JACKSON, MS -- On Feb. 2, the Mississippi House voted to “even the playing field” between the small cigarette manufacturers and the large tobacco companies, writes the Daily Journal. By a vote of 88 to 24, the state House voted to increase the excise tax on small cigarette companies by 43-cents-per-pack.
Citing the tobacco lawsuit, the newspaper writes that many of the state’s smaller cigarette companies did not exists before the lawsuit took place. Therefore, said state House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Percy Watson (D-Hattiesburg), the small companies “don't have the expense of the settlement costs and therefore have an unfair advantage over the large cigarette manufacturers.”
The tax increase would generate $15 million annually and used to support state-owned nursing homes for veterans and establish a cancer research center.
Legislators who opposed the measure said it was unfair to link the tax with state nursing homes.
”This is an effort to put those in a box who might think differently” and be opposed to the tax, Rep. Gale Gregory (R-Louisville) told the news paper, arguing that the nursing homes should receive adequate funding from the state’s general fund.
The bill passed by a two-thirds majority, which means the legislature can override a veto by the governor. Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has already vetoed the legislature’s attempt to raise the state’s current cigarette excise tax of 18-cents-per-pack to 75-cents-per-pack. |
