Mississippi’s state government could shut down in less than two months unless House and Senate leaders reach a budget deal, potentially paralyzing state agencies that deal with public safety, health, education, courts, regulations, prisons and more.
The 2025 legislative session ended in early April without lawmakers finalizing a budget amid disagreements over money for local infrastructure projects and concerns about federal funding freezes and economic uncertainty. The governor must call a special session for lawmakers to settle the unfinished business before a July 1 deadline.
While Gov. Tate Reeves said in early April that he believes the state will avoid a government shutdown, an April 30 deadline he set for the two chambers to reach an agreement on the state budget passed without any public developments.
“I met with the legislative leadership about three weeks ago, and I strongly encouraged them to have an agreement on the operating budget by the end of April. That didn’t happen, and that’s disappointing to me,” Gov Tate Reeves said at a May 2 press conference.
The Legislature did not finalize the state’s operating budget by passing legislation out of both chambers during the 2025 legislative session, which started in early January and ended in early April. Reeves will have to call a special session for the Legislature to approve a budget before the new fiscal year starts on July 1. He has not yet indicated when the special session will be.
The governor said he does not want lawmakers to come to Jackson for a special session to “stare at each other” and get paid. If needed, he said he would withhold lawmakers’ salaries until the Legislature passes a budget.
“I’ll just remind you that it is universally agreed that any (agency) in the Constitution, the governor can run without a budget,” Reeves said. “Once you get beyond those agencies that are constitutional in nature, there is some debate as to what authority the governor has, but I’m going to tell you this: I’m not going to let agencies that are incredibly important to the future of Mississippi not spend money on July 1 just because there’s political infighting at the Legislature.”
The House and Senate Appropriations committees’ leadership met last week and “most all budgets are finalized,” House Speaker Jason White, R-West, said in a May 2 statement to the Mississippi Free Press.
In separate statements, both White and Lt. Gov. Hosemann said they anticipate that House and Senate leadership will meet this week to continue work on the budget.
“Given ongoing federal funding freezes and economic shifts, it is important that we exercise prudence in our spending as we craft this year’s budget,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told the Mississippi Free Press in a May 5 statement.
White said that Capital Expense Funds, which pay for physical infrastructure and construction projects throughout the State, are at the heart of the stalemate.
“The disagreement now continues to center around the expenditure of Capital Expense Funds, and whether or not those expenditures will include local infrastructure projects throughout the state. The House has communicated our position clearly to the Senate that we would like to include local infrastructure projects,” White said on May 2. “If we cannot agree on this particular issue, the House is willing and prepared to pass a budget.”
Reeves said he would not let discussions of local projects legislation usurp the Legislature’s duty to allocate a state budget.
“We can have debate on any expenditures of the Capital Expense Fund, but the annual operating budget will not be used as leverage going forward by anyone because it can’t be because it’s the Legislature’s responsibility to fund the budget, and they need to do it,” he told reporters at a May 2 press conference.
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.
