"If everyone cooperates,
no one gets hurt, see!"
Posted on 02/17/2005 12:11:56 PM PST by mysterio
Governor Mitch Daniels says he'll look at a proposal to increase cigarette taxes as a way to erase the state's deficit and pass a balanced budget.
But Daniels says he favors his own tax-and-budget plan and doesn't see a need for a permanent tax increase.
Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton is suggesting the increase saying it could range from 25-to-40-cents per pack.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks says he's opposed to it because it would hurt many retailers who sell cigarettes. He says seeking new revenue remains on the table as lawmakers try to draft a balanced budget.
Cigarette taxes last went up in 2002 from 15-and-a-half cents per pack to 55-and-a-half cents per pack. Each penny increase in the tax raises about $7 million a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcpo.com ...
"doesn't see a need for a permanent tax increase."
ah. another one of those "temporary" taxes . . .
What's the saying? "Taxes for thee and thee but not for me"?
Yikes!!!! Here we go again.
Taxation without representation is tyranny---my a**!.
I love how cigarrett smokers are demonized just enough for the government to put their hands in the smokers pocketbook!
Hey! smoker you cant go out to eat, or watch a ball-game, or go on a school campus..but we'll take the money we make from you and fund these things.
Like his temporary tax on the "rich." (Those families making over $100,000.) I bet a lot of Daniels voters are feeling a little manipulated.
"We need to raise your income tax, you make too much money."
"We need to raise the cigarette tax, so you won't smoke."
"We need to raise the alcohol tax, so you won't drink."
"We need to raise the junk-food tax, so you won't eat Big Macs and Twinkies."
"We need to raise the gas tax, so you won't drive so much."
"We need to put a tax on the number of miles you drive because you bought a car that gets good gas mileage, and we aren't getting enough from the gas tax."
"We need to 'temporarily' raise the sales tax............"
Where is it going to stop????? I think my head is going to explode!!!!
"Don't tax him and don't tax me, tax that guy behind the tree."
The Guv was also talking about raising income taxes on families making over 100K, and here I was hoping he'd knock off that extra penny sales tax his predecessor passed.
At least our roads . . . hmmmm.
Good grief!! Who's backing these proposals? The Mafia?? The more taxes shoveled onto a pack of smokes the wider the door opens for bootlegging illegal (a.k.a. untaxed) smokes. Organized crime makes the $$$, and the state government makes felons out of its citizens. Cheeze....
Time for a tea party.
His tax increase proposals show that he's badly out of touch with Hoosier voters.
I wish there was a recall effort underway -- I'd help that process.
Wow, that sound sooooo familiar.
I voted for Gividen. He was openely against all of this crap, and he was also the only candidate opposing the stupid I-69 extension and government property confiscation.
It's a perfect racket. Nobody gets killed; the chumps pay up; and the boys collect the $$$.
"If everyone cooperates, no one gets hurt, see!"
E.G. Robinson's Little Caesar would have made a great modern public servant.
This type of policy is so self-defeating. Taxes are raised on a single product to increase revenue. Then people don't use as much of that product because it's more expensive. So no revenues are increased and something else must be taxed to make up the deficit. If you want to balance a budget, cut spending and taxes and let Liberty flourish.
"Where is it going to stop????? I think my head is going to explode!!!!"
don't forget the latest doozie.
"too many people have quit smoking! ! now we need another new tax to fund our pet project !! "
you know, they say they want to raise taxes to discourage smoking. then when people quit they are mad. but of course they are now "dependent" on that money . . /restart cycle.
argh.
Tell this dunce, Governor Mitch Daniels, why don't he raise taxes on purchase of autos. How about increasing the gasoline tax. How about property tax increase. What gives this the dunce the right to attack tobacco. This is what is wrong with America, we have elected the bottom line of humans to represent us. Where did these people come from.
Here's another solution:
Re-legalize marijuana & tax the heck out of it! Tax it to just below regular black market prices, to where the smokers would buy from legitimate businesses who choose to sell it rather than going thru the dealers.
Not only whould that run the dealers outta business & make them go get a REAL job, it would also increase profits for normal companies. PLUS, I would GLADLY pay a higher tax like this if I knew I could buy my marijuana legally w/o the threat of being labelled a criminal--which in itself would give law enforcement a greater opportunity to fight REAL crime & help protect us from terrorism! Everybody would win.
"If everyone cooperates,
no one gets hurt, see!"
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