Jackson Free Press

Attorneys for Gov. Haley Barbour and the Mississippi Hospital Association swapped arguments today before Hinds County Chancery Court Judge William Singletary. The Mississippi Hospital Association and a group of about 43 Mississippi hospitals are asking Singletary to enforce his July order that Barbour could not raise taxes on hospitals without legislative approval.

Singletary ruled in July that Barbour could not propose a tax on hospitals to fill a $90 million Medicaid shortfall. On Aug. 1, the governor produced another gross revenue tax—which is now packaged as a UPL tax, according to the hospitals.

"This 2008 tax is exactly the same as the first tax ... first of all, because they say it is," argued plaintiff attorney George Ritter, gesturing to a 2008 letter speaking on the new tax.

"The hospitals will still pay $88 million for the Medicaid shortfall. They changed the name of the tax and said, 'voila, it's not a tax.'... It's a clear violation of your order," Ritter told Singletary.

Ritter also asked the court to push the state into making its UPL matching payments for Medicaid patient coverage for fiscal year 2008.

"The defense still has not made the UPL payments for FY 2008. It's now 13 months since services were rendered and they haven't made payment...They didn't even take any steps to make the payments until we filed this motion," Ritter said.

Last year, Ritter said the state made UPL payments in March.

Attorney Steve Thomas, who represents Barbour, said the hospitals have no need to be in the court seeking action on a move the state has yet to make."The plaintiffs filed a complaint ... saying they are against the new gross revenue assessment, under the guise of enforcing the court's prior order. That's tantamount to asking the court to enjoin the Legislature because they're considering a new law," Thomas argued, and accused the hospitals of taking action against a "projected controversy."

"They should wait for a real controversy before filing an order," Thomas said. "We got the cart way before the horse."

MHA attorney John Sneed argued that the tax would have an immediate impact on hospitals, projected or not.

"They'll be sending out notices on the new tax next week, and some hospitals will not be able to sustain themselves ... there will be no means for hospitals to lodge complaints," Sneed argued. "When somebody's got a gun to your head, the time you would want someone to intervene would be before the gun goes off."

The entire hearing took roughly 30 minutes. Singletary said he would render a decision today or tomorrow.