The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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March 2, 2010

You want a tax increase with that burger?

Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON —

With the state facing a $1 billion-plus budget shortfall, lawmakers are scrambling to find ways to raise additional revenue, looking at cutting programs, ending tax exemptions or increasing current taxes or imposing new ones.

One of the items on the table is the easy-to-target state tax on tobacco products. Truth to tell, Big Tobacco actually hasn’t been hit too hard in Georgia.

The last time the state raised the tax on cigarettes was back in 2003, when Gov. Sonny Perdue persuaded the Legislature to raise the tax a quarter, from 12 cents a pack to the current 37 cents, well under the average state tax of $1.34.

Georgia has the fifth lowest tobacco tax in the nation, according to the American Lung Association.

Some state lawmakers say now is the time to raise the cigarette tax to $1 a pack, which will raise at least $354 million a year, according to state estimates.

A higher cost will also discourage people from picking up the habit as well as convince smokers to quit, supporters of the tax say.

In other words, raise the tax so high that it will drive the source of revenue into extinction.

But is it possible to tax our way to a healthier lifestyle?

This way of thinking will lead to other means of “revenue enhancement,” by assessing “fees” (no matter what they call it, it’s all still taxes) on many food items deemed not healthy.

Last year the governor of New York proposed a 15 percent tax on non-diet soft drinks. Ordering a Diet Coke may cost you a dollar, but ordering a regular Coke would set you back $1.15. The measure failed.

But that may not impede our people under the Gold Dome, who may think that “sin taxes” on tobacco and alcohol don’t go far enough.

Why not add taxes to a whole list of products that can be determined as unhealthy? Let’s see, that would run the gamut from cheeseburgers to Twinkies, all chips, cookies and cake mixes, boxes of Little Debbies and even possibly that T-bone steak.

Exceptions to some of the products would have to be determined by the wise souls at the Capitol, who undoubtedly know what 100 percent whole wheat, multi-grain products are in all instances.

Supporters of any proposed consumption taxes are going to tie it in with the current national fad to attack childhood obesity, neglecting the fact that personal choices of eating healthier foods and keeping active will do more to reduce weight than any tax increase.

Perhaps lawmakers should compile a list of all food that can be listed as bad for us, and just declare a tax on gluttony.

Increasing consumption taxes will only benefit the tax collectors, not the ones paying the tax.

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