Arizona Lawmakers Can Wage Hospital Tax Fight
group of Arizona lawmakers can move forward with a legal challenge to a Medicaid expansion program championed by outgoing Gov. Jan Brewer, the state supreme court ruled Wednesday.
In a unanimous decision, the five-judge panel found that a coalition of 36 Republican legislators has standing to sue over the allegedly unconstitutional passage of an assessment on hospital revenues designed to help pay for the expansion of Medicaid under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Led by Arizona state Senate president Andy Biggs, the legislator-plaintiffs argued in a 2013 lawsuit in Maricopa County that the assessment, which passed the House by a vote of 33-27, and the Senate, by a vote of 18-11, should have required a two-thirds vote to become law.
They claimed that the majority ignored a state constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote to pass new taxes.
More: Courthouse News Service