The Democratic-led Mississippi House is trying to add cigarette and alcohol taxes into a complicated formula to shore up the anemic Medicaid budget.

The attempt to inject "sin taxes" directly contradicts the wishes of Gov. Haley Barbour. He wants to rely strictly on a revamped set of hospital taxes to plug a $90 million hole in Medicaid, a health program for the needy.

Rep. George Flaggs of Vicksburg says lawmakers can't justify increasing taxes that might be passed on to privately insured hospital patients, then leave tobacco companies alone.

Legislators are in the second week of a special session, and it's not clear whether the House even has the legal authority to add cigarette and alcohol taxes to the mix.

The governor controls the special session agenda and he did not include those taxes on the list of items for lawmakers to consider.

But Democrat Dirk Dedeaux, of Perkinston, the chairman of the House Medicaid Committee, said staff attorneys researched the question and told him the governor can create a list of issues but can't tell lawmakers how to handle them. Dedeaux said he believes that opens the way for consideration of cigarette and alcohol taxes.

Mississippi has one of the lowest cigarette excise tax rates in the nation, 18 cents a pack.

Health advocates have been pushing for an increase for several years in hopes of reducing smoking.

Before winning the governorship in 2003, Barbour was a Washington lobbyist whose client list included tobacco companies. He has said for a long time that he opposes a cigarette tax increase because he doesn't want the government to take more money from anybody.