GA 'bed tax' plan: practical solution or cop-out?

A proposal backed by Gov. Nathan Deal that would allow a state health department to levy hospital fees to shore up Medicaid funds insulates lawmakers from having to directly hike taxes. But it also shifts that burden squarely to the governor's executive branch. Deal appoints the nine-member board of the Department of Community Health, which under his proposal would shoulder the responsibility of levying the so-called "bed tax." While sparing lawmakers from being branded as tax-hikers, the shift could focus the anger of anti-tax partisans toward Deal as he prepares for a re-election bid.