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Rep. Zakiya Summers encourages Mississippi legislators to create a fairer and smarter tax policy, not just more tax cuts for the wealthy.
House and Senate Republican lawmakers are split on how to eliminate the state income tax, a rift that has kept the tax-debate standstill, with prevailing forces in the state leadership leaning heavily toward abolishing the income tax. Still, no proposal that satisfies all players has yet to emerge from the discussion, which follows a failed attempt to push the tax cut through the 2021 legislative session.
House Bill 1439, authored by Speaker Phillip Gunn, purports to eliminate the income tax and stimulate the economy. Still, it dramatically increases taxes in at least 28 other areas, including agricultural equipment, automobile sales, manufacturing machinery and a sizable across-the-board sales tax increase on all items.
More than half of working Mississippians would no longer pay state income taxes starting next year under a bill Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn touted today as “probably the most extraordinary policy change that we’ve ever done—at least in my book.”
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