Because the proceeds of this tax are going into the general fund. Like a crack whore addicted to more and more crack, todays government is addicted to more and more tax revenue, and they don't really care where it comes from. I like a glass of wine with dinner, should we tax the piss out of that next so we can raise more dollars for the general fund? Didn't our politicians try to raise the beer tax recently? A few years ago, the libs in Washington State wanted to tax lattes. What a joke. Now if the tax collected from smokers went specifically towards programs to help people quit smoking and to pay for their increased burden on the public health system, well then maybe I would have supported it. But it didn't, it just went for quick fix for the tax whores.
That is pretty much how I see it.
Personally, I usually vote against all new taxes, mill levy's, sales tax etc. The reason I voted for a cigarette tax had nothing to do with the governments spending of the money. It was a personal issue with me. It was actually something my mom and a couple of other people said. They were talking and said "if the price goes up anymore than this I'll either have to slow down on the amount I smoke or I'll quit."
I remember my mom saying the same thing when it hit 50 cents a pack, a buck a pack, 2 and four bits a pack and finally five bucks a pack... She finally quit but had to die to do such....
I don't want to rain on your parade Matt, don't let them kid you on what they will do if the price hits what ever, they will
NEVER quit until they want to or they pass on... Sorry...
There are a number of people on here that can remember what happened in the 70's with the price of gas and what happened to the economy shortly there after...
A few of you are too young to actually remember any of it, or weren't around at all.
Price of gas more than doubled, the unemployment rate went up, cost of living skyrocketed and the President at the time tried to put freezes on the economy thru executive order. The pattern looks pretty much as it does now and it hasn't got a lot to do with who is in power at the moment on what will happen and what has transpired so far in the recent past.
Some of you that want to put the blame on one group or another really need to pull your basic Econ books back out of the closet and read up on it, Matt it hasn't been that long for you, so it should be pretty easy.
This is only history repeating itself, and history on this repeat isn’t that far in the past to look up or understand...