Free Republic

Addicted to Nicotine Taxes by: Daniel Smith, July 17, 2008 The main claims that politicians make when they raise taxes on cigarettes have been found to be wanting, and very expensively so, by the National Taxpayers Union. The NTU’s Kristina Rasmussen provides “five reasons why non-smokers should oppose high tobacco taxes.” Rasmussen worked from the primary source of actual state budgets. First, argued Rasmussen, “states with low cigarette taxes tend to have lower overall tax burdens.” Analyzing the 16 states with the highest per-pack cigarette tax, Rasmussen discovered that these same states had a higher “per capita state and local...

Tuesday's special election marked the sixth time California voters have gone to the polls since the March 2002 primary election. That meant it was the sixth go-round of endless television commercials, campaign mailers — and trying to grasp the true meaning and impact of a plethora of ballot initiatives. Instead of patting themselves on the back for surviving such an onslaught, voters get to do it two more times next year. As much as they might like to, voters can't ignore the 2006 primary and general elections because important issues loom. There's a governor's race, as well as congressional and...