3/28/25 Legislative Update and Bill Tracking Spreadsheet

Legislators will finalize the state’s FY 26 budget in the coming days, as this is conference weekend. Conference reports on appropriation and revenue bills must be filed by Saturday night and those conference reports must be adopted by Monday. Conference reports on general bills must be filed by Monday night and must be considered for the first time by next Wednesday.

Click here for our latest bill tracking spreadsheet which reflects action as of 10:00 a.m. this morning. It has been an unusual year in that most education general bills have died, but the following are among those we are still monitoring:

• The conference report for HB 309 was filed yesterday and clarifies “active duty” for purposes of school enrollment and transfers. The conference report requires a service member to be under an order to active duty or full-time National Guard duty for 180 consecutive days or more and for the service member to provide a district with a Statement of Service.
• HB 1555 creates a task force to make recommendations on how to align the curriculum at secondary and post-secondary levels throughout the state. House Conferees – Bell (21^st), Lott, Haney; Senate Conferees – Body, Sparks, DeLano.
• As passed the House, HB 1630 made technical amendments to the Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF) and changed the definition of enrollment to include K-12 students but not pre-K students. Among other provisions, the Senate amendment retains the current MSFF enrollment definition, tweaks current law allowing retired teachers to return to the classroom while drawing retirement and requires districts to develop a cell phone policy. The House invited conference on the bill yesterday morning, but conferees were not named as of yesterday afternoon.

Governor Reeves signed HB 1 yesterday. The legislation implements a multi-year plan to eliminate the state income tax and creates a new Tier 5 for employees who become members of PERS on or after March 1, 2026, but does not include recurring funding for PERS. A decimal error in the bill, which has been acknowledged by the legislative leadership and the governor, will phase out the income tax at a much faster rate than the Senate intended and may very well have harmful consequences for our state’s economy.

The decimal error could be corrected via SB 3095 which is in conference or via action in a future legislative session. Senators Harkins, Johnson and Sparks have been named conferees on SB 3095, but House conferees were not named as of yesterday afternoon. The new Tier 5 slashes retirement benefits for new hires and will pose an extreme challenge in the recruitment and retention of educators. MPE urges legislators to provide dedicated funding to PERS