HB 1199 Mississippi House · 2025 Regular Session

Secretary of State; authorize use of Land Records Maintenance Fund to contract with vendors for maintenance of blighted properties.

HB 1199 authorizes Mississippi's Secretary of State to use the existing Land Records Maintenance Fund to contract with vendors for routine upkeep of unredeemed tax-sale lands (blighted properties) that remain unsold. This directly affects counties and municipalities responsible for maintaining these properties, allowing them to cover costs like mowing, debris removal, and minor repairs through competitive vendor contracts. The bill also prevents unspent funds in this dedicated account from lapsing into the General Fund at year-end. While the bill passed the House in January 2025, it died in the Senate Committee on Public Property and Appropriations on March 4, 2025, and did not become law.

Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

House Passage

Jan 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 31, 2025 Last action Mar 4, 2025

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What changed between versions

As Introduced → Current version · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill authorizes the Secretary of State to use Land Records Maintenance Fund money to hire vendors for maintaining state-owned tax lands, prevents fund balances from automatically transferring to the General Fund at year-end, and clarifies how uncollected taxes on state-owned lands are distributed. The changes expand the Secretary of State's ability to contract for land maintenance services and protect maintenance funds from being depleted by automatic fiscal year transfers.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include lands that have been certified to the state in addition to unredeemed lands, and new provisions were added regarding tax apportionment when funds are insufficient to cover all owed taxes.

FISCAL

Authorized the Secretary of State to contract with vendors using competitive bidding to maintain state-owned tax lands, expanding maintenance capabilities beyond direct county/municipality reimbursement.

Changed the disposition of unspent Land Records Maintenance Fund balances at year-end from automatic transfer to the General Fund to remaining in the fund for continued maintenance purposes.

REQUIREMENT

Added provisions requiring the Secretary of State to apportion insufficient sale proceeds among state, county, municipality, and other entities based on tax amounts owed at the time of land strike-off.

DEFINITION

Defined 'maintain' to include cutting grass/trees, repairing structures, and cleaning debris to clarify authorized maintenance activities.

TECHNICAL

Added new sections to Section 29-1-95 regarding tax apportionment and Section 27-104-205 regarding agency funding, with some formatting and character encoding changes.

Floor votes · House Jan 30, 2025