Fair taxation just so much cigar smoke

Addiction has become a fundamental and growing revenue-generator for Pennsylvania’s government.

Lawmakers scooted away from the Capitol last week for their long summer vacation without fully funding the budget that they claimed to have passed. But they did act, or at least propose, to reap a harvest from addiction.

The budget includes $100 million from casino-based internet gambling, even though the Legislature has not authorized it. Lawmakers added $1 to the cigarette tax, boosting it to $2.60 a pack, established a 55-cents-per-ounce tax on smokeless tobacco products, and placed a 40 percent tax on the wholesale price of electronic cigarettes and related products.

But what’s a Pennsylvania budget without some special-interest favoritism? Lawmakers rejected a tax on cigars while raising or establishing taxes on all other tobacco products, an egregious case of pandering to special interests — a few cigar-rolling companies or distributors in the districts of influential legislators. Pennsylvania and Florida are the only states that do not tax cigar sales.

Legislators, led by state Sen. Pat Browne, the Appropriations Committee chairman from the Lehigh Valley, trotted out the a familiar notion for the massive tax break. They claimed that the state would lose its cigar industry if the government imposes a tax.

Since Florida is the only other state that does not impose a tax, all of the Pennsylvania industry apparently would move there — even though cigar companies exist in many other states that assess cigar taxes. And they would do so even though cigar companies have operated in Pennsylvania since at least 1882.

As noted by Eric Epstein of the watchdog group rockthecapital.com, tobacco lobbyists have spent millions of dollars in Harrisburg warding off the cigar tax— clearly understanding that politicians have their own addictions.

When legislators return from the beach after Labor Day, they should impose a fair tax on cigar sales to demonstrate that all of their decisions are not made in smoke-filled rooms.

Resource :http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/fair-taxation-just-so-much-cigar-smoke-1.2070427