Tobacco-Tax Hike Clears House, Will Fund Trauma Network, Other Health Programs
Friday, Feb 6, 2009
LITTLE ROCK – Needing 75 votes for success, sponsors of a wide-ranging healthcare package got exactly that number in the House of Representatives to raise tobacco taxes to pay for the programs.
House Bill 1204, by Rep. Gregg Reep of Warren, would raise the state tax on cigarettes by 56 cents a pack, (currently, 59 cents), and the wholesale tax on smokeless tobacco from 32 percent to 68 percent. Together, the increases would raise about $87 million a year. Approved on a 75-24 vote, the bill now goes to the Senate, where it again will need a 75 percent majority (27 of 35 votes) for passage once it comes out of committee.
The money will be used for the development of a statewide trauma network that would involve equipment and staffing upgrades in emergency rooms of some two dozen hospitals around the state. Supporters say the system would save 200 to 250 lives a year because emergency medical crews could get the injured to the best-equipped and best-staffed hospital for the specific injuries. At $28 million, the network is the biggest part of the 23-item package.
Other parts include widening eligibility for the ARKids First insurance program to include 8,000 more children of low-income families, establishing a medical school in Northwest Arkansas, funding 59 community health clinics that serve a half-million Arkansans, getting dental care to the elderly poor, and expanding programs for in-home health care, autism and cancer screenings. Some of those programs would generate a 3-to-1 match in federal money.
Opponents said they didn’t oppose the trauma network but instead wanted a funding stream that didn’t involve a tax increase of any sort during a recession. They also said the other programs could wait until the economy improves. Supporters countered that there’s no better time than a recession, when people in need, to offer improved health care.
With the healthcare package out of the House, much of our attention in the coming days will be legislation to implement the lottery approved by voters last fall.
Also during the week:
• The governor signed into law Senate Bill 77 (now Act 33), a cruelty-to-animals law allowing a felony charge to be filed for aggravated assault against a dog, cat or horse. Previously, such an act was only a misdemeanor. A felony conviction will bring as many as six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Five more years are added to the sentence if the assault occurs in front of a child.
• Several hundred people crowded into the second floor of the Capitol rotunda to witness the unveiling of a bust of the late Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller. The bust is just outside the lieutenant governor’s office. Private donations of $30,000 paid for the bronze bust, sculpted by Kevin Kresse of Little Rock. A bust of Rockefeller’s late father, Winthrop, governor of Arkansas from 1967 through 1970, is just around a corner, a few feet away.
• The Senate approved SB 88, lowering the state sales tax on groceries from 3 percent to 2 percent. Lawmakers two years ago had cut the tax from 6 percent to 3 percent. The bill goes to the House. The move will reduce state general revenues by $30 million a year.
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