Reassigning existing funds better proposal
Jim Rex, former South Carolina superintendent of education, is proposing another raise on the cigarette tax, hoping to split the benefit between health care and education. It sounds like a solid idea, but any legislator who has a memory superior to a goldfish’s will remember why this will not work.
In 2010, South Carolina passed a 50-cent tax increase on cigarettes, raising $910 million, which was quickly split into four trust funds. As a smoker, I wouldn’t even feel bad paying the extra 50 cents if the money actually went to tobacco prevention and helping South Carolina’s schools. However, the state has shown it doesn’t know what it’s doing, and taxing the addicted is not a panacea for South Carolina’s deeper-seated problems.
Raising the cigarette tax is a dead-end solution. Rex wrote fanciful claims that taxing smokers will help teachers keep their jobs and improve health care. But really it takes more money from South Carolinians, most of whom aren’t responsible for the state’s poor allocation of resources and funding or approving excessive and poor spending decisions.
While it’s nice Rex wants to take the money and use it for teachers, shouldn’t it actually be going toward preventing health risks cigarettes are blamed for?
Smokers and nonsmokers can agree: We get it, cigarettes are bad. It’s time to stop spamming us with ill-disguised attempts at raising revenue and convince us you actually care.
More Like This
