Marshall says she would have opposed tax bill

DURHAM (Winston-Salem Journal) - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elaine Marshall said yesterday that she likely would have voted against a plan approved last year that increased tobacco taxes to pay health insurance for low-income children.

She would have been the only Democrat in Congress to do so.

The proposal that passed with the support of some Republican senators raised the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes from 39 cents to $1. Supporters of the program estimated that it will cover an additional four million low-income children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program.