Legal challenge against governor’s Medicaid plan intensifies

The Clarion-Ledger, 8/27/8

Fourteen Senate Democrats have joined the legal challenge of Gov. Haley Barbour’s latest plan to pay for Medicaid with a higher hospital tax and cut in provider payments.

In court documents added Tuesday, they argue that only lawmakers can decide how state programs are funded.

“The circumstance that the legislative process has not yet produced full funding, or that the governor’s preference in the method of funding has been frustrated in the Legislature, does not grant the governor constitutional license to bypass the Legislature and impose his tax plan by executive decree,” state Sen. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, wrote.