Cook County tax hikes pass key committee
by Kristina Rasmussen I don’t smoke. Never have. But I still oppose tobacco tax hikes. Why? The related revenue is used to run up government spending. Yet smoking is decreasing, and so are revenues. Non-smokers could be on the hook for general tax increases to fill the gap. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle turned this...
I don’t smoke. Never have. But I still oppose tobacco tax hikes. Why? The related revenue is used to run up government spending. Yet smoking is decreasing, and so are revenues. Non-smokers could be on the hook for general tax increases to fill the gap.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle turned this equation on its head, at least initially. She passed a needed reduction in the notoriously-high Cook County sales tax rate earlier this year. This is a good thing. But now she’s trying to make up for some of those “lost” dollars with a costly tobacco tax expansion.
Certain products, such as smokeless tobacco and cigars, would be re-defined so tobacco taxes could be levied on them. It’s an unfair bait and switch, as a tobacco tax hike wasn’t sold as part of the sales tax roll back. Asking cigar smokers to pay $135 each year in new taxes for no new services doesn’t strike me as fair.
But the real problem remains the same: the budget balancing rests on a shaky revenue source, which keeps the threat of a general tax hike alive in the future.
And from a health perspective, it doesn’t make much sense. On one hand, the government tells us to stop smoking. On the other, government budgets are increasing predicated on the notion that smokers continue smoking. It’s illogical. Plus, this specific proposal makes smokeless products — which can be an important part of tobacco harm reduction — more expensive.
There had been some talk of dropping proposed liquor tax increases in exchange for broadening the proposed tobacco tax hikes, but that effort largely fell flat when both passed the county finance committee yesterday.
I’m rarely a fan of “trading” one tax hike for another, as it takes the focus away from the real issue, which is controlling spending. As we climb out of the worst recession in decades, taxpayers will be asked to pay more on items big and small from multiple layers of government unless elected officials get a handle on the factors driving government budget growth.