House leaders want to raise Mississippi sales tax. Here's how neighboring states stack up.

[TexasTowelie]

The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a sweeping proposal Tuesday that would completely phase out the personal income tax over 10 years and immediately, starting on July 1, put in place the largest statewide sales tax in the nation at 9.5% on most retail items, excluding groceries.

Mississippi already has the second highest statewide sales tax at 7%, trailing only California at 7.25%, according to the Tax Foundation. But most states, including California, either have a lower sales tax on groceries or completely exempt the tax on groceries. In Mississippi, the current full 7% tax applies to groceries.

The bill, beginning July 1, would lower the rate on food to 4.5% and over a five-year period reduce it to 3.5%.

And, importantly, Mississippi in most cases prevents local governments from imposing an additional sales tax. Jackson has a 1% tax and Tupelo has a .25% tax, but other local governments have no authority to levy a sales tax with the exception of a so-called tourism tax on restaurants and hotels.

Read more: https://mississippitoday.org/2021/02/24/house-leaders-want-to-raise-mississippi-sales-tax-heres-how-neighboring-states-stack-up/

[RussellCattle]

1. A few years ago a Republican governor of Mississippi wanted to drag his state into modernity.....

.....by changing their system of taxation into something more progressive. It's current state was wildly regressive, harking back to an age where the turpentine industry (!) wanted to avoid paying any corporate taxes. Corporations fought this effort tooth and nail and were successful in defeating it. The real scandal was that they had gone to the black churches in Mississippi and made "donations" to the preachers in the hope that they would lecture against passage of the referendum, which they did. Consider this for a moment. A Republican governor is sick and tired of his state being 50th in everything and is thwarted by black preachers when he tries to do something about it.