At around 8 p.m. last night, the Mississippi House approved a $60 million hospital tax promoted by Gov. Haley Barbour to fund the state's Medicaid program, after a nearly two-and-a-half hour reading—out loud—of the 81-page bill, reports the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The tax will increase by another $30 million over the next three years to reach the original $90 million figure the governor wanted.

Mississippi House members saw the bill for the first time on Tuesday, after months of behind-closed-doors haggling between three representatives, three senators and the lieutenant governor. Each time the group came to a budget consensus, the proposal was rushed to Barbour for his approval, but the governor repeatedly deep-sixed the deal, sending the committee back to the negotiating table.

On Sunday, after an Attorney General's ruling on whether Barbour could run the state by executive order instead of a budget came back against him, Barbour called the Legislature back for a special session, but did not include Medicaid funding on the agenda until yesterday. At that point, House members were not going to simply rush it through.

"This bill isn't going to leave here killing people," Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Flaggs was insistent on a full reading of the bill.

Once the House approved the bill, however, without the three amendments they attempted to attach, the Senate rushed it through, getting the Medicaid funding bill on the governor's desk hours before the clock struck midnight.

The Medicaid bill joins others that lawmakers have sent to Barbour since Sunday, including a new cigarette tax, a bill funding the car tag fund, and appropriations for state agencies.

Previous Comments

ID

149227

Comment

Just what we need to stem the costs of medical care - a tax on hospitals. Good job Governor Barbour! Up next on his agenda: increasing the tax on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Author

dd39203

Date

2009-07-01T12:25:02-06:00