Bredesen Proposes Cigarette Tax
Increase to Fund Education

Gov. Phil Bredesen proposed tripling the state’s cigarette tax to pay for $220 million in education initiatives during Monday night’s State of the State address.  In a 31-minute speech at the state Capitol, Bredesen kicked off his second term with a State of the State speech that almost entirely focused on his No. 1 priority – education.  Bredesen said his push for a cigarette tax was simple – “our schools need more money” - and he added that Tennessee already had the 48th lowest taxes among all states when combining state and local levies.

Currently, the state has a 20-cent per pack cigarette tax. Bredesen is proposing a 40-cent per pack hike to make the state’s levy 60-cents. If he were successful, Tennessee would be about midway between the southeastern average and the national average of $1 per pack. 

Of the $220 million Bredesen expects to take in from the cigarette tax hike, 90 percent will go toward funding education initiatives under the proposal, both for K-12 and higher education.   Also, the HOPE scholarship amount would be raised from $3,800 per year to $4,000 per year for qualifying students to “reflect the rising cost of tuition,” Bredesen said.

The filing deadline for all general bills in the Senate was close of business Thursday, February 8, 2007.  As of late Thursday afternoon, there were over 1,200 bills filed in the House and over 1,440 bills filed in the Senate.  The Senate’s final filing deadline is Thursday, February 22nd and the House’s final filing deadline is Thursday, February 15th.

In other news, Former Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jerry Cooper suffered serious injuries in a one-vehicle crash about 9 p.m. Wednesday night on Interstate 24 going to home to McMinnville.  He was lifeflighted to Vanderbilt Hospital late Thursday night in critical condition.  His condition was upgraded to stable Friday morning.  He suffered cuts and bruises and several broken ribs and a broken arm, but appeared to be otherwise in good condition.

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