Political Notes – Hill compares hospital tax to ‘pimps’ and ‘crack’ The Georgia Report

Political Notes – Hill compares hospital tax to ‘pimps’ and ‘crack’

By TOM CRAWFORD | Published: OCTOBER 5, 2012  The Georgia Report

As we reported earlier this week, Georgia legislators will have a tough decision to make in the next session on the hospital provider tax adopted in 2010 to help plug a hole in the Medicaid budget.

That tax expires next June 30 unless the General Assembly votes to reauthorize it, and conservative lawmakers are already being urged not to extend the tax.

Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist sent a letter to legislators this week instructing them to kill the tax and warning that a vote to extend it would violate the “no new taxes” pledges that many of them signed with Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform.

Norquist found a receptive audience in state Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta), who voted against the hospital tax when it passed in 2010.

In an interview with the Marietta Daily Journal’s Jon Gillooly, Hill said he would vote against the tax again and called it an example of the “crack dollars” that the federal government sends to the states:

“I call it federal crack dollars,” Hill said. “The federal government pimps us with federal dollars — and they’re doing it again with Obamacare — and then along the way they reduce the federal allocation after the state has chosen to participate in the program or expand their program based on receiving federal dollars, and politically it becomes even more challenging to ‘just say no.’

Several of Hill’s Cobb County colleagues told the MDJ they may also vote against extending the hospital tax, although they did not use the words “crack” and “pimp” in explaining their reasons.

Reps. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth), Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), Sam Teasley (R-Marietta), and newly elected Charles Gregory (R-Kennesaw) appear to be “no” votes at this point.

Rep. Don Parsons (R-Marietta), who easily defeated a tea party opponent in this year’s GOP primary, said he is “inclined” to vote for reauthorizing the tax.

Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna) and Rep. Matt Dollar (R-Marietta) did not take a hard stance either way on how they will vote.

One of most interesting responses to the MDJ came from Rep. John Carson (R-Marietta), who was elected last year to replace the late Bobby Franklin in the House:

“I did not sign the pledge, or any pledges, because I serve my constituents in northeast Cobb and southeast Cherokee, not Grover Norquist,” Carson said.

“I am very much a fiscal conservative, but I work for and answer only to my constituents. Having said that, I am becoming familiar with the bed tax, which was more or less a temporary plug in the budget several years ago, and I am eager to look for ways to eliminate it.”