Area legislators found themselves back on the same page lastweek, united in disapproval of the death of a Medicaid bill in theSenate that would have increased the state’s tax on cigarettes.

The suggested $1 per pack tax hike was widely seen as byrepresentatives as the best way to plug the $87 million shortfallin the Medicaid budget, with the only other alternative beingoffered thus far a gross revenue tax increase on hospitals.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen now with Medicaid,” saidDistrict 91 Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello. “The governor wants totax hospitals – it’s what he’s been wanting to do all along. Ithink it makes no sense whatsoever to increase taxes onhospitals.”

Evans was particularly worried about the hospitals in hisdistrict, saying that an increase in the gross revenue tax on thoseinstitutions would cause them to have negative returns. Manyhospitals around the state already operate at low to negativereturn.

“They will be in the hole as far as being able to survive,”Evans said. “If this tax increase does happen, there’s a goodpossibility that many smaller, rural hospitals, such as the one inLawrence County, would have a very difficult time stayingopen.”

With no backup plan in place to fill the void created by thedeath of the cigarette tax, Evans said the upcoming debate onincreasing hospitals’ gross revenue tax may be heatedly debated, asseveral legislators prepare to oppose the measure at all costs.

“I will not, under any circumstances, vote for a gross revenuetax on hospitals,” Evans said. “And I don’t think the tax increaseby itself would pass the House – I don’t think it would even comeclose.”

Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, likewise will hold her approvalfor such a tax.

“I’m just not gonna vote to tax hospitals,” she said. “Why is itOK to increase the hospital tax and not OK to increase thecigarette tax? A lot of our hospitals are taking care ofcigarette-related illnesses, and a lot of them are onMedicaid.”

Currie pointed out that hospitals are already burdened by a bedtax that has increased over recent years, a tax that is paid oneach bed in the facility “whether anyone is in the bed or not.”

“This would be a tax added onto a tax they already have,” shesaid. “Our hospitals will either have to reduce services or, insome cases, close if taxed any further. We just can’t add any moreburden to our hospitals.”

Currie agreed with Evans that any gross revenue tax increase onhospitals sent to the House for approval would be trampled underfoot.

“If a hospital tax comes over, it won’t make it through theHouse,” she said. “There is not a backup plan – hopefully, we’llcome up with a plan at the end of the day to fund Medicaid.”

Efforts to contact District 53 Rep. Bobby Moak, D–Bogue Chitto,and District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, D-Brookhaven, wereunsuccessful.