Tax Lawyer's Blog

Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune writes in an article titled Tobacco Tax is Personal for Utah Lawmaker that,

Rep. Paul Ray doesn’t need to look far to see the toll of a lifetime of smoking. His mother wheels an oxygen cart with her since she was stricken with emphysema after nearly 50 years of smoking. His father died from the habit and Ray says doctors have blamed his own heart defect, which has resulted in four different surgeries, on his mother’s smoking.

The Clearfield Republican said he has worked since he was 12 to help his family buy food because his family’s money was going to cigarettes. So his multiyear fight to hike the tobacco tax is intensely personal. His goal, he says, is to give people a reason to quit.

On Friday, the House Health and Human Services Committee approved Ray’s proposal to raise Utah’s tobacco tax to $1.71, almost 2½ times the current rate, and tie it to the tax rate in the 42 other non-tobacco-producing states to ensure it rises automatically in the future. Opponents of the bill called it an attempt at social engineering and said it would drive tobacco sales to surrounding states where the tax rate is lower.

“I don’t like cigarettes. I don’t like smokers,” said Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem. “But I am extremely concerned and I’m worried about the danger of trying to use tax policy to change social behavior.”

Joyce Mitchell, who identified herself as a Mormon mother testifying before the committee “on behalf of liberty,” said smokers take an informed risk and pay for their decision.

Perhaps we can get other lawmakers to follow suit and propose surtaxes on the following addictions which may have wrecked havoc on their families:

• Sex addiction
• Carbohydrate addiction
• Gambling addiction
• Workaholism
• Drag racing
• Cross-dressing
• Internet addiction

If legislators wanted to give people an incentive to quit smoking, they should reward people for quitting, rather than punish them for failing to quit? Study after study has shown that positive reinforcement is a superior motivator than negative reinforcement.

But, alas, it’s not really about making people more healthy, but rather, about increasing the revenues of budget-strapped states. 

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