After a two-day special session in Jackson, lawmakers in the House and Senate on Thursday sent a proposed $7.135 budget request to the governor for his signature.

Health insurance increases and other benefits such as state retirement contributions are responsible for the slight increase from Fiscal Year 2025’s budget of $7.035 billion, lawmakers said.

The House finalized their part just after midnight Thursday, while the Senate finished Thursday afternoon.

Members voted for 100-plus spending bills, which fund core government functions.

“This balanced budget is very lean. Only basic necessities were passed into law,” said Sen. Jason Barrett (R), an attorney from Brookhaven serving in his second term. “No special projects were funded. As such, the budget is fiscally conservative.”

Rep. Becky Currie (R) said the House was able to stop another Senate leadership stab at funding for the One Lake Project, which she believes would be detrimental to District 92 (Copiah, Lawrence and Lincoln counties.)

The proposed One Lake Project would create a new recreational lake in the Jackson Metro area. The project has been estimated to cost approximately $2.1 billion, and reduce flooding damage by $8.6 million annually. Creation of the One Lake would dam or divert the Pearl River, however, with opponents saying it would cause tremendous damage further down the current path of the river, including Copiah and Lawrence counties, all the way to the Coast.

“We were able to make sure that didn’t happen,” she said.

Currie, a nurse from Brookhaven who is in her fifth term in the House of Representatives, agrees with Barrett that it’s a good, conservative budget.

“It is the kind of bill that conservatives should be passing all the time, so I am very happy about that,” she said.

The budget includes more than $3 million for the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Mississippi to conduct forensic interviews. Additionally, the office is authorized to retain up to $50,000 for administrative costs. 

“We are beyond grateful for the continued support by our state as we continue to fight against child abuse and help victims become children again,” said Nic Ricceri of Brookhaven, executive director of Southwest Mississippi Children’s Advocacy Center.

The Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Corrections both received multi-million-dollar increases in revenue, according to The Magnolia Tribune.

The AG’s Office received more than $6.4 million in funding over the Legislative Budget Recommendation of nearly $40 million. The funding increase will offset costs associated with helping victims of abuse. 

MDOC will see a bump in funding of tens of millions of dollars in FY 2026.

Its Legislative Budget Recommendation was set at $418 million, but after the markup process, the department budget came in at just short of $469 million, according to The Magnolia Tribune.

The increase comes from a new medical contract, which costs $12 million more than the prior agreement. In addition, medical records are now digitally stored on a management system, having been stored on paper previously, lawmakers said.

MDOC also saw increases in the per diem to regional jails, costing $4.4 million, as well as an increase in a food contract that jumped by $50 million. Additionally, the department is spending $690,000 on new monitoring software.

All of the legislation is now headed to the governor’s desk for his signature ahead of the start of the new fiscal year which begins July 1. 

Gov. Tate Reeves will likely approve the budget.

“It keeps us in the best financial shape in state history,” he said on social media. “It prepares us for more tax relief for our people by eliminating the income tax. And it ensures we maintain our momentum with investments in workforce development, economic development, and permitting.”