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NATCHEZ — Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, R-Vicksburg, outlined his priorities for the upcoming legislative session on Monday.

The 2025 Legislative Session convenes at noon on Tuesday.

Hosemann oversees the Mississippi Senate. His priorities for this year include reducing the state’s individual income tax rate, reducing the state tax on groceries and working to pay off the state’s general obligation bonds.

“That’s never been done in the history of Mississippi — reducing taxes and paying off debt,” Hosemann said. “And, in the middle of that, while we are doing all that, we also have been paying our teachers.”

He said it will be proposed to reduce the individual tax rate to 3.75 percent by 2028. “Then, it will be proposed to reduce it further to the point that by 2030, we will be at a 3 percent individual tax rate. That is a structured, conservative, business-like way to reduce taxes on Mississippians.”

In terms of immediate challenges, Hosemann said the state faces a potentially devastating issue of chronic absenteeism in Mississippi schools that threatens the state’s future, as well as a shortfall in the funding of the Public Employee Retirement System of $25 billion that could cripple the state and cause taxpayers to make up the difference.

Chronic absenteeism

“We have a significant issue in education in Mississippi and that issue is chronic absenteeism,” Hosemann said. “I started watching this about a year ago and asked, ‘Where did our kids go? Where are our children?’ … I’ve been everywhere in this state, from West Tallahatchie to Vancleave on the coast to Brookhaven to Murrah High School here in Jackson and to Hattiesburg. And I go to these schools — public schools and private schools and charter schools and Christian schools and as I went about, I heard the same thing.

“I have conversations and I get the same comments back from the principals, like in Tupelo…They are a great public school system. They have been for years. The chronic absentee rate, which is defined as you miss more than 10 percent of school days, is running 23 percent,” Hosemann said. “That’s one in every four of our kids are not in school. Without their seat being in a seat means their future is limited. Their chances for incarceration are much higher. Our labor force participation rate in our state doesn’t increase any. Really, nothing good can come of it. There are several things we will be doing to address this.”

He said school officials have told him there are no repercussions for students or parents of students when they don’t attend school.

“We are going to move school attendance officers, sometimes called truancy officers, to the individual school districts, out from under the department of education, though the state will continue to pay for them,” Hosemann said.

It will be proposed that compensation for school attendance officers, currently at $24,000 per year, will be increased to $36,000, Hoseman said.

School attendance officers will trigger consequences, including an immediate home visit to determine why the student misses school.

“Do they have a drug problem? Is there a physical abuse problem, or illness? We need to provide whatever other services that can be provided to find out why this child is not getting an education,” Hosemann said. “We are looking at the youth court judge system and perhaps a different chancery judge to look at child care issues, which will include everything from separation from the family for a period of time to adoption. Chancery judges can do adoptions. We will also haul these dads and moms or whoever into court to follow the state law. We need to get our kids back in school.

In addition to chronic absenteeism, Mississippi’s school children read well below the national average.

“We are asking the board of education to address both absenteeism and reading as part of the accountability model,” Hosemann said.

That includes allowing any student in Mississippi to attend any other school district, if that district has the capacity to receive them.

For students who are attending one of the state’s three F-rated districts, should they choose to attend another school district, that district must take them, and the state will cover any additional costs that district would incur from the student, in addition to what the state typically pays per student.

PERS

Hosemann said he would like to see the state legislature tackle once and for all the state’s shortfall in its Public Employees Retirement System, known as PERS.

The state’s PERS is underfunded by approximately $25 billion and has less than 60 percent of the amount needed to pay retirement benefits to current retirees and others who are still working but have paid into the plan and are counting on it to fund their retirement.

The plan calls for every new public employee to enter a new retirement system that would include a 4 percent contributed defined benefit plan and a 5 percent 401K, into which they would be fully vested in year one.

“Over 25 years, these employees will have over $300,000 in cash, a defined benefit plan that will give them 60 percent of what they are making,” he said. In addition, they would receive Social Security benefits.

“The cost of that is 9 percent of their salary. The other 10.5 percent will go to pay the obligations to all the existing retirees and employees,” Hosemann said.

“Calculations show we will be out of this in about 20 years and would be back to 80 to 90 percent funded in about 20 years,” he said.

Hosemann said Gov. Haley Barbour tried to correct the PERS when its shortfall was $14 billion in 2008, but was not successful.

“This may be our only opportunity for an exit plan,” he said.