Senate committee reports out broad tax package that cuts income and grocery taxes and raises fuel levies

Senate Bill 30 95, presented to the committee by Senator Johnson, is a multi‑part tax package that would phase down the individual income tax, cut the grocery sales tax, and increase excise taxes on gasoline and special fuels while creating formulas to apportion additional fuel tax revenue to road funds.

Johnson summarized the bill’s key provisions: a phased reduction in the individual income tax rate beginning in 2027, a reduction of the grocery sales tax from 7% to 5% effective July 1, 2025, and incremental increases in the gasoline excise tax of three cents per year through 2027 with indexing thereafter. He told the committee that a portion of excise tax revenue above 18 cents per gallon would be distributed as follows: 23.25% to state aid road construction, 2.75% to the Strategic Multimodal Investment Fund, and 74% to the Mississippi Department of Transportation for projects listed in MDOT’s three‑year plan under the statutory reference cited by the sponsor.

Johnson said the bill’s first year would eliminate about $127 million in grocery tax, raise about $70 million from fuel tax increases and yield a net $56 million tax cut in year one; he said the plan totals a $326 million net cut over five years and described it as "instant tax relief for Mississippi citizens." "This plan cuts the grocery tax in 2025," Johnson said, and he summarized the bill’s fiscal math to the committee.

Committee members pressed the sponsor on details, including timing and implementation. Senator Filling Yang praised the plan’s design and asked how the sponsors ensured it produced a net cut in year one; Johnson replied that the excise tax provides a more predictable user‑fee stream than sales tax and reiterated the sponsor’s revenue estimates.

The bill drew extended debate and competing amendments. Senator Bryan (identified in the transcript while offering his amendment) proposed a strike‑all amendment that would cut the grocery tax by half while doubling grocery tax diversions and divert 4 percentage points of sales, use and income tax to the Department of Revenue for road funding; Bryan argued his plan would send roughly $335 million annually to highways and criticized broad income tax reductions as a policy direction he opposed. "I just do not understand the insistence on raising the fuel tax," Bryan said in committee debate, while also arguing the income tax reductions would "starve government of revenue" and would disproportionately benefit wealthier taxpayers and out‑of‑state corporate interests.

Senator Simmons offered an amendment to exempt groceries entirely (reduce grocery tax to 0%) and adjust diversions to make municipalities whole; that amendment failed on a recorded voice vote logged in the transcript as the chair announcing "Noes have it." Several other amendments offered by the sponsor — housekeeping date corrections and language requiring the Department of Revenue to publish a report within specified timelines — were adopted on voice votes.

After debate and multiple amendment votes, the sponsor moved the committee substitute with the motion titled "sufficient due pass committee substitute." The committee adopted the motion on a voice vote; the transcript records the chair stating, "The ayes have it. That bill will be reported out." The record does not contain a roll‑call tally for the final committee vote.

The transcript includes multiple fiscal figures and distribution formulas, but it does not include final bill text, an official fiscal note, nor a recorded roll‑call vote. Implementation would depend on the final enacted language and subsequent allocations to MDOT, state aid road funds and municipal diversions.