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Jump to full article: New Orleans (LA) Times Picayune, 2009-06-15
Author: Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune
Intro: By the time the House adjourns this evening, one of the following will almost certainly be true:
a) The (not so) great tax debate of 2009 will be pretty much done with after House Bill 889, which would raise cigarette taxes by 50 cents a pack, fails to get the 70 votes needed to send it to the Senate.
- Or -
b) The debate will be very much alive after the bill by Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, goes to the Senate with enough votes to override an expected veto from Gov. Bobby Jindal.
While most of the smart money is on option (a), the smart money hasn't always been right this session . . .
Public-health groups have been working the cigarette-tax issue hard for weeks, and took out a half-page ad in Sunday's Baton Rouge Advocate urging passage. But a series of test votes last week, when some legislators tried to shuttle the bill back to committee, fell short of the magic 70 votes, and House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, has been unequivocal in his insistence that no revenue-raising measures will pass the House this year.
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