The Legislative Report Header
March 18, 2022
The Legislative Report
The eleventh week of the 2022 Mississippi Legislative session involved discussions about many important topics such as Mississippi’s income tax and teacher pay. This week also marked the deadline for each chamber to take up appropriation and revenue bills that originated in the other chamber. On Wednesday, March 16, House and Senate conferees met to discuss the teacher pay raise bill, HB 530.

Conferees for the Senate included Dennis DeBar, Briggs Hopson, and Hob Bryan while conferees for the House included Kent McCarty, Kevin Felsher, and Jansen Owens, who was standing in for Richard Bennett. Last week, Speaker Gunn announced that the House had sent a conference report on the teacher pay raise to the Senate. The highlights of the House’s conference report were:

  1. Average teacher pay raise would be $4,850
  2. Assistant teachers would receive a $2,000 raise
  3. Provided yearly step increases of at least $400, with larger bumps of at least $1,000 every 5th year and $2,500 earned by all teachers in year 25
  4. Most teachers would receive a raise of at least $4,000

During the March 16 meeting, Chairman DeBar stated that the Senate conferees reviewed the House’s conference report and agreed with most of the provisions. Chairman DeBar then proposed the following changes to the report:

  • Starting salaries for teachers would be as follows:
  • Class A teacher $41,500
  • Class AA teacher $43,000
  • Class AAA teacher $44,000
  • Class AAAA teacher $45,500
  • At the five-year marks, teachers would receive a larger increase between $1,200 and $1,350 depending on their certification. 
  • Teachers would receive annual step increases between $400 and $600 most years.
  • Teachers would receive a $2,500 increase at year 25.

The proposed raise has increased from a $210 million commitment at the beginning of the session, to now a $246 million commitment which would raise teacher’s base salaries by an average of $5,140 and provide assistant teachers with a $2,000 raise. The new plan also would phase in over one year as opposed to the original two-year proposal. All six House and Senate conferees have signed the Conference Report for HB 530. On Thursday, March 17, the full Senate adopted the Conference Report, but the House concluded without taking up the bill. The House will reconvene on Friday, March 18 where they will hopefully adopt the report. If the full House approves the Conference Report, it will go to the Governor’s desk. Upon the signature of Governor Reeves, the new salary schedule would take effect in the upcoming 2022-2023 school year.
Recent Bills
Other important bills were discussed this week as the end of the session approaches. The more notable bills were HB 531 and SB 3164. These are the proposed tax cut plans for both chambers. The House’s plan will now eliminate the personal income tax slower over a few years while foregoing its proposed sales tax increase and car tag reduction. The plan will also reduce the grocery tax slowly, from 7% to 4%. The Senate’s plan will now reduce the 5% income bracket to 4.6% over four years, then eliminate the 4% tax bracket. The plan will also reduce the state grocery tax from 7% to 5% and will also suspend the state’s 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax for six months. Below are a few other notable bills that were discussed this week and will go to conference:

  • SB 2422 – Involves the receipt of teacher procurement cards.
  • SB 2424 – Allows school districts to process monthly or bimonthly payroll for employees.
  • SB 2430 – Allows for state aid for construction or repair of school facilities.
Deadlines
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  • Monday, March 28, 2022 — Deadline for final adoption of conference reports on appropriations and revenue bills and for conference reports on general bills and constitutional amendments to be filed.
  • Wednesday, March 30, 2022 — Deadline for first consideration of conference reports on general bills and constitutional amendments.
  • Saturday, April 2, 2022 — Deadline to dispose of motions to reconsider conference reports on general bills and constitutional amendments.
  • Sunday, April 3, 2022 — SINE DIE
Day at the Capitol
MSBA’s Day at the Capitol has been postponed until further notice.
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601-924-2001
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