Laura Leslie’s thorough and informative report on the General Assembly’s opening day included the following observation:
Hackney also seemed to be backing off his earlier opposition to a sin
tax hike.? Last week, he was pretty clear about not wanting to raise
any taxes. Today, he would only say that “it?s too early” to go there.
Laura might be referencing another conversation she’s had with the speaker when she calls his earlier statements “pretty clear.” If she’s talking about Friday’s news conference, I heard the speaker’s comments in that forum a little differently. At that time, Hackney said neither yes nor no to a tax increase. What was clear was that he did not want to place “emphasis” on taxes. He didn’t mention tax increases in his opening statement and discussed the topic only when asked to respond to Sen. Marc Basnight’s statements from the prior day.
I don’t think our emphasis should be on taxes in this kind of economy. As you probably know, the money you get out of those sources [tobacco and alcohol taxes] is quite small in comparison with the stimulus package and the cuts that are going to be required. So we will look respectfully at anything the Senate passes in that regard, but I don’t think that ought to be our emphasis.
That’s a little different from saying “I don’t expect we will raise these taxes.” This statement and the one cited from yesterday’s opening session seem pretty consistent to me.
