NEW - Barbour: $90M tax is hospitals' fair share

June 13, 2009 10:49 am

— JACKSON (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says some Medicaid services will have to be cut if lawmakers pass anything less than his proposed $90 million hospital tax.
Hospitals have been fighting the assessment, saying it will hurt their finances.
Barbour told The Associated Press that he would veto any budget bills that include planned deficits — shortfalls that would have to be filled halfway through the fiscal year.
He did not specify which services might be cut.
Medicaid funding is still one of the biggest points of disagreement as a small group of negotiators from the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate try to set an overall $5 billion state government spending plan for the fiscal year begins July 1.