Editorial: Picking on the smokers
It must be something in the Beacon Hill air. When faced with simple arithmetic - not enough revenue to cover expenses - Massachusetts' political leaders are incapable of the simple response of equitably spreading the pain. Instead, they try to stick the bill on some group of unfortunates.
Gov. Deval Patrick's recipe for balancing the budget gives the state a share of the money casino gamblers lose. House Speaker Sal DiMasi prefers to balance it on the back of cigarette smokers.
DiMasi's proposed $1 increase in the tax on a pack of cigarettes hasn't received the attention of Patrick's casino bill, but it should - and not just from those stuck with the bill.
Boosting the cigarette tax by a buck would bring the cost of a pack close to $7, with the state pocketing $2.51. The bill, filed by Rep. Rachel Kaprielian, D-Watertown, would bring in an estimated $150 million in new revenue.
"'Tax' is a dubious term in the Legislature," she said, "You bring up the 'T-word' and people take notice." But Kaprielian then brought up another odious T-word: "Think of it as a toll. If you want to smoke, you have a reciprocal responsibility to benefit the commonwealth."
It's a bad analogy. A toll should cover the cost of maintaining a road on which you choose to drive - unlike, say, the Mass. Pike toll increases funding the Big Dig, but that's another story. A cigarette tax is more a matter of taking the money you need from the most convenient pocket to pick. That's not a toll, that's highway robbery.
Supporters of higher cigarette taxes, including the American Cancer Society and similar organizations, see them as a deterrent to smoking, and to some extent they are. But millions of cigarette smokers will have virtually no choice but to pay the extra tax.
Nicotine is an addictive substance, one of the most powerful available. Researchers have concluded that some people are more genetically inclined toward addiction than others, so it's more difficult for them to quit. "Helping" them by charging them $2.51 a pack for the fix they must have is doing them no favors.
Rep. Kay Khan, D-Newton, wants to tax a different drug. She has filed a bill extending the sales tax to liquor, which she says is more fair. "A cigarette tax primarily targets those who are profoundly addicted to nicotine, the lower class and the mentally ill. Everyone buys alcohol."
True enough, but both suggestions are a way to avoid a broad-based tax that would charge everyone for broad-based services. The fairest tax is one that expects everyone to pay something, with the amount based on what the individual can afford. If more money is needed to provide basic services, the state should tax income, commerce or profits, not punish lifestyle choices or add to the burdens of addiction.