills and all of those bills were simply met with Senate amendments that would not allow them to pass and thereby force a Conference weekend," White said in a social media post Saturday.

Hosemann fired back at the House’s decision not to meet, saying, “It's chaotic, it's unnecessary, it's unprofessional, it's childish."

Senate leadership said that, even though 70 of the 105 budget bills had reached handshake agreements by Friday evening, no written proposals ever made it to the Senate to finalize and file proposals known as conference reports ahead of the deadline.

Tax cut passes into law: Mississippi governor signs income tax elimination bill. How are you affected?

“While we made good progress… It takes two in this business to make it work, and unfortunately, we couldn't get enough cooperation," Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said.

When told of the situation on Saturday morning, several senators on the floor said they would not vote to extend the session.

“There really isn’t any other option (than a special session),” Hosemann said. “You heard what the senators were saying.”

Budget talks stall: MS lawmakers at impasse with state budget talks; House to skip Saturday workday

Mississippi Legislature at odds

The Clarion Ledger polled 20 Senators, most of whom said they would not support a resolution to suspend the rules. Two said they would only vote to suspend the rules to consider a budget proposal but nothing else, and three said they could not know how they would vote until it proposed.

If there is a special session, it would give Republican Gov. Tate Reeves the option to set the agenda and force lawmakers back to Jackson. One chamber would have the option to leave but would be forced back if the other continued holding session for three days.

It would also cost the state roughly $100,000 per day for both lawmakers and staff to be kept at the Capitol longer than the regular session.

“A special session will be very expensive,” Hosemann said. “We just cut taxes, but now we’re going to go spend tens of thousands of dollars so (the House) can have the weekend off. I hope they enjoy their weekend off. If anyone sees any of their House members this weekend, they need to ask them, why didn’t you do your job?"

Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, told reporters the budget fallout could be related to newly approved House Bill 1, which gradually eliminates state income tax. The bill passed despite lawmakers acknowledging typos introduced in the House that would speed up the phased approach to the tax removal. Gov Tate Reeves later signed the bill with the errors.

The only vehicle left to renegotiate those errors died Saturday after House lawmakers failed to sign a conference report sent over by the Senate, Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, said.

This session has seen rancorous debate between the House and Senate over several fronts. Other than the tax cut debate, both House and Senate lawmakers have killed each other’s priorities for the year.

Two House priorities that died most recently was increased annual funding for the state retirement system and a mobile sports betting bill, which Wiggins mentioned as being tied to the budget stall.

“As much as I respect the speaker, I don’t understand this,” Wiggins said. “What this is doing is holding hostage agencies and the running of state government because of some issues they have. People send us here to get our business done in the 90 days we have.”

As for the special session, this is the second time such a possibility has hung over the Legislature this year. Previously, when the Senate and House were not on the same page about income tax elimination, the threat of a special session loomed heavy. That idea only disappeared after the Senate passed HB 1, and it's very impactful typos.

Grant McLaughlin covers the Legislature and state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS special session imminent as state budget proposals die by deadline