I'm not surprised the Republican Governor would rather see his citizens starve than raise taxes on Tabacco companies.
Also not surpised to see thier pleasure in seeing so many people die from their cheap vice too.
I hope the Republican President nominee picks this guy for VP, good population control.
3-7-2007 Mississippi grocery tax fight
Hudson and her fellow state residents are finding themselves in a financial pinch: They pay the highest taxes on groceries, yet rank among the lowest paid households in the nation.
"For the poorest state in the nation to have the highest sales tax on groceries is cruel," said state Sen. Alan Nunnelee, a Republican who hopes to address the imbalance by cutting the grocery tax.
Proponents of a cut are keenly aware of what's happening on the other side of the Mississippi River. In neighboring Arkansas, where household incomes also are among the lowest in the country, the new Democratic governor, Mike Beebe, signed a law last month that will cut the grocery tax in half on July 1, from 6 percent to 3 percent.
Republican Gov. Haley Barbour opposes the bill and he vetoed two cigarette-grocery "tax swap" bills in 2006, which lawmakers failed to override. "I'm against raising anybody's taxes," Barbour says consistently when asked about the legislation this year.
Critics say Barbour is protecting the tobacco companies that helped make him wealthy when they were clients of Barbour Griffith and Rogers LLC, the Washington lobbying firm he founded and ran before winning the governorship of his home state in 2003.
"Our citizens smoke and get sick because they smoke much more so than citizens of other states. And I have to believe that in some way that's tied to the fact that we have the third lowest cigarette tax in the nation," Nunnelee said.
Also not surpised to see thier pleasure in seeing so many people die from their cheap vice too.
I hope the Republican President nominee picks this guy for VP, good population control.
3-7-2007 Mississippi grocery tax fight
Hudson and her fellow state residents are finding themselves in a financial pinch: They pay the highest taxes on groceries, yet rank among the lowest paid households in the nation.
"For the poorest state in the nation to have the highest sales tax on groceries is cruel," said state Sen. Alan Nunnelee, a Republican who hopes to address the imbalance by cutting the grocery tax.
Proponents of a cut are keenly aware of what's happening on the other side of the Mississippi River. In neighboring Arkansas, where household incomes also are among the lowest in the country, the new Democratic governor, Mike Beebe, signed a law last month that will cut the grocery tax in half on July 1, from 6 percent to 3 percent.
Republican Gov. Haley Barbour opposes the bill and he vetoed two cigarette-grocery "tax swap" bills in 2006, which lawmakers failed to override. "I'm against raising anybody's taxes," Barbour says consistently when asked about the legislation this year.
Critics say Barbour is protecting the tobacco companies that helped make him wealthy when they were clients of Barbour Griffith and Rogers LLC, the Washington lobbying firm he founded and ran before winning the governorship of his home state in 2003.
"Our citizens smoke and get sick because they smoke much more so than citizens of other states. And I have to believe that in some way that's tied to the fact that we have the third lowest cigarette tax in the nation," Nunnelee said.