STATEHOUSE, Ind. (WOWO) — The state budget is expected to be tight this year and Monday during discussions about how to make up for some of the money that might not be there for Medicaid and other programs, several Senate Democrats proposed extra taxes on vices like cigarettes, alcohol, and gaming
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Those proposals were made as amendments to the state budget.
“Indiana is much lower than our neighboring states,” said Sen. Shelli Yoder, of Bloomington. Her amendment was to add a $2 tax to every pack of cigarettes immediately, which she said would not only bring in more than $200 million per year, but also discourage smoking, which eventually costs Hoosier taxpayers in health care dollars.
“When we look at what Hoosiers are being asked to cut when it comes to Medicaid or the other cuts that we’re going to have to make. We know that tobacco use has a significant impact on those dollars,” she said.
Sen. Fady Qaddoura, of Indianapolis, had three proposals. One amendment would have raised the cigarette tax by $1 per pack this year and $2 per pack next year. He also wanted additional taxes on alcohol and gaming.
“We will raise more than $211 million in the first year. We will raise more than $300 million in the second year,” he said of the cigarette tax proposal. “My amendment dedicates those raises to Medicaid.”
Legalizing marijuana was the amendment made by Sen. Rodney Pol, of Chesterton.
“Indiana remains one of the nine states yet to legalize for any use, medicinal or recreational,” he said, making an argument that has been made several times in the state legislature, that Indiana is missing out on the tax revenue that our neighboring states are getting and that the state would have the opportunity to regulate THC, which currently is only available illegally and in a non-regulated fashion in Indiana.
All of the amendments were defeated soundly by voice vote.
It remains unclear how the General Assembly intends as a body to make the budget work. Two weeks remain in the session.
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