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Mississippi House receives governor—s veto messages; refers several bills back to committees
Summary
The Mississippi House heard a series of partial veto messages from Governor Tate Reeves that struck multiple line-item appropriations and noted several vetoed bills. The House also voted to refer a set of bills back to committee and approved routine organizational actions.
The Mississippi House of Representatives on the opening day of its 2025 legislative session received partial veto messages from Governor Tate Reeves that removed multiple line-item appropriations and listed several bills the governor has vetoed. Members then approved motions sending several bills back to committees for further review and completed organizational business, including committee notifications and an adjournment to reconvene at 2 p.m. the following day.
The governor—s partial veto messages were read into the record. In the message on House Bill 1830, the governor stated, "I—m returning House Bill 1830. I—m vetoing section 1, line 7 through 15, providing a $14,025,000 appropriation to the secretary of state for grants from the secretary of state land improvement fund." In a separate message on House Bill 1707, the governor cited Article 4, Section 73 of the Mississippi Constitution as the basis for exercising line-item veto authority and listed multiple appropriations he struck, including a $1,000,000 appropriation to the city of Jackson for planetarium renovations and a $500,000 appropriation to the city of Greenville for park repairs and renovations.
Why it matters: line-item vetoes remove specific spending items while leaving the remainder of an appropriation bill intact; affected local projects and agencies named in the messages will not receive the amounts specified unless the Legislature acts to override the vetoes or reauthorize funding.
Details from the messages and the House—s actions: - Governor Tate Reeves— message on House Bill 1830 removed a $14,025,000 appropriation to the secretary of state from the secretary of state land improvement fund. Reeves wrote that removal of this "separate, distinct, and complete appropriation does not affect any other appropriations in house bill 1830." (Message read into record.) - In the message on House Bill 1707 Reeves identified multiple appropriations he vetoed, citing prior line-item vetoes from the 2023 session and saying some appropriations in HB1707 would reintroduce previously vetoed items. Items named in the read message included: - $1,000,000 to the city of Jackson for renovations and upgrades to the Jackson Planetarium (listed more than once in the read text); - $500,000 to the city of Greenville for repairs and renovations to Frisbie Park, Greenville Municipal (Malled) Bridal Park, and Rounds Park; - $500,000 to the Mississippi Development Authority to provide funding to WISPR Systems in Batesville for research and development related to unmanned aircraft systems manufacturing in Mississippi; - $300,000 to the Department of Finance and Administration for costs associated with a program established under a 2023 appropriations provision (the transcript identifies the reference to a 2023 bill in a garbled fashion; the bill number was not specified in the read record); - $600,000 to Greene County for rehabilitation and repair of the Greene County Bridal Events Center. The governor—s messages were submitted to the House with the signature line "Respectfully submitted, Tate Reeves, governor." The read messages repeatedly cited Article 4, Section 73 of the Mississippi Constitution in explaining line-item veto authority.
House motions and committee actions: - Representative Reed (gentleman from Jackson) moved to remit House Bill 830 and House Bill 707 back to the committee where the appropriations originated. The motion was approved on a voice vote; the transcript records "the ayes have it." (Motion recorded and approved.) - Representative Owen (gentleman from Pearl River) moved to refer House Bill 4053, House Bill 4099, House Bill 4104, and House Bill 4124 back to the Judiciary Committee. That motion was approved on voice vote; the transcript records "the ayes have it." (Motion recorded and approved.) - The House also dispensed with the reading of the journal on a motion by Representative Powell; that motion passed on voice vote. - The House appointed committees to notify the governor and the Senate that the House is organized and ready to proceed; Speaker White announced the committee rosters.
No override votes or detailed recorded tallies were taken on the governor—s vetoes during the read session. The motions to refer bills back to committee were decided by voice vote; specific roll-call tallies were not provided in the public record excerpt.
What the record does not specify: the transcript reading contained a garbled reference to a 2023 bill in one vetoed appropriation description (rendered in the transcript as "house bill 4192,023 regular session"). The exact bill number for that item was not specified in the read record. The transcript also lists several individual bills the governor "has vetoed" (House Bill 4099, House Bill 4104, House Bill 4124 among them) without further textual detail about the substance of those bills in the portion of the session that was read into the record.
The House adjourned until 2 p.m. the following day after completing the organizational and committee business.
Ending note: The written veto messages were entered into the record and will guide how the affected appropriations proceed; lawmakers who wish to restore vetoed line items must pursue overrides or reauthorization in subsequent action.
