The Legislature didn’t have an election Tuesday, but the body will enter uncharted territory when it meets next year, state Sen. Briggs Hopson III said Wednesday.

The issue — made sharper with President Barack Obama’s re-election — is whether to expand Medicaid to comply with the Affordable Care Act, Hopson told the Vicksburg Lions Club Wednesday, a day after the election.

Medicaid must be expanded to 400,000 more people in Mississippi under terms of the sweeping health care law passed in 2010, which says states should expand the program to those with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, the state extends benefits to those making up to 100 percent of the level.

Critics of the plan, particularly Republicans and including Gov. Phil Bryant in the months before Tuesday’s election, have said the state should not grow the program because of its effects on the state budget overall. The Supreme Court upheld the law in June. Obama’s re-election means more questions than answers for legislators with concerns about the law and how the state will accept its position, Hopson said.

“We don’t know the answers to a lot of those things,” Hopson said. “There’s been a lot of political spin on it, depending on what side you’re on. We hadn’t had hearings on it because everybody’s waiting to see what was going to happen in the election. Well, now everybody knows who the president is going to be and what Congress is going to be like.”

Legislators must renew the state’s Medicaid funding next year, an item that promises to be “a bear” of an issue. Overall, the health care law’s complexities don’t make for a cut-and-dried decision, Hopson said.

“It’s more complicated than a one- or two-word sentence ‘It’s bad’ or ‘It’s good.’ I do have major concerns about long-term funding,” he said.

Effects on the budget could force harder looks at road maintenance and law enforcement agencies, Hopson said.

“Out of the $5 billion in general funds we control in the state, education takes up about $2.2 billion. It’s a lot of money. If you put enough money into education or Medicaid to make a difference, you need another $20 million or $40 million. Well, where are you going to find another $40 million? You don’t want to eliminate highway patrol or roads and bridges. So, there are a lot of issues that are going to be tough to budget.”

Besides Medicaid, online sales taxes, not currently levied in Mississippi, could come up for a vote next year, Hopson said in response to a question on the subject. A key detail will be how such a tax could work and whether it should apply to all purchases inside the state or from people outside the state who want to buy an item from a Mississippi-based business.