After a failed Republican filibuster, the cigarette tax passed in the House yesterday. Tom Humphrey has this report on all the drama.

Senate Democratic leader Sen. Jim Kyle (D-Memphis) notes in a press release that the cigarette tax, only the third increase in 40 years, funds another bill that raises the state funding of local school instructional costs from 65% to 75%, which benefits local governments and should reduce property taxes. Regarding Senate action on the bills, Sen. Kyle says:

The first bill passed with 32 of the 33 Senators voting for it. However, the second bill, the one that financed the 75 percent bill, the one that made all this possible, passed on a straight-line partisan vote. All Democrats voted yes, and all Republicans voted no.

What does this say about the Tennessee Senate? What does this say about Democrats and Republicans? I would say that it speaks volumes as to who can be trusted to lead our state. Please remember, for months Republicans said there were other ways to finance the education plan and the tobacco money was not needed, but in the end, Republicans did not fight the tax; they did not offer alternatives to the tax; they simply stood on the sidelines.

We Democrats asked our Republican colleagues to walk with us as we turn this state away from 49th. Sadly, they could not find the courage to go.

Tennessee deserves better. Tennessee deserves leadership that is willing to take risks, leadership that looks to the next generation and not the next election. Tennessee Democrats understand it is hard to lead, it is difficult to lead, but it is, to quote John Wilder, "good to lead." Tennessee deserves Democratic leadership in both the Senate and House.

Lots of folks think the cigarette tax should be raised, but that it would be more appropriate to use the funds for health care. Along those lines, Sen. Rosalind Kurita got her "two cents" in, with the revenues going to help fund trauma centers. From the press release:

Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Rosalind Kurita, D-Clarksville, secured much-needed funding for Tennessee’s financially strapped trauma centers on Thursday, May 31 when she successfully passed a two-cents-per-pack increase in the state’s cigarette tax. The estimated $10 million in new revenue generated by the hike will go to the newly created Trauma System Fund, a grant program the State will administer to assist trauma centers in covering the high costs associated with caring for trauma patients.

"Trauma centers are literally the difference between life and death for multiply injured patients," Kurita, a registered nurse, said.

Sen. Kurita notes that Tennessee has Level I trauma centers in Chattanooga, Johnson City, Kingsport, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville, one Level II center in Bristol, and three Level III centers in Athens, Etowah, and Maryville. Since 1990, eleven trauma centers in Tennessee have dropped their designations, and currently there are no Level II or Level III centers in Middle or West Tennessee.

"We cannot allow any more trauma centers to close," Kurita said. "When trauma centers close, critically injured Tennesseans die."