Jindal Wins On Cigarette Tax Veto Override In House
The final count was 58-44, which was considerably below the 70 votes it received on original final passage. There were several votes switching, among them…
Robert Billiot (D-Westwego)
Steve Carter (R-Baton Rouge)
Billy Chandler (R-Dry Prong)
Charles Chaney (R-Rayville)
Greg Cromer (R-Slidell)
Noble Ellington (R-Winnsboro)
Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro)
Hunter Greene (R-Baton Rouge)
Frank Hoffmann (R-West Monroe)
Kay Katz (R-Monroe)
Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette)
Tom McVea (R-Jackson)
Joel Robideaux (I-Lafayette)
Thomas Willmott (R-Kenner)
So that’s 11 Republicans, two Democrats and an independent who had originally voted to renew the tax but changed their position amid pressure from Jindal and grassroots groups.
The fiscal note on the bill indicates it’s worth $12 million a year in revenues. To hear the wailing about the loss of the tax, you’d expect the number to be much higher.
One thing about the $12 Million in lost revenues is that it also causes us to lose another $36 Million in Federal matching for state health care.
Not arguing for or against, just stating that the “revenues lost” is actually more.
But it’s usually even more complicated than that since those federal dollars always come with strings attached.
Hello Mac, it seems as if only $$$ were on the table. That, of course, was not even a consideration. At stake was the issue of legislative independence of a traditionally over-strong governor’s office. Serving under three of those (many years ago) I saw, first hand, the leverage available to the Governor. In recent years, much rhetoric has touted growing legislative independence and the emergence of a true balance between executive, legislative and judicial power for the state. Such a democratic ideal has just been set on its rear end. Sadly it was done so in reverence of one of the most inept governors of our time. That weighs much more seriously than the forefiture of a few million dollars even though those dollars would be matched 2 to 1 by the feds.
The suspected independence has brought a major escalation in the amount of dollars needed to support the legislature. Everyone has staff, every committee has staff, there is a legislative bureau and a legislative auditor and a legislative fiscal office. Costs are much greater than when we had a subservant legislature and all fiscal information came from the Budge Office.
I wonder if voters will realize that a huge amount of their tax dollars have been diverted into supporting a legislative body that has its own capacity to evaluate proposals from the executive; and that all that expense was undercut by 11 weak and corrupted legislators.