Empowering County Government Since 1908

MAS' WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER

January 26, 2024

The 2024 Regular Legislative Session

The fourth week of the 2024 Regular Legislative Session is now complete. The Deadline for making requests for general and constitutional amendments to be drafted is Wednesday February 14, 2024.

This Week at the Capitol

Second Special Session Call for Second Major Economic Development Project

House Bill 1 and House Bill 2 of the 2024 Second Extraordinary Session

This week at the Capitol, the Mississippi Legislature overwhelmingly passed their second economic development project for the Project Atlas Fund. This project involves a $10 billion investment from Amazon Web Services to construct two “hyperscale data centers.” The Legislature agreed to utilize $44 million in state revenue along with numerous tax breaks to help with the project. NOTE: Both House Bill 1 and House Bill 2 of the Second 2024 Special Session have passed both chambers and will soon head to the Governor for consideration.

Ballot Initiative Measure Passes House Floor Chamber

House Concurrent Resolution 11

On Thursday, January 24^th, the House Floor Chamber passed House Concurrent Resolution 11 by a vote of 80 to 40. This measure provides citizens the ability to reserve themselves the right to exercise the legislative power of the State to propose new laws and to amend or repeal existing laws by initiative, and to approve or reject the same in an election independent of the Legislature. NOTE: This measure will now head to the Senate Chamber for consideration.

Measures Introduced That Impact County Government

House Bill 596: This act authorizes the levying authority for a school district to approve, in full or in part, a request for an increase in the ad valorem tax effort for the school district. This measure is referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. NOTE: No action has been taken on this measure.

House Bill 589: This measure provides that 10 percent of the sales tax revenue collected from business activities outside the municipalities in a county shall be paid to the county. This measure is referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. NOTE: No action has been taken on this measure.

Bills in bolded, underlined blue contain a hyperlink to the legislative website with further bill information.

Authors, Steve Gray and Derrick Surrette

HOUSE & SENATE will reconvene on Monday at 4pm.

Request for MAS Membership Feedback and Insight

Please click the button below to access the MAS 2024 Regular Legislative Session Proposals, which were revised and ratified during the MAS Annual 2024 Mid-Winter Legislative Conference.

IMPORTANT: After obtaining the proposals, kindly distribute them to your local legislative delegation through email, text message, or other means. We urge you to request that they sponsor bills corresponding to each proposal in the document. Note that legislators have until February 14th to introduce the general bills listed, ensuring sufficient time for your members to introduce the necessary legislation. Furthermore, for any queries about the wording of the Mississippi County Modernization Act, please kindly ask them to contact MAS, as we have proposed language for this measure.

REMINDER: As discussed in our meeting on Friday, January 26th, 2024, if you are dealing with cell tower or telecommunication companies that are granted a compulsory ad valorem tax exemption under Mississippi code section 57-87-7, please email Steve Gray at [email protected] with details about the ad valorem taxes currently excluded from the county tax records due to this exemption for broadband technology benefiting cell tower companies.

ADDITIONAL REMINDER: From our January 26th, 2024 discussion, if you are aware of any public/private college, university, junior/community college, or their foundations that have sought, intend to, or are currently benefiting from an ad valorem tax exemption for owning an asset, as per Mississippi code section 27-31-1, please email the name of the institution or foundation and the type of asset receiving this exemption to Steve Gray at [email protected].

MAS 2024 Legislative Proposals

Click the button above to view the updated MAS 2024 Legislative Proposal items voted on by the membership at the MAS 2024 Mid-Winter Legislative Conference

MS Legislature Website

Click the button above to visit the MS Legislature website. On here you will be able to locate bills, legislative deadlines, contact info for legislatures, link to MS Legislature YouTube to follow along with floor debates and Senate Committee meetings and more.

Click Here for House Committee Members

Click Here for Link to Senate Committees

Special Thanks!

We would like to thank all participants, sponsors, and exhibitors of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors’ 2024 Legislative Mid-Winter Conference. Thank you for making the conference a great success!

Join us next Friday, February 2 at 10:30 a.m. for our weekly legislative Zoom call.

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3852299667?omn=82852905326

Or Call in at: 888.788.0099

Then Enter Meeting Id Number: 385 229 9667

Authors, Steve Gray and Derrick Surrette

Mark Your Calendar!

National Association of Counties (NAC0) 2024 Legislative Conference

February 10^th – 13^th

Washington Hilton Hotel

Washington, DC

MAS 2024 Annual Convention

June 10 - 13, 2024

MS Coast Convention Center

Harrison County | Biloxi, MS

Address: 793 North President Street

Jackson, MS 39202.

Phone: 601-353-2741

Fax: 601-353-2749