NWAOnline’s Legislative Coverage

By Rob Moritz The Morning News
LITTLE ROCK — Legislators opposed to Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposal to raise the state cigarette tax said Tuesday they would revive measures proposed two years ago to pay for a statewide trauma system.
In his state-of-the-state address Tuesday, Beebe proposed a 56-cent per pack increase in the cigarette tax and an unspecified increase in the tax on smokeless tobacco products to fund health-related programs, including a network of trauma centers.
Rep. Ed Garner, R-Maumelle, said he and Rep. Bryan King, R-Berryville, were working on an alternative for raising the estimated $30 million cost for the system and hoped to file legislation this week that would tax insurance premiums and impose a fee on court fines for drunken driving and other convictions.
“I just don’t like the idea of taxing one segment of the public,” as the governor proposes, Garner said.
His plan would combine separate versions of methods the House and Senate proposed to pay for a trauma system two years ago. Lawmakers adjourned the 2007 session without choosing between a House proposal for a $50 fee on DWI convictions and Senate’s plan to impose a $1 per month fee on auto insurance premiums.
Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said Tuesday he supports Garner’s plan.
Beebe’s tobacco tax increase would raise an estimated $71 million a year, which would be used for other health programs in addition to the trauma system, including community health centers and the $3.5 million annual cost to operate a proposed Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Garner said Tuesday his proposal would generate money for the trauma system by adding an as yet undetermined fee to convictions for DWI and other moving violations, as well as for assault and drug trafficking. It likely would increase auto insurance premiums in the 12 percent to 15 percent range, he said.
“What we’re all talking about here is the need for a trauma system,” he said. “The other programs were added on to get (lawmakers) to support the tax hike,” he said.
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor proposed the cigarette tax hike because he believes it is the best way to generate revenue for a variety of health programs that affect the most people.
“The governor believes the needs for health care in the state stretch well beyond the trauma system, and he sees this as a way to do for health care what we’ve already done (in recent years) for education and economic development,” DeCample said.