Will there or won't there?

October 23rd 2008

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Posted by:  Sheila A. Schuster, Ph.D., Director, Advocacy Action Network 
 
I’m finding it hard to keep my ear to the ground, my eyes on the goal and still get some work done. What’s the story? Will we have a Special Session before the end of the year to address the state’s failing economy and bleak revenue picture? Those of us who have worked for years to raise the cigarette excise tax are sure hoping for a chance to “get at it” and were encouraged by the rumors flying early on that the Governor would call for a session after the November elections and before the end of the year.

I think there is momentum building for the cigarette excise tax. The health community wants to reduce the toll that tobacco takes on lives and the budget. Advocates for children want to discourage youth from ever starting the nasty habit and want to protect the unborn from their mother’s smoking. The advocates for education, health, human services, corrections, etc. etc. etc., are worried to death about more cuts coming down the pike, cuts that slice to the bone because there is no fat left in these budgets. You would have “lame duck” legislators who could vote without consequence because they weren’t coming back. Elections were another two years away. Looked to me like the stars were aligned.

But the rumor rumblings have died to a whisper and it looks now like the Special Session won’t be called—DARN! It will be tougher to get the job done in the Regular Session: the “super majority” vote of 60% in both chambers is required. You have new legislators taking their seats for the first time who are perhaps a bit antsy about voting for a tax. You have hundreds of bills/issues on the agenda of the 26-day session—and the “horse-trading” that any revenue or budget bill generates.

But, we have logic and rationality and statistics and need. We have the Governor and some legislators supporting us. We have voter support (see the pollof registered voters). And we have the conviction that this is absolutely the right thing to do and the right time to do it—even if it’s not this Fall. So, we continue our work … and still keep an ear to the ground, just in case.

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