Cigarette tax fight not totally snuffed out for 2008
A billboard with the image of smiling children on one side and a pack of Marlboro Cigarettes on the other asks the question: "Whose side are you on: ...
Lawmakers who travel High Street to reach the Mississippi Capitol get a daily reminder about an issue that hasn't gone away despite the efforts of Gov. Haley Barbour. A billboard with the image of smiling children on one side and a pack of Marlboro Cigarettes on the other asks the question: "Whose side are you on: Big Tobacco or Mississippi's children?" The stark, black-and-white backdrop of the billboard is an apt depiction of a tax swap proposal that gained momentum in 2006 before fizzling under Barbour's veto. The bill would have raised the 18-cents-a-pack excise tax on Cigarettes and cut the state's 7 percent grocery tax. An attempt to pass a similar bill last year was killed by one of Barbour's allies who chaired a Senate committee. Many lawmakers say the reason they'll continue to push for passage is simple: Mississippi has one of the highest grocery tax rates in the nation, and one of the lowest excise taxes on Cigarettes. "Primarily, I think we're going to be looking at some kind of way to increase it and earmark it for Medicaid or the state's trauma system," said House Ways and Means Chairman Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg. "We have a statutory constitutional duty to do what we feel is in the best interest of the state," said Watson, referring to the need to generate revenue at time when some state agencies are facing multimillion dollar deficits. There are at least five tobacco tax bills referred to Watson's committee. Sixteen states allocate some cigarette tax revenues to health programs, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Tobacco taxes have been raised in 12 states over the last year, the campaign said. Barbour, a Republican, just started his second term as governor. He is a former Washington lobbyist whose clients included some tobacco companies. He says repeatedly that he is opposed to raising taxes. The governor has proposed other ways to plug budget holes, including streamlining government agencies and imposing what he calls an assessment on hospitals; critics say the assessment is simply a tax. Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, a fellow Republican, presides over the Senate where a roadblock is waiting for any tobacco tax bills. The Coalition of Communities for a Clean Bill of Health, the group that sponsored the billboard, has conducted research that shows a $1 tax on a pack of Cigarettes would generate $150 million annually. The group gave lawmakers copies of the survey last week. The coalition has gained an ally in the Mississippi Hospital Association, which is More vocal in its support of a cigarette tax this year. MHA sees a tobacco tax a a better option than taxing the state's public and private hospitals.