Summary — HB 537 (Juneteenth as a legal holiday — Mississippi)
Purpose
- HB 537 would designate Juneteenth (June 19) as a legal holiday in the State of Mississippi. The bill’s intent is to formally recognize Juneteenth in state law as a state holiday.
Key provisions (as stated / implicit)
- Official designation of Juneteenth (June 19) as a legal holiday in Mississippi.
- The bill text provided in the materials does not include detailed operational language (for example, whether state offices would close, whether state employees would receive paid time off, or how the holiday would interact with existing holiday statutes). Those implementation details typically appear in the full bill text or related statutory cross‑references but were not included in the documents supplied.
Sponsor and fiscal notes
- A fiscal-note document included with the materials lists Representative Ontario Tillman as sponsor and was prepared by analyst Peter Grogan. Two fiscal notes (dated 04/21/2025 and 05/01/2025) state that HB 537 “would not directly affect state or local funding.”
Who would be affected
- State government entities (courts, agencies) and state employees would be the primary actors affected if the designation carries operational consequences (e.g., office closures or paid leave), but the supplied materials do not specify those details.
- Local governments and private employers would only be directly affected to the extent state statute requires or encourages particular observances; fiscal notes indicate no direct funding impact to state or local budgets.
Procedural status and timeline
- The top metadata for this bill shows: Introduced November 24, 2025; Status: Died In Committee.
- The materials supplied also include two fiscal notes dated April–May 2025 stating no fiscal impact. Note: those dates precede the stated 11/24/2025 introduction date, which suggests the packet contains mixed or inconsistent records.
Important note about the provided materials
- The document package contains multiple unrelated “HB 537” texts and committee reports from different jurisdictions and subjects (examples include opioid‑abatement trust fund language, helmet laws, local tax ceilings, and an Illinois short‑term borrowing amendment). These are not part of the Mississippi Juneteenth measure and appear to be different bills that share the same bill number in other states or sessions. This summary focuses only on the Juneteenth‑designation bill for Mississippi based on the information explicitly identified as such.
Current consequence
- Because HB 537 (Mississippi Juneteenth) is recorded as “Died In Committee,” it did not become law in the reported session; no holiday designation was enacted from this bill.
