Let’s Put It Off For Another Year
In light of a compromise on a cigarette tax increase that has been years in the making, Sid Salter and Natalie Chandler both point toward a hospital tax as the next legislative hurdle.
According to Salter, Barbour wants the hospital assessment to be set at $90 million annually, the House is looking at $45 million, and the Senate is somewhere in the middle.
However, it looks like negotiators have left the Capitol without an agreement, a move that seems fine to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Johnny Stringer (D-Montrose). Stringer argues that because of federal stimulus money, the hospital tax isn’t warranted. His direct quote: “We’ve got plenty of money for Medicaid this year.”
Of course this thinking is the reason Mississippi lawmakers get in a panic about Medicaid at around the same time every year. Are Stringer and others going to rely on a bailout every year?
