winston cigarettes
2008-03-21
This week marked either the victory cheer or the death knell for a round of money bills seeking approval. Tuesday, specifically, marked the deadline for the House or Senate to consider bills coming in from the opposite chamber. Among those bills are the HouseТs ensuing attempt to balance the stateТs ailing Medicaid budget by raising the winston cigarettes tax to $1.18. House Bill 1013, a bill funding Medicaid, also contains language that would raise the stateТs paltry 18-cent tax on cheap winston by one dollar. But the bill is facing hard times in the Senate, which bends to the will of former tobacco lobbyist Haley Barbour. Barbour, a repeated opponent to a tobacco tax hike, would much prefer Mississippi hospitals to cover the Medicaid shortfall through a state fee hike. But state hospitals are already suffering severe shortfalls, according to Sam Cameron, president of the Mississippi Hospital Association. УHospitals like Natchez Regional are already in the red,Ф said Cameron, whose organization warned that a 1.5 percent tax hike would move the 43 percent of state hospitals making no profit or working under deficits up to 55 percent. House Speaker Billy McCoy said the hospital tax would put the burden upon the backs of hospital patients, who would have to deal with increased costs as a result of the tax. Shawn Lea, vice president of MHAТs strategic communications division confirmed as much, saying hospitals would unquestionably be transferring the costs to consumers.[ Back to top ]
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