Innercitistorm posted on February 03, 2009 18:23
Cigarettes are about to get more expensive in Arkansas. The state senate passed the bill Thursday afternoon and Governor Mike Beebe will sign it next week. The house just barely approved the plan that will fund the trauma system plan. It needed three-fourths of senators to back it, it received one extra.
With the state's first ever trauma system on the line the senate said yes. Approving house bill 1204 with 28 yes votes. "I would have been happy with 27," Senator Tracy Steele said.
North Little Rock senator Tracy Steele sponsored the bill in the senate. House speaker Robbie Wills stood in the back and watched the votes come in.
"This will not only save lives, it will also make health care a reality for people in Arkansas who have been left out," House Speaker Robbie Wills said.
The vote raises the tax on cigarettes 56 cents a pack and the tax on smokeless tobacco raising 85 million for nearly two dozen health programs and the first ever trauma system.
"We've already started putting the trauma system in place with the governor's emergency funds he made available in July," Doctor Joe Thompson.
"I can tell you for a fact, I'm going to everything in my power to make sure it goes exactly the way it was sold," Doctor Joe Thompson said.
Steele says getting a trauma system off the ground is the next job for the house and senate. "The advisory council for the trauma system lays out how the hospitals will be selected, who will participate, that bill will be introduced next week so we still have a lot of work to do," Steele said.
The tobacco tax increase is coming quickly. It takes effect March 1st.