It just keeps coming. The South Dakota Legislature also wants to raise the cigarette tax by a dollar a pack. The bill is here.
My thoughts concerning whether smoking is a public or private vice are aired below, so I won't rehash. Suffice it to say I think smoking is largely a private vice which requires minimal government regulation. Be that as it may, there are other objections to this bill. First, if this bill is intended to discourage folks from smoking, why not tax cigarettes at $100 a pack? I guarantee you no one in SoDak will smoke then. But I suspect this is not the intention of the bill. A tax of $100 would stop everyone from smoking, which means the tax would generate zero revenue, and that's not what the government wants. They want most people to not smoke, but they need some people to smoke so they can raise revenue from an unpopular minority (smokers) instead of from a popular majority (property owners, for example). Which leads to another objection. Cigarette taxes, like all sales taxes, are regressive. The poor pay a higher percentage of their income on the tax than do the rich. This is especially true with cigarette taxes because low income people make up a disproportionate percentage of smokers. Cigarette taxes, like lotteries, are simply clever ways to tax those who are least able to pay.
Be that as it may, if we are going to have this tax, why is most of the money going to property tax relief? The tax will raise an extra $45 million, according to Rep. Frost at the cracker-barrel this morning. Five million dollars goes to smoking cessation programs, while the other $40 million goes to property tax relief. Many this morning were upset about the reduced rate of increase (what some speciously call a cut) of state education spending this year. It was suggested by our representatives to come up with some ideas as to where the revenue for education might be found. Well, how about $5 million for smoking cessation, $30 million in property tax relief, and $10 million for education? We have to find someway to pay Prof. Blanchard's bloated salary.
Recent Comments