State panel looks at ending soda tax

A House committee is weighing a bill backed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson that would phase out the state's soft drink tax by 2025 and make up the loss of it as a source for the state's Medicaid trust fund by using general revenue.

Rep. Joe Jett, R-Success, chairman of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee, Tuesday delayed the panel's vote on House Bill 1546 by Rep. Lanny Fite, R-Benton, after a hearing that lasted an hour and a half.

"Let everybody know that we are not trying to do this in a dark room behind an alley someplace," Jett said at the end of the committee's meeting. "We are trying to operate in a fair, an open and honest manner.

"I think I heard somebody reference a while ago that corporate America is cramming this down this committee's throat and I assure everybody that that's not taking place or we would have took the vote today and it would have come out of committee today," he said.

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