The had their sine die – the end of the 2025 Mississippi legislative session. And they did plenty of dying. The 174 members of the Mississippi Legislature left Jackson without a state budget. They left independent pharmacies on life support and pretty much started pulling their plug out of the wall by not passing any helpful bills to stop the middlemen – the PBMs – of the industry who are lining their pockets and no one else’s. And then there was that day when Lt. Governor Hosemann scared us all half to death when he collapsed while presiding. I could almost hear Howard Cosell yelling, “Down goes Hosemann! Down goes Hosemann!” It wasn’t pretty and hopefully convinced him that maybe he should enjoy the rest of his 80s and beyond not on the legislative floor.
Just what exactly did the men and women of the Mississippi Legislature get done to earn their $23,500 base-pay (though most make more than that, according to a Mississippi Today story from 2022 – “most make between $40,000 and $50,000 a year in salary, per diem, reimbursements and other payments. Some lawmakers’ total compensation is around $70,000 a year.”)?
Nice work if you can get it. Oh, they did pass the bill that eliminated state income tax, but it had typos. I wonder how many accountants, teachers and lawyers are in the legislature and let such a thing get by?
Looking over the whole session, House Minority Leader Robert Johnson from Natchez summed it up nicely.
“I think this session has been a complete waste,” Johnson said. “We have not done anything that's been good for the people of the state of Mississippi.”
But the good Governor Tate Reeves says the state won’t shut down and he’ll call all the duly elected men and women back to Jackson to hash out the budget. The catch? Extra pay for them all. This is the first time since 2009 that the Governor will have to call a special session to pass a state budget. The special session will cost taxpayers around $100,000 each day it lasts.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m late on a deadline I don’t make more money. It generally costs me work down the road when it seems I can’t be counted on to produce when I was supposed to do so. Perhaps we throw up some term limits and find some folks that will get the job done, on time and under budget, and doesn’t threaten the independent pharmacists who are truly trying to serve the public and not go broke doing it.
