Maybe I don't understand all of the details here, but why are they raising cigarette taxes to help balance the budget if they ultimately want to prevent smoking? Won't the latter goal harm the efficacy of the former?
Posted on 07/08/2005 6:21:56 AM PDT by SheLion
Taxing the smoke you breathe
Coffee Flavored Coffee by Peter Cook
Despite my deeply unpleasant experiences with tobacco, though, I think the legislature's plan to raise taxes on cigarettes is cynical and wrong. The state is preparing to raise the tax on cigarettes by 100 percent - from $1 to $2 per pack. For lawmakers and the Baldacci administration, this plan is a double-win situation.
Quoted in the Portland Press Herald, Baldacci spokesman Lynn Kippax said, "The cigarette tax is a horse of a different color. It does more than just raise revenue. It helps keep people from taking up smoking, which can become a lifetime addiction."
Maybe I don't understand all of the details here, but why are they raising cigarette taxes to help balance the budget if they ultimately want to prevent smoking? Won't the latter goal harm the efficacy of the former?
The government needs to make up its mind about smoking. Is it a societal evil that needs to be eradicated, or a cash cow to be exploited? For years, Maine has joined other states in condemning tobacco while benefiting from the tax revenues that come from those who use it. If the Baldacci administration and the legislature really want to take a principled stand against tobacco, it would pass a law to make its sale, use and import illegal in the state of Maine.
Instead, the government has embarked on a campaign to demonize smokers while simultaneously depending on them for income. As I said before, I happen to like restaurants where there is no smoke in the air. But I think the legislature was wrong to remove the right of business owners and customers to make that determination for themselves. Restaurants and bars are private industries, not public utilities.
When restaurants still had smoking sections, many of the establishments put smokers in the corner or in a separate room. Unless you were stuck near the room, one usually didn't smell the smoke. Now, thanks to the nanny-state meddling of the Maine Legislature, I get to smell smoke walking into and coming out of a restaurant, as smokers now congregate in the parking lot. If the law was meant to protect me from secondhand smoke, it's doing a poor job of it.
My major problem with the anti-smoking rationale for the tax hike is that I just do not believe taxation policy should be used for social engineering projects. It's not the state's job to discourage personal behavior just because those in the government happen to disagree with it or believe it to be risky. I would suggest taxing other risky behaviors, but don't want to give the legislature any ideas.
The simple fact of the matter is that smoking is legal.
It's time for the members of the legislature and the governor to stand on conviction and either make smoking illegal, or stop pretending to care about the health of its smoking citizens while profiting from their addiction.
Peter Cook is a graduate of the University of Maine with degrees in journalism and public administration. His daily rants on the state of the nation can be found on the Web at www.slublog.com
Maybe I don't understand all of the details here, but why are they raising cigarette taxes to help balance the budget if they ultimately want to prevent smoking? Won't the latter goal harm the efficacy of the former?
will the last conservative to leave Maine please turn out the lights?
What is sad is that they are pulling this crap in Texas too : (
I think we are kinda "thin" in this state, don't you think?
When you have the highly paid professional anti-smokers working against our no money's received to fight these coalitions, guess who wins out? The ones with the money!
There has to be a way to put these groups out of commission and we are wearing our think caps daily to figure it out.
We sure are aware of your plight in Texas as well.......
If memory serves, our government take in more money from evil tabacco then any company.
The company makes 27 cents per pack in profit and the government on average makes $2.50. It is evil government not evil tabacco that is making all the money.
Good point.
Good morning, Lady!
Thanks for the ping.
Someone said, "The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money to spend."
I've been saying this over and over: let the states ban tobacco products. Pull them off the shelves!
Since most states can't balance their budgets without the tax dollars collected from smokers, the states would go into a tail spin. Yet, the lawmakers continue sticking it to us, "for our own good."
If smokers could find an alternative way to buy cigarettes elsewhere and stop the glutton taxes from going into the state budgets, maybe then and only then would the states wake up.
I wish all smokers could just stop buying cigarettes for 6 months and then lets see just how much the states need us.
Read how much smokers are contributing to their state economy. And some have the nerve to say smokers are the reason for higher health costs. Read this and know the truth.
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All these tobacco taxes mean is that the government NEEDS PEOPLE TO SMOKE in order to fund their programs.
What a bunch of crap.
Either ban it or leave it alone.
Good morning back at you! :)
See? Even the general non-smoking public is getting the idea! The lawmakers spew lies out of both sides of their mouths. They say they want smoke free but can't balance their damn state budgets without hitting the smokers up again.
Are we tired of this yet???!!! I sure am!
Could you please add me to your ping list....thx
Got you added! Thanks!! :)
Thanks for the ping, and good morning!
When is the general public going to catch on to this little game the states (and the tobacco companies!) are playing? It makes me wonder just how stupid -or just unaware, period- people are. How long can they bury their heads in the sand?
It's willful ignorance, I guess. I don't see how people can let the states get by with this, otherwise. Then again, I am reminded of those quizzes they give to folks on the street, and they can't even figure out who the vice president is, where the country's capital is located, ect. Why should I expect them to be able to figure out this is blatant hypocrisy?
Of course, it's really more of a case of people ignoring the implications of taxation like this, because it's "feel-good" legislation at it's best. We're all going to reap what has been sown here, though.
Good morning back at you!
That's why I ping every one on my Maine ping list and I know a lot of them don't smoke, but I want the Maine people, ALL of them, to realize what is happening in this state. We need to wake up the general public.
I know what you mean about interviews on the streets. It's down right embarrassing. And how the people giggle when they don't know the answer. Questions like "Who is our President?" They don't KNOW? Too many people in the US wrapped up in their own little lives I guess.
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