Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
One cigarette tax increase on top of another
By Mary Lazich
Friday, Aug 31 2007, 06:41 AM
The appetite to tax is insatiable for some politicians. Less and less people are smoking, yet politicians keep creating taxes that will be unsustainable by the smoking population. The cigarette taxes that are being imposed on the supposedly bad guy smokers will be paid by the nonsmokers.
Governor Doyle’s plans for the state cigarette tax are well documented. The Governor in his state budget proposes increasing Wisconsin’s cigarette tax of $o.77 per pack by $1.25. If approved, the new cigarette tax of $2.02 would be one of the highest in the nation.
To add insult to injury, Congress is considering increasing the federal tax on cigarettes to fund an expansion of children’s health care coverage.
Supporters are using a dual-based rationale to argue their case: 1) It is for a good cause and 2) Yes, it is a tax increase, but it is a sin tax, a tax on harmful cigarettes.
A group of conservative U.S.Senate Republicans is pledging to fight the increase for the right reasons.
“I’m not in favor of raising taxes, period,” Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) told The Hill, a publication that covers Capitol Hill in Washington.
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) said it best when he stated, “A tax is a tax is a tax. We don’t need more taxes.”
Smokers have become easy prey for tax increasers, but as one Senator emphasized, sooner or later, the instant target of smokers will not be paying for every government program.
Debate on the cigarette tax increase in Washington is expected to last through the summer. In order to get more favorable votes, there could be a compromise to have the revenue pay for insurance coverage just for children and not parents to keep the cost down.
The potential looms for an incredible tax increase on cigarettes in Wisconsin. There is a sizeable portion of the public that does not smoke, and supposedly, would not pay the higher tax. That should not justify a tax increase. The fact that it is a tax on cigarettes that could be palatable, even popular with the general public misses the point. We must get rid of the prevailing attitude in this state that it is simple to raise taxes. Such a mindset only makes it that much easier to increase other taxes, plunging us deeper and deeper into our tax hell.
