Del. Sheila Hixson, D-Montgomery, chairwoman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has proposed legislation raising state income tax rates by 25 percent for people with taxable income of more than $225,000 a year. The current rate is 4.75 percent, and the measure would raise it to 6 percent.
“It?s part of the package” of tax measures being discussed for possible passage next year, Hixson said. “We?re looking at everything.”
The governor and House leaders have agreed that most major tax increases will not be acted on until 2008, although $1-a-pack hike in the cigarette tax to pay for health care has been proposed.
ButHixson and other House members have introduced bills to raise the gasoline tax, sales tax and other revenues so discussion on those proposals could start in this session of the General Assembly.
Since the deadline for bill introduction had passed, Hixson?s measure required a super-majority vote on the House floor to be considered, which it got as a routine courtesy Tuesday. “The speaker made me do it,” Hixson said to the House. But an aide to Speaker Michael Busch made it clear he was not supporting the proposal.
Busch didn?t really make her introduce the bill, Hixson said, but “he likes the idea” that it?s being discussed, she said.
