A coalition’s battle with lawmakers to raise the cigarette tax and lower the grocery tax is gaining momentum — despite recent failure to pass in either house of the Mississippi Legislature.

On March 8, at least 300 members of the AARP of Mississippi are expected in Jackson to participate in a Day at the Capital event.

“Our members will be visiting with their legislators to let them know ‘this is how we want you to vote, and this how we feel about you not either supporting or supporting the bill,’” said Sherri F. Davis-Garner of AARP of Mississippi.

Davis-Garner and fellow AARP of Mississippi representatives Walter Howell and Ronda M. Gooden met with The Star’s Editorial Board to talk about the tax bill and the group’s efforts in getting it passed. AARP of Mississippi is part of Communities for a Clean Bill of Health, a coalition of organizations — primarily health care organizations or advocacy groups — which promote an increase in the cigarette tax in Mississippi to impact the health of the state.

The Star: Why do you support this issue?

Howell: Last year, there was two separate bills that provided a zero tax increase and food tax decrease that passed the House and Senate. They were both vetoed by Governor Haley Barbour.

The second bill — Senate Bill 3084 — actually passed with a veto-proof majority. The governor was able to switch four senators and the attempt to override failed by those four votes.

AARP of Mississippi felt it imperative to get involved and ultimately decided on a legislative accountability campaign focusing on the 21 senators who supported the governor’s veto. But we were also looking at House members who had voted against Bill 3084, identifying them as secondary targets.

In July, we sent letters to all them asking them if they still held to their position. A couple of senators indicated they were changing their positions.

When the session started in January, a number of tobacco bills were introduced. Senate Bill 3098 essentially carried the same provisions as last year’s bill. There was also a House companion bill — 247. We had those to work with.

The Senate bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee under Sen. Tommy Robertson. Robertson had once opposed it, then supported it last year. This year, he is opposed — very openly so, speaking against it at the Capital Press Luncheon a week ago and has been in constant conversation about it with the governor, who has asked him to kill the bill.

While that was going on, the House Bill 247 passed 91-27, a veto-proof majority.



Star: What is your group doing to better inform the public about this issue?

Howell: The John C. Stennis Institute of Government completed the report “Tobacco and Food Taxation Policy Options in Mississippi.” The report includes research on deaths and medical costs attributable to tobacco.

The current legislation is still alive. The report provides two new sources of revenue for municipalities. So this old scare tactic that municipalities were going to lose money, the report satisfies that.



Davis-Garner: Just to give you an example, the report shows that Meridian will gain $87,992 in new sales tax revenues if the Legislature passes House Bill 247, which increases the cigarette tax by $1 and reduces the sales tax on food from 7 percent to 3 1/2 percent.

The “Policy Options” report, based on calculations made on data from the Mississippi State Tax Commission, identifies the following sales tax revenue gains for other Meridian area locales: Quitman, $3,460; Marion, $1,769; Stonewall, $942; Enterprise, $455; Chunky, $270; and Pachuta, $249.

The reason it’s called revenue neutral is that the sales tax people will save on food will be regenerated into the community and that will be taxed. According to the Stennis Report, people will save $120 million in sales tax on food that will go back into the economy. From that amount, $18 million in sales tax will be regenerated.



Star: What feedback are you getting from citizens?

Davis-Garner: We polled our members and the 18-plus population in Mississippi — 800 people — and 85 percent of those respondents said they favored reducing or eliminating the food tax. Also, 72 respondents of those polled said they supported increasing tax of cigarettes up to $1.

Also in our polls, 56 percent of the registered voters said they would not vote for a politician who did not support increasing the excise tax on cigarettes and decreasing tax on food; that’s pretty substantial. We put this study in front of Legislators at the beginning of the year so they could see how their constituents felt about the issue.



Star: Where is the bill now?

Howell: The deadline for taking action on it is March 13, so we have time.



Star: So what are you doing to get more support from citizens?

Howell: We’re traveling to communities and trying to stimulate interest and give people encouragement to try and make a change in the way public policy is developed in Mississippi.