Kentucky has a budget shortfall of roughly half a billion dollars, so of course like any good Democrat, Governor Steve Beshear proposes to fix this by raising cigarette taxes. He and his supporters claim that by doing so we will go a long way toward resolving this problem, and at the same time, we will cut down on the number of smokers.
I seem to be at something of a loss at understanding how raising cigarette taxes will accomplish both of these goals.
I have a better idea, one that will solve Kentucky's problem, probably within a two-to-three year span of time, and leave us with a government surplus, thus enabling to add to, not take away, from the Rainy-Day Fund.
The answer-spread the pain, and then, just like that, take it away. How?
Simply, Kentucky sales taxes are six cents on the dollar. Raise them to seven cents. That's how you spread the pain. So then, how do you take that pain away so quick few if any people even notice it?
You cut cigarette taxes, and state gasoline taxes, in half.
Whamo! Problem solved. Reckon there would be any takers?
Of course not.
5 comments:
The cigarette tax is objectively an attack on poor people, the sales tax is as well.
The progressive nature of the US tax system has been consistently eroded. To make it fair, tax the rich. Nothing trickled down.
I don't suppose Kentucky could save a few mill by getting away from subsidizing the horse racing industry...
Ren-
I hate to sound cliche, but all that will do is cause the rich to pass the tax on to the consumer. Besides, you couldn't get enough by only taxing the rich, unless you taxed them so heavily they would no longer be rich. Then what would you do? There aren't enough rich people in Kentucky to fund the budget anyway, especially with the 500,000,000 dollar deficit we've ended up with.
FJ-
That's a thought. I'm not sure how much they subsidize the thoroughbred industry, among other things, or what the pay-off is.
I only touched on the cigarette tax, but there are other items in the budget, such as reduction of spending and other things. They are looking at the possibility of lay-offs of state workers. At one time, the bandied about the idea of early prisoner release, but only of non-violent offenders. That didn't go over too well.
Maybe you should run for office.
Local office, maybe someday, but it takes money and connections to run for statewide office and expect any reasonable chance of success. All the legislative seats from my area are pretty much all locked up. It's a tempting thought, but realistically, there's not much chance of that. I'm not part of any old boys club or network, what can I say?
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