Washington Lawmakers OK $1-Per-Pack Cigarette Tax Hike

From BusinessWeek.com:

The Washington Legislature is adding $1 to the price of a pack of cigarettes.

The House and Senate both passed a higher tobacco tax on Monday night, as lawmakers worked to wrap up their special legislative session.

It's part of the Legislature's plan to raise close to $800 million in revenue for the state budget. The bill now goes to Gov. Chris Gregoire for final approval.

Starting on May 1, the tax of a pack of cigarettes increases to slightly more than $3. Taxes also will be raised on other products, such as cigars and chewing tobacco.

Democrats said the measure would raise money and discourage smoking, while Republicans said it could just drive tobacco purchases to other states or online.

Schwarzenegger calls Legislators for Emergency Budget Session

From LA Times.com:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set Nov. 5 -- the day after next week's election -- as the start of an emergency legislative session to address the state budget deficit, which has swelled by several billion dollars in recent weeks as the stock market has continued its tumble and the economy has soured.

Schwarzenegger said this year's deficit will be "much more" than the $3 billion that state officials projected two weeks ago. Capitol budget analysts say preliminary data indicate the problem will probably grow to at least $10 billion.

The governor and legislative leaders made the announcement to reporters in the hallway outside Schwarzenegger's office, where they had been meeting in private to discuss the fiscal crisis. They said that in the coming days they also will form a commission to study ways to restructure the state tax code to make revenue more stable

Schwarzenegger's move comes a month after lawmakers passed the current budget and adjourned until December, when the next class of lawmakers is scheduled to begin work. But the governor said state revenues are dropping so fast that he and legislative leaders decided to call a lame-duck session.

"The situation is far more severe than it was when we were negotiating the budget" over the summer, Schwarzenegger said.

State Budget in California Sets Record for Tardiness

The legislature in my home state of California still has not reached an agreement on the state’s budget. As of yesterday the budget was 64 days late, which breaks the record for the longest our state has gone without a budget. Below is a snippet from an article on NYTimes.com about the ongoing budget problems, you can read the full text by clicking here.

“As lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continue to haggle over how to plug a $15 billion gap in the budget, health care clinics have reduced their staffs, community college students are being denied tuition grants, and art classes at one high school have moved to the lawn because the school district cannot afford new portable classrooms.

‘This is not a good time,’ David A. Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association, said of the public school system, which has been denied $600 million during the stalemate.

The budget morass is a result in part of factors that have also hurt other states: high foreclosure rates, revenues that have trickled in below expectations and enormous fuel costs. Additional factors are particular to the way California does business, including voter initiatives that tie up various cash streams and the requirement that a tax increase be approved by two-thirds majorities in both legislative houses.”