A squabble inside the Georgia Senate Republican caucus Monday touched off a rehashing of a recent vote to levy a “sick tax” on the state’s hospitals.  Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, attacked Senate GOP leaders for stripping him of his Judiciary Committee chairmanship as punishment for opposing the tax against the leadership’s wishes.  “I came down here not to raise taxes,” Smith told his colleagues. “That is one of the bedrock principles of the Republican Party.”

Smith and two other Republican senators joined minority Democrats April 1 in voting against legislation imposing a 1.45 percent tax on hospitals’ net revenues. The bill, which passed 31-15, was proposed by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue to help Georgia’s financially struggling Medicaid program get through the current budget crisis.  The legislation also drew fire from conservative Republicans when it went through the House last month. Many of the lawmakers who voted against it had signed anti-tax pledges circulated by the Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform.  (read more at Atlanta Business Chronicle)