Recent data from the Tax Foundation and 24/7 Wall St. show that Mississippi remains in the top 10 in the nation in terms of lowest taxes.
Mississippi was ranked No. 41, and that data include taxes paid as a percentage of income (8.6 percent), income per capita ($36,636), No. 50), income tax collections per capita ($603, 12th lowest), property tax collections per capita ($972, 13th lowest) and general sales tax collections per capita ($1,105, 9th highest).
While Mississippi leaders may boast about these numbers, the state’s struggles with healthcare, education and infrastructure funding continue.
State leaders, particularly Republican office holders, have been reluctant to vote in favor of any sort of measure that would call for raising taxes.
Chief among those is a proposed fuel tax hike, which is seen by many as at least one key factor in raising new revenue for repairs for roads and bridges throughout the state.
Even though the state’s fuel tax has remained virtually untouched for decades, the majority leadership has been hesitant to even entertain the notion of raising it.
This is understandable for a number of reasons.
As mentioned above, Mississippi has the lowest per capita income. The citizens of this state can hardly bear an unjustifiable increase in their tax burden.
Another reason is that most of these politicians are genuine about their convictions when it comes to taxation.
Thirdly, many ran on the platform of “no new taxes” so they fear that any new form of revenue raising could result in a backlash at the polls, which could see individuals lose seats and the Republicans lose their majority in the House, Senate and governor’s mansion.
State leaders can easily see the tax burden for most Mississippians, but the harder read is how much more Mississippi taxpayers are willing to bear in order to improve services from government like healthcare, education and infrastructure.
The next few weeks could help provide such a barometer.
Cities like Indianola and Greenville have gone about proposing new local sales taxes that could provide an avenue for those municipalities to fix their streets without new aid from the state level.
The Mississippi Department of Revenue estimates that the tax proposed by Indianola Mayor Steve Rosenthal could generate as much as $1million a year, which could go a long way in fixing what is said to be a $10 million undertaking just to tackle specific streets within the city.
The key to these taxes is the local vote.
They must pass a referendum of 60 percent, plus one vote in order to become law.
State leaders have believed for many years they have their thumbs on the pulse of what Mississippians really think about taxes.
Local level votes like these could prove to confirm those beliefs.
It could be that citizens who turn out to the polls say “no new taxes, no matter the condition of the streets.”
On the other hand, if these measures do pass, it could give majority legislators a plausible path toward raising new revenue streams at the state level.
There’s nothing new about municipalities voting to add sales revenue to the balance sheet, but if enough of these infrastructure-specific taxes are successful, state leaders could view them as a mandate to open new streams of revenue for roads and bridges when the 2020 Legislative session rolls around.
