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Governor's Cigarette Tax Hike Advances in Senate

Perry Bennett
/
West Virginia Legislative Photography
Sen. John Unger negotiating with Republican leaders before the Tuesday floor session.

A bill to increase the state’s cigarette tax by 45 cents per pack and implement a new tax on e-cigarette liquids was on the fast track for passage in the Senate, but a disagreement on the amount the tax should be increased has slowed the process. 

The tax increases, proposed by Gov. Tomblin, are expected to bring in about $78 million in new annual revenue. 

Before even being considered by a committee, the bill was read a first time in the Senate Monday. 

“We really wanted to fast track that bill and get it through,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael said Tuesday.

But Senate Democrats had other plans. The upper chamber’s 16 Democrats refused to suspend constitutional rules that would have allowed the bill to see a Tuesday vote.

“We want to see an overall plan," Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler said Tuesday.

He does not believe a 45 cent tax increase is enough to fix the major budgetary problems facing the state.

"Before we would agree to fast track things and run that out of here, and realized that there may not be any other revenue or tax measures even considered, we want to know what they’re going to cut,” he said.

Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael.

Kessler said Republican leaders have yet to share with him their specific plan to balance the 2017 budget which contains an estimated $270 million shortfall. Without any other revenue measures, Kessler said Republican leaders will have to rely on either deeper cuts, cash reserves like the Rainy Day Fund, or a combination of both.

That’s why Democrats in both the House and Senate are pushing for a $1 increase to the cigarette tax. That bump would bring in closer to $120 million annually, getting lawmakers at least that much closer to closing the budget gap.

“We’ve got to address the issue folks. We’ve got to find money to balance this budget," Democratic Sen. Roman Prezioso said as he proposed an amendment to bump the tax to $1 and commit a portion of the funds to the state Public Employees Insurance Agency, or PEIA.  

Several Republican Senators testified in committee if the bill moves across the rotunda with a $1 increase, it will be dead on arrival.

“How do you predict what’s going to happen in the House?" Prezioso asked of his committee members.

"We’re the upper house. We’re sending them an option, a choice. Are they dictating to the Senate that this is the way it’s going to be? Then why am I here?”

Preziosos’s $1 increase failed in committee, but members did approve an amendment dedicating the first $1 million brought in by the 45 cent increase to a smoking education fund and the next $43.5 million to PEIA, helping to relieve some of the benefit cuts approved by its finance board earlier this year.

The amended version of the bill was read a first time on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon which puts it on track for a Thursday vote.

Democrats in the Senate believe the measure will be the only revenue increase discussed during the special session.

Ashton Marra covers the Capitol for West Virginia Public Radio and can be heard weekdays on West Virginia Morning, the station’s daily radio news program. Ashton can also be heard Sunday evenings as she brings you state headlines during NPR’s weekend edition of All Things Considered. She joined the news team in October of 2012.

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