Video: Senate Passes Sales Tax Bill

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Columbus, Miss. (WCBI) — The Mississippi Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would increase sales tax diversions cities would receive from eighteen and a half percent to twenty percent over the next two years.

Senate Bill 2146 was approved in a vote of 45-4, and now the bill will head to the House Ways and Means Committee, where it must be voted out by March 22nd.

The Mississippi Municipal League, which works to bring business to the 294 cities and towns it represents, is campaigning for the bill to be enacted.

The bill states that all the sales tax diversion money received by cities must be used for water, sewage, and street infrastructure.

M.M.L. President and Mayor of Kosciusko Jimmy Cockroft said, “Just for the city of Kosciusko, it’s roughly 160-170 thousand dollars a year. When you talk about paving street or anything, that’s big for us.”

“It keeps us from going in the hole…”, said Cockroft, “…we have many streets that need to be paved, many water lines and sewer lines that need to be repaired and this will be a tremendous help to us.”

If the bill passes, it would be the first action the state has taken regarding sale tax diversion since it decreased the percent received in the 1990’s.

Executive director Sheri Veazey said the bill would be a win for citizens because “their city will have more revenue to address potholes, bridges, and water and sewage issues…”

Veazey also stressed how important the bill is for economic development, and that by improving infrastructure, the better chance cities have of bringing in business.