Our Views: Raise taxes on tobacco
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The best argument for raising tobacco taxes is the public health benefit. Louisiana is once again behind most states — including Mississippi, this year — in using higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products as a way to deter their use by young people.
Despite opposition from Gov. Bobby Jindal and others, the idea of raising tobacco taxes is a good one. A 50-cent per pack increase on cigarettes, and comparable boosts on other products, has been put into play by the Ways and Means Committee in the House.
The $100 million or so that the bill by Rep. Karen Peterson, D-New Orleans, would raise is hardly the answer to the state’s long-term financial problems.
And by long term, we mean as early as two years from now, when the state will no longer get the federal stimulus funds used by Jindal to prop up his budgets.
The money is nevertheless needed. It is irresponsible to oppose any and all taxes, especially a tax that has as its primary goal a significant lessening of youth addiction.
Jindal’s own health secretary agrees that the increase probably would mean a measurable reduction in youth smoking. But we agree with Alan Levine, secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals, that taxing every potentially harmful substance — “Twinkie taxes” on sweets or other common products — is not a good idea.
Cigarettes are unique in this arena in their addictive qualities and their killing consequences.
The public-health costs of tobacco products are being offset by this bill.
We urge the Legislature to back this proposal.
It’s a responsible decision not just in a budget crisis, but in any year when the health of young people is a concern of lawmakers.
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