Podcast: Tuberculosis money & taxing Castro’s cigars
by Michael C. Bender | March 29th, 2009Sen. Durell Peaden, Jr., motioned with his hand for a reporter to enter his office while he was on his cell phone telling his wife that she’d be proud of him: He was offered some of the best apple dumplings he’d ever tasted that afternoon and only had a few bites. “She’s got me on a diet,” the Panhandle Republican explained after hanging up.
Peaden, the Senate’s top health & human services budget writer, isn’t just trying to manage his own health. He’s also in the middle of a hot debate over how the state should use a shrinking supply of tax money to pay for the increasing demand for public health services.
This 13-minute podcast starts off with a discussion with Peaden about A.G. Holley in Palm Beach County, the last free standing tuberculosis hospital in the country that was nearly axed from the state budget last year. It’s on the chopping block again with neither Gov. Charlie Crist nor the Senate including money for the hospital in their budget proposals (not sure about the House as of this moment).
Peaden, whose relatives have helped shape Florida policy since before statehood, discusses an equally long personal history with TB (including his own son being diagnosed with the disease that killed most of his ancestors).
“Somewhere there will be funding for AG Holley. It will not be neglected. Trust me. Because we’ll have the court on us or the governor or DCF … That will not go unfunded or uncovered. Trust me.”
Peaden also discusses the cigarette tax increase included in the Senate’s budget.
“Smoke ‘em, chew ‘em, dip ‘em or whatever. We have to tax ‘em. We have to tax cigars. Doesn’t matter if its … smuggled in from Castro. It doesn’t matter. They need to be taxed.”
Peaden says the money should not be earmarked for anything more specific than the state health budget (Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, wants to tie some of the new money to cancer research). But he says the new money shouldn’t replace what the state already spends on health care.
Listen to the podcast here (Or right click on the link to download.)
Tags: A.G. Holley, cigarette taxes, Durell Peaden, state budget, State Senate
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Sentenced to die for crimes judged heinous and cruel, inmates await execution in a 9 feet by 6 feet cell.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
SAVE THE ECONOMY AND TAX LEGAL MARYJANE OR DOOBEYS OR GRASS.
Imagine no more cops and everyone is legally stoned and a buy frenzy of food from the munchies. The factories start hiring, more people are in crashes the car companies start selling more cars. Mexico stop send dope across the borders. The mob can’t sell the dope and they go out of business. Everyone is happy.
Then everybody buys a gun and kills their next door neighbor and unemployment is over not enough people to take the jobs. The chinks invade and take over the country and hang all the politicians.
LOL
April 17th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
[...] Health & Human Services Appropriations Chairman Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, in this podcast explaining his support for a $1 tax increase on cigarettes and other [...]