Tax tobacco to death
To avoid drastic cuts in needed programs, the state House is proposing to increase sales and income taxes. These are the two worst taxes that can be increased during a recession, unless their overall goal is to make things worse.
When you increase the sales tax, you cut down on people’s discretionary purchases, and that kills retail and manufacturing jobs. When you increase income taxes on the rich, you effectively tax small businesses more, and that will kill even more jobs, assuming the rich decide to stay around to pay the higher taxes.
Here’s my suggestion for a tax increase that people can literally live with: Instead of killing jobs, kill the sales of a product that kills people. Raise taxes on all tobacco products.
The General Assembly already does not want state employees to smoke (recent State Health Plan bailout), already moved to protect the health of restaurant patrons (recent smoking ban law) and claims that it needs additional revenue to solve the current budget crisis. So why did the House recently reject a tax increase on tobacco products?
We’re told they did not want to add to the tobacco farmers’ burdens. Apparently, the rest of us are on our own.
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