Senate rejects changes to cigarette/wage tax bill

cigarettes

Based on a recommendation by the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee, yesterday, the Senate rejected amendments that the House made to the bill hiking the tax on cigarettes and repealing part of the 2% wage tax.< The Senate has asked for a conference committee mainly to hear why the House made the changes to the bill. The House repealed the 2% wage tax altogether instead of just lowering it by 1% as proposed in the original bill while it kept the 3 cent hike in the tax on cigarettes. In addition, the House amended the bill to send that money to the General Fund rather than the LBJ Hospital. Members of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee said that if the wage tax is repealed, the hospital will not get the revenue needed to match the federal funds it receives. They said there must be an offset for the lost revenues. The Senate went along with the Committee’s recommendations by rejecting the House amendments and requesting a conference committee with the House to discuss the bill.