Lawmakers tackle familiar agenda in 2009

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January 5, 2009

Anonymous The Meridian Star Mon Jan 05, 2009, 10:39 PM CST

JACKSON (AP) — From voter identification to taxes on cigarettes and hospitals, Mississippi lawmakers face a long list of familiar issues during their three-month session that begins Tuesday.

Gov. Haley Barbour is urging the 122 House members and 52 senators to be cautious with public money because of the slumping economy that has caused businesses to slash an estimated 20,000 jobs in the state during the past year.

Barbour, a Republican, said state tax collections in December fell about 9 percent short of where experts had estimated they’d be.

‘‘We’re not immune to what’s happening in the national economy,’’ Barbour said Monday during a press luncheon in Jackson.

Legislators convene at noon for a brief ceremony in the Old Capitol museum in downtown Jackson, a former statehouse that has undergone extensive renovations since receiving significant water damage during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

House and Senate leaders expect lawmakers to meet in the Old Capitol for only a couple of hours before moving a few blocks away to the place they usually work — the 106-year-old ‘‘new’’ Capitol.

Democratic House Speaker Billy McCoy and Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant say the tight budget will restrict lawmakers’ options.

Many Republicans and some conservative Democrats are renewing their push for voter ID, an issue that has been debated for more than a decade. Supporters say requiring voters to show ID at the polls would reduce fraud. Opponents say there’s little proof of fraud, and ID could be used to intimidate older black voters who were once subject to poll taxes and other Jim Crow laws.

Barbour has removed his long-standing objection to increasing the cigarette excise tax, which, at 18 cents, is one of the lowest in the nation. However, there’s no consensus about how large an increase might be approved or how the new revenue from the tax might be spent.

Barbour wants to add 24 cents a pack for premium cigarettes and 43 cents a pack on cigarettes produced by companies that didn’t participate in the state’s 1997 settlement of a lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Some health advocates and House members say they want taxes to be $1 a pack.

The governor is reviving his effort to enact a hospital tax to help pay for Medicaid, a government health program for the needy. He has released few details about the amount of the tax, saying only that he wants hospitals to pay their ‘‘fair share.’’

Mississippi had a different hospital tax for several years before the federal government blocked it. Now, some lawmakers say they worry patients will have to pay more if hospitals’ expenses increase.

Barbour spoke Monday at the luncheon sponsored by the Capitol press corps and Mississippi State University’s Stennis Institute of Government. He said that for every $1 the hospitals pay into Medicaid, the federal government will pay $6. He said the hospitals should take that deal.

‘‘I’ll do that with the IRS ’til the cows come home,’’ Barbour said.

AP-CS-01-05-09 1645EST

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