Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Sin Tax Time!

This will get interesting. Governor Minner announced some of her legislative agenda today. A major part of the story is a proposed hike in the cigarette tax (News Journal). According to the story, it's "not to raise more money but to further discourage teenagers from smoking."

I have to admit, I was a smoker. I started smoking as a teen. I started smoking because as a 17-year old I was mature-looking enough to buy cigarettes for a young lady I wanted to impress.

Seven years later the young lady was long gone from my life, but I was still smoking -- two packs a day before I finally quit. I quit in the fall of 1986. It was hard to do but entirely worth it.

So I think I can support the idea of a sin tax; it might have made it a little harder for me to get started. Maybe I would have not started. That would have been good.

2 comments:

Janet said...

I don't know how effective that will be. If you really think about it, where are most of the teens who start smoking getting the money to buy cigarettes from?

Thanks for stopping by. I did used to watch House and it is a great show. I lost track of it somewhere along the way though...:(

Anonymous said...

"It's for the Children!" ah the eternal whine of the nanny state socialists.

Mike, don't be delusional, price was not a factor when you were 17. You were trying to impress a girl, and as Debeers has proven, we guys will go deep into debt to impress a girl.

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