By Frank Corder, Magnolia Tribune
L to R: Speaker Jason White and Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (Photos by Jeremy Pittari | Magnolia Tribune)
Lawmakers are set to return to the Capitol January 6th to convene the 2026 session of the Mississippi Legislature.
Both Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R) and Speaker Jason White (R) have been working with members in the state Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, to craft legislation that aligns with their agendas.
PERS
Addressing the financial stability of the Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS, is high on both of their priority lists. Hosemann hopes to expedite the solvency of PERS by infusing additional funds towards the unfunded actuarial liability that is pushing $26 billion.
“Monumental steps have been taken towards the Public Employees’ Retirement Plan’s solvency, but we have to expedite its funding to best honor our moral and legal obligation to our current employees’ and retirees’ by adding additional funding, in addition to increasing the employer contributing rate to 19.9% that generates $184 million towards the liability,” Hosemann told Magnolia Tribune.
White said his chamber has proposed an annual dedicated stream of revenue for PERS for the last two years, and in the upcoming 2026 Legislative Session, members “will continue to push policies that stabilize and secure our commitment to current and future state retirees.”
“Through the Select Committee on PERS led by Co-Chairmen Hank Zuber and Randy Rushing, the House will address this issue with a significant one-time cash infusion coupled with a dedicated stream of revenue,” White told Magnolia Tribune.
White also expressed the need to readdress the new Tier 5 lawmakers passed during the 2025 session.
“We have also heard the concerns of the new Tier 5 and we plan to make adjustments to that Tier that better reflect the needs for new hires and recruitment,” the Speaker said.
The new PERS Tier 5, as passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Tate Reeves, will go into effect March 2026 for all new state employees and will be a hybrid retirement plan. New hires will contribute 9 percent of their earned compensation into the PERS system, with 4 percent of their retirement savings placed in a defined benefit plan and 5 percent going to a defined contribution plan. Retirement eligibility moves to 35 years of service or age 62 and vested. No guaranteed cost-of-living adjustment, or what has become known as the “13th check,” is baked into Tier 5.
The additional tier will not impact those currently in PERS.
Since the passage of the new tier, there has been a growing discontent among the first responder community across Mississippi, so much so that their various sheriff, police and fire associations have proposed their own retirement plan. The groups say first responders are not asking for a different retirement plan because they think they are better than other state employees, but “they’re asking because the job is different.”
Education
Speaker White has made education freedom his No. 1 agenda item for the 2026 session.
“The House is ready to turn our full attention to what we believe to be the most important next step in the continuation of the Mississippi Miracle, and the engine that will drive Mississippi’s momentum,” White said.
He said that “next big step” is education freedom for Mississippi’s families.
“Our priority this Legislative Session is to finally uplift and promote parent power when it comes to our children and the education parents choose for their kids,” White said.
How that looks remains to be seen, as proposals have ranged from loosening public to public school transfers to allowing universal school choice where parents could take state dollars to the school of their choice, including a private school. The latter has drawn significant backlash from public school lobbyists, claiming such a move would be unconstitutional.
The Lt. Governor has not been as openly zealous about education freedom as the Speaker. However, Hosemann has repeatedly noted his support for easing restrictions on public to public school transfers. He has voiced support for removing the veto power of a district to prevent a child from transferring if they have been accepted into another public school district. Senators, however, killed that bill as sent over from the House during the 2025 session.
Hosemann also wants to address chronic absenteeism in schools and appropriate dollars for another round of teacher pay raises that would include all K-12 teachers and teacher assistants, Community College Instructors, and University Instructors and professors.
“We are currently 16th in the country—we want to be first,” Hosemann said of the pay scale. “Teachers educate the next generation of leaders, first responders, health care workers, skilled workers, and future educators. Their work is essential to our state’s long-term success and vitality. The 2022 pay raise was historic, but it is time for another increase.”
As for addressing absenteeism, Hosemann is proposing increasing School Attendance Officer salaries, funding additional officers to achieve a ratio of 1 per 2,500 students, and lowering the education requirement to an associate degree.
The Lt. Governor also would like lawmakers to explore ways to allow non-traditional students and adults to return to their local community college tuition-free to earn a certificate, license, or degree in a high-demand field. This would go hand-in-hand with the effort to skill up the state’s workforce for next generation jobs as more economic development projects break ground in Mississippi.
Healthcare
Speaker White wants lawmakers to again work to roll back certificate of need, or CON, laws in hopes of driving more access and competition across the state’s health care landscape.
“The Legislature came extremely close to seeing significant CON reform become law last year,” White said. “Ultimately, this bill was vetoed by the Governor due to a Senate amendment that would have adjusted the regulatory environment of CONs to not be equally applied across the state.”
The bill would have made a number of changes to CON regulations in the state. One of the most important to State Rep. Sam Creekmore (R), a co-author of the measure, was the increase to spending caps in three categories: major medical equipment, clinical health services, and non-clinical health services. The bill also would have required the Mississippi Department of Health to perform a study to determine other necessary changes to CON laws, the results of which would have been due by December 1 of this year for consideration by lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session.
Governor Reeves said on the occasion of his veto that due to “an 11th-hour floor amendment” added in the state Senate, “my duty to faithfully adhere to the MS Constitution and the US Constitution requires me to veto this bill in its current form.”
“I have been a champion for increased competition and more health care delivery options in our state by knocking down barriers to entry,” Reeves said on social media when announcing his veto in April, adding that he commended the Legislature, and specifically Speaker White, for proposing and ultimately passing “much needed and long overdue revisions to the certificate of need laws in House Bill 569.”
White said the House will introduce this legislation again with the removal of the elements that led to the Governor’s veto reasoning.
“This legislation will greatly support Mississippi’s rural hospitals by increasing the ceiling for capital expenditures allowing hospitals to make improvements faster than the current law allows,” White said.
Government Structure
Lt. Governor Hosemann will push to eliminate, merge, and streamline state agencies in the 2026 session. His goal is to reduce costs, cut red tape, reduce regulations, shrink government, and improve accessibility and efficiency for the public.
“Over the last few years, we have made major changes to run state government like a business by paying down debt, investing in infrastructure and education like never before, strengthening the retirement system, and more,” Hosemann said.
He adds that now is the time to take a comprehensive look at Mississippi’s “org chart” to merge and streamline services, modernize, cut red tape, and reduce the size of government in order to improve accessibility and efficiency for our citizens.
“Wherever we can provide better services at a lower cost, we should do so,” Hosemann added.