Miss. Code Ann. § 25-4-3 (2026)

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:

• (a) "Advisory boards or commissions" means committees created solely to provide technical or professional knowledge or expertise to a parent organization, and whose members exercise no direct authority to expend public funds other than reimbursement for personal expenses incurred as a result of a member's service on the advisory board;

• (b) "Business" means any corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, firm, enterprise, franchise, association, organization, holding company, self-employed individual, joint-stock company, receivership, trust or other legal entity or undertaking organized for economic gain or a nonprofit corporation or other such entity, association or organization receiving public funds;

• (c) "Candidate for public office" means an individual who has filed the necessary documents or papers to appear as a candidate for nomination for election or election to any elective office existing under the laws of the State of Mississippi, including primary, special or general elections. The term "candidate" does not include any person within the meaning of Section 301(b) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971;

• (d) "Commission" means the Mississippi Ethics Commission;

• (e) "Compensation" means money or thing of value received, or to be received, from any person for services rendered or to be rendered;

• (f) "Household member" means:
  • (i) The spouse of the public servant; or
  • (ii) Any person over the age of twenty-one (21) who resided in the public servant's household during the entire reporting period.

• (g) "Income" means money or thing of value received, or to be received, from any source, including, but not limited to, any salary, wage, advance, payment, dividend, interest, rent, forgiveness of debt, fee, royalty or any combination thereof;

• (h) "Person" means any individual, firm, business, corporation, association, partnership, union or other legal entity;

• (i) "Public employee" means any individual who receives a salary, per diem or expenses paid in whole or in part out of funds authorized to be expended by the Mississippi State Legislature or by the governing body of any political subdivision thereof, or any other body politic within the State of Mississippi;

• (j) "Public funds" means all monies, whether federal, state, district or local;

• (k) "Public official" means:
  • (i) Any elected official of the State of Mississippi or any political subdivision thereof or any other body politic within the State of Mississippi; or
  • (ii) Any member, officer, director, commissioner, supervisor, chief, head, agent or employee of the State of Mississippi, or any agency thereof, of any political subdivision of the State of Mississippi, of any body politic within the State of Mississippi, or of any public entity created by or under the laws of the State of Mississippi or by executive order of the Governor of the state, any of which is funded by public funds or which expends, authorizes or recommends the use of public funds;

• (l) "Public servant" means:
  • (i) Any elected or appointed official of the government;
  • (ii) Any officer, director, commissioner, supervisor, chief, head, agent or employee of the government or any agency thereof, or of any public entity created by or under the laws of the State of Mississippi or created by an agency or governmental entity thereof, any of which is funded by public funds or which expends, authorizes or recommends the use of public funds; or
  • (iii) Any individual who receives a salary, per diem or expenses paid in whole or in part out of funds authorized to be expended by the government.

Laws, 1979, ch. 508, § 2; reenacted and amended, Laws, 1982, ch. 488, § 2; reenacted, Laws, 1986, ch. 348, § 2; reenacted, Laws, 1990, ch. 491, § 2; Laws, 1995, ch. 360, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 1998, ch. 350, § 2; Laws, 2008, ch. 562, § 1, eff. 8/5/2008 (the date the United States Attorney General interposed no objection under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965).