Senate spar over cigarette tax

Senators pointed fingers of blame at each other and the Shumlin administration Thursday night when a tricky parliamentary procedure backfired, leaving no immediate political solution to a $9 million hole in the tax package needed to support the Senate's budget.

Frustrated senators soon fled into the night, but will be back early this morning to try again to fix the tax bill, pass the budget and debate health care reform.

The revenue hole in the tax bill had been created hours earlier when senators voted 16-14 to reject a provision that would have raised the cigarette tax by a dollar.

The vote took place because Gov. Peter Shumlin had mustered enough support to defeat the tax increase, which he opposed.

For two days, Shumlin and Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell had tussled behind the scenes about the Senate's proposed increase in the cigarette tax. Each pressed senators for their votes.

"I think a $1 increase in the cigarette tax is a big mistake," Shumlin said Thursday. He argued the state would lose more money than it gained from the increase because smokers would buy their cigarettes in New Hampshire.

Shumlin preferred to put a new tax on dental services -- but lawmakers disagreed. The House already rejected that tax, and the Senate Finance Committee didn't include it in the tax package the full Senate was considering Thursday.

"I'm absolutely opposed to the tax on dentists," Campbell said.

Despite the political tug of war, Campbell had worked out a compromise that the Shumlin administration wouldn't contest in the Senate. Campbell wanted senators to vote on the compromise Thursday night, rather than wait until today. The Senate is running out of time to wrap up work on all the money bills plus health care reform this week. A delay could affect when the Legislature adjourns.

The plan for the evening session had been for the Senate to reconsider its rejection of the $1 increase in the cigarette tax, then take up the compromise 53-cent increase plus a higher insurance claims assessment. To reconsider, however, required that senators first agree to suspend their rules.