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Bredesen’s cigarette tax hike advances, but not after being trimmed By John Rodgers, NashvilleCityPaper.com The Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee voted 9-0 with two abstentions for the bill to impose a 20-cents-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes, which would double the tax from the current 20 cents to 40 cents per pack. Bredesen wants the cigarette tax tripled to 60 cents per pack. Although the proposed tax increase was cut in half, perhaps more importantly for Bredesen was the bill clearing the Finance Committee and is sent to the Senate floor, where the bill can be changed back to 40 cents if the votes are there. “I feel pretty good about where we are. I think we’re moving forward,” Bredesen said. “I personally think that we will have basically all that I asked for in this. And I think that’s important.” Bredesen wants to use some of the cigarette tax revenue and some of the state’s over-collected tax dollars to fund a massive, nearly $500 million education overhaul. Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle (D-Memphis), the sponsor of the bill, wants a 40-cent hike and has said he has the votes on the Senate floor to increase the cigarette tax back to a 40-cent increase. “It is time to tax tobacco in Tennessee in the mainstream of America,” Kyle said. Tennessee currently has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation. Raising it 40 cents would increase the state’s per pack cigarette tax to 60 cents, which would still leave Tennessee well below the national average of just more than $1 but about two times higher than the southeastern average. Republican leaders in the Senate, however, continued to say Thursday that they would not support a 40-cent hike. Senate Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville) said the Republicans, who have operational control of the chamber, can support a 20-cent cigarette tax increase. Ramsey said that 20 cents can fund Bredesen’s education overhaul, a crime bill called “Crooks with Guns” that imposes more stringent sentencing requirements on gun crimes, agricultural grant money and restoring the road fund with recurring dollars. A permanent half-cent reduction in the sales tax on food could also be in the works. But Ramsey said he’s not going to take up the cigarette tax bill until both the House and Senate pass the education overhaul as a well as a bill that has stronger accountability standards for teachers and schools. “There’s no need in funding education if we’re not going to have accountability,” Ramsey said. Besides the scaled down cigarette tax increase, Republicans in the Senate are willing to raise the tax on other tobacco products like cigars and chewing tobacco. “If you want to strike a blow at tobacco, then tax tobacco,” said Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris (R-Collierville). To partly pacify resistant Senate Republicans, Bredesen has proposed phasing in the tax over a two-year period — 25 cents in the first year and 15 cents in the second. That would go toward funding some of Bredesen’s nearly $500 million overhaul of the state’s Basic Education Program, which he calls “BEP 2.0.’ “This is about fundamentally reforming what education is about in Tennessee and fundamentally getting some money behind it and doing the right thing for our kids,” Bredesen said. Two Republicans on the Finance Committee, Sens. Diane Black of Hendersonville and Raymond Finney of Maryville, abstained on the vote. Nashville Democrats Douglas Henry and Joe Haynes voted for the bill. |
