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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi Senate on Tuesday defeated an attempt to cut the state's 7 percent grocery tax in half and boost the cigarette tax.
Gov. Haley Barbour opposes the plan. He says the time is not right to reduce the grocery tax because Mississippi still faces too much economic uncertainty in its recovery from Hurricane Katrina. On the cigarette portion, he says he opposes raising anybody's taxes.
At issue Tuesday was a resolution that would have allowed the filing of a bill to cut the grocery tax and raise the cigarette tax to $1 a pack from 18 cents, the third-lowest in the nation. The Senate voted 31 to 20, three votes short of the 34 needed.
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