JACKSON, Miss.— After failing to approve a budget during its regular session earlier this spring, the Mississippi Legislature returned for a special legislative session to complete its unfinished business on Wednesday at 11 a.m. Gov. Tate Reeves called the special session in an announcement on Tuesday.
The budget involves over $7 billion that funds more than 100 state agencies, governing authorities and boards. Disagreements over local infrastructure projects caused the Mississippi House and Senate, which are both led by Republicans, to adjourn in April without an agreement.
“It is my belief that this should not take long. In fact, I believe that the passage of these bills could be done in as little as one day. But, obviously, the fact that there is baseball to be played on Friday will surely encourage our friends to be done long before the end of this week,” Reeves told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.
He said lawmakers will be agreeing to a $7.135 billion budget in recurring revenue in the 2026 fiscal year, which funds agencies that are already part of the state’s budget. Mississippi collected about $7.6 billion in revenue and spent just under $7.05 billion in the 2025 fiscal year.
“There are still a lot of unknowns for what the federal budget is going to look like going into the next fiscal year, and so, I think it certainly makes sense for states, all states and certainly Mississippi, to be prepared for whatever may occur coming out of the ‘one big beautiful bill’ coming out of Washington, D.C.,” the governor said.
The U.S. House passed a bill with $5 trillion in tax cuts that would also cut spending on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP. Even after cuts to those programs, the legislation’s tax cuts would still add trillions to the federal budget deficit.
Lawmakers must finalize the budget before the start of the 2026 fiscal year on July 1 to avoid a state government shutdown. Reeves said the Legislature will have to pass over 100 appropriations and finance bills during the special session.
The last time state lawmakers failed to pass a budget before the end of the regular session was in 2017, after lawmakers failed to finalize budgets for the attorney general’s office and the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Before that, the Legislature ended its regular session in 2009 without a budget amid wrangling over federal stimulus funds, car tag rebates, Medicaid and budget cuts.
In both cases, lawmakers were able to resolve the issues in a special session with no government shutdowns.
While the State’s budget is the main concern for lawmakers during the special session, Reeves said other topics could pop up. He said legislation addressing deficits in the current fiscal year will also be included in the special session.
“In the deficit bill, the Legislature will probably approve an additional $100 million in deficit spending for (fiscal year) 2025. Now, some of that $100 million would be able to be spent in 2025, some of it in 2026,” Reeves said.
During the special session, he mentioned that he expected to see legislation regarding projects that could receive Capital Expense Funds, which are one-time payments the Legislature allocates to fund projects and repair and renovate state-owned properties.
Reeves said he anticipated legislation regarding the transfer of the Mississippi Main Street Revitalization Grant from the purview of the Mississippi Development Authority to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The governor vetoed House Bill 1085, which would have made the grant program transfer to MDAH, earlier this year. He argued in his veto message that the bill violated the Mississippi Constitution by inserting general legislation in an appropriations bill.
“There will be more than just straight appropriations bills, but every item that is on the call as it currently exists is an item that deals specifically with funding the core functions of government,” he said.