Fresh News from the Fifty States
03/16 02:48 PM
Growing-Economy
MS: Barbour Dances With the One Who Brought Him
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, the man who ignores the plight of sexually abused children, is stepping up to defend his one-time employer: the tobacco lobby.When a bill passed in Mississippi to eliminate the grocery tax by increasing the cigarette tax, Barbour vetoed it. Now he has vetoed a second bill that would cut the grocery tax in half by increasing the cigarette tax.
The grocery tax in Mississippi is 7%. But, hey, picking between families putting food on the table and your corrupt former bosses is easy, isn't it Haley?
Discuss 1
TrackbacksFiled: cigarette-tax, corruption, grocery-tax
That’s one possible explanation for Barbour’s behavior, but not the only one. If (as he’s said) his real concern was that cig tax revenues will be insufficient to offset the revenue loss to local governments from the food tax repeal, then I’d say that’s a darn good reason to veto.
Of course, it could also be that Barbour opposes all tax hikes, which would be a bad reason. But the point is that there are progressives out there who think these vetoes were hardly the worst possible outcome.
— Matt Gardner Mar 23, 04:00 PM #