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Jump to full article: New Orleans (LA) Times Picayune blogs, 2009-06-10
Author: Posted by Stephanie Grace, Columnist, The Times-Picayune
Intro: Give House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson points for persistence. Peterson's main priority for the legislative session, upping the tobacco tax to help stave off health-care budget cuts, ran head-first into Gov. Bobby Jindal's opposition to all taxes, fees, and even delayed tax cuts, despite an expected $1.3 billion budget shortfall. This was a proposal that was thought to be dead on arrival.
Yet here we are, two weeks from the session's end, and the measure is showing surprising signs of life. . . .
Could the bill really pass, or are its newfound backers just looking to grab a bargaining chip, or brush back a governor who has had his way with them for much of the session?
And what does Jindal do now?
That he has to think about the tobacco tax at all at this late stage is a personal victory of sorts for Peterson.
It's also a sign that the Legislature has successfully delivered a message to Jindal: He's not the only one who gets to decide what's on or off the table.
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