Briggs Hopson, State Senate appropriations chair, shared his thoughts on state appropriations at Hal & Mal's in downtown Jackson.
The program was part of the Stennis Institute's Capitol Press Forum. About 40 people attended. Hopson gave a 30 minute talked and then took questions from the press.
Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, was first elected in 2007 and has been appropriations chair since 2020. He was formerly the judiciary and energy chairman and has always been an influential member of the state Senate.
Hopson has been on the appropriations committee since his first arrival in the Senate and succeeded Buck Clark from Greenville. As appropriations chair, he's one of the most powerful leaders of the Senate, controlling billions of dollars in state funds
Hopson made several observations:
-- The state's "about $140 million ahead" of budget but $40 million of that is interest income on federal Covid dollars that won't last. "I don't want to base a budget on interest income."
-- He discussed the bottom falling out in the early days of Covid, only to be followed with a huge infusion of federal dollars.
-- He said the PERS funding shortfall is a major state issue but agreed that small changes in the PERS forecast can have a massive effect on the amount of the long range shortfall.
-- He acknowledged the prison crisis but said significant progress is being made.
-- The lowering of the state income tax rate has reduced state collections but it is partially offset by an increase in sales tax revenue. Even so, the drop in income tax revenue is worse than projected and corporate tax income is down as well.
-- Driver's license bureaus have made great progress in efficiently processing renewals.
-- MDOT and local governments are very pleased with the amount of state money going to infrastructure right now.
-- He defended the recent subsidies for Amazon and a car battery plant saying other states are paying even more to attract businesses.
Click on the video and listen to the whole speech for greater detail.
