CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Senate Finance Committee moved a bill forward Wednesday significantly raising Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s original proposal to raise the state cigarette tax.
After much deliberation, the original 45 cent raise was amended to a full $1 increase, in effort to fund a substantial budget shortfall in the PEIA.
The current cigarette tax is 55 cents per pack. Tomblin’s 45 cent proposal would have made the tax an even $1.
“I would hope that we just wouldn’t look at this as, the House isn’t going to (vote for it),” said Sen. Roman Prezioso (D-Marion). “So we should step back and reconsider; let’s move forward. Let’s do the right thing.”
Prezioso’s amendment would raise the tax to $1.55, which he said would raise $43 million more annually than the governor’s proposal.
There were many concerns that such a substantial increase to the governor’s original plan would have no chance of passing the full Senate or House of Delegates.
“We just need to recognize that we’re not going to get this through,” said Sen. Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael reluctantly opposing the amendment. “It’s unfortunate; I know your comments about (not negotiating) with ourselves. But we’ve all been around this process.”
Tomblin’s legislative liaison Joey Garcia agreed with Carmichael, pointing out that the governor proposed 45 cents for a good reason.
“They (the House and Senate) may vote for something that’s 45 cents, but they may not if it hits a dollar,” Garcia said. “So these are things that the governor took into consideration. We’re really not going to be able to do much to dispel people going across the border in Virginia or Kentucky. They may be already doing so if that’s important to them.”
Sen. John Unger (D-Berkeley), supported the raise, saying that the full legislature could always amend the bill themselves and a compromise could be reached.
“The idea here is that we have something before us, we have something reasonable; we’re going to address a problem,” he said. “You’ve admitted to yourselves that these other measures (to raise state revenue) may not see the light of day.”
Unger also expressed the concern that Tomblin’s plan didn’t address potential PEIA shortages beyond the coming fiscal year.
“It does nothing to help replenish the reserve fund, or look to how we’re going to address the ongoing increase in growth we’re going to have in costs of PEIA based on medical inflation,” he said.
The tax would also include a lesser tariff on products such as e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products such as dip or pouches.
The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.