Mississippi House speaker Philip Gunn told a group of 50 state leaders and media that the 2022 state legislative session was a great success.
Speaking at the Press Forum of the Stennis Institute of Government at the Capital Club in downtown Jackson, Gunn said, "I have a list here of about a dozen items that your legislature accomplished this year any which in and of themselves would have been a tremendous accomplishment."
Gunn's legislative accomplishment list included tax cuts. "It's the largest tax cut in the history of our state," Gunn said. "In full implementation it will be about a one-third cut in our state income tax which is about $600 million dollars of money going back to the taxpayers.
Teacher pay raise was another big accomplishment, Gunn said, stating that teacher pay is now above the national average. "Every teacher will get from $4,000 to $6,000 in income." He called it the biggest teacher pay raise in the history of the state.
Gunn said the distribution of ARPA funds (American Rescue Plan Act) was a major accomplishment. "We had about $1.8 billion to distribute and we passed out about $1.5 leaving $300 million to be distributed in the future." This includes a city and county water and sewer grant program.
Gunn also mentioned a new office of broadband to speed up the development of high speed broadband throughout the state.
You can listen to the video for the full speech.
