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Some of Virginia's "tobacco settlement" money this year helped pay for cattle chutes, a set of metal bars that makes it a little easier and safer for Eric Morgan and farmers like him to do the work that leads to better herds of beef cattle.
Bedford County farmers who had the right qualifications found 38 grants were available this year -- of up to $3,000 each -- when Virginia's Tobacco Commission chose to fund a Central Virginia Beef Expansion Project.
Much larger amounts of tobacco settlement money have gone into a broadband network, college scholarships, and economic-development projects of every stripe since 2000, when Virginia started disbursing funds it gained from the National Tobacco Settlement.
Central Virginia Community College and entities in three nearby counties -- Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell -- benefited from $10.7 million in Tobacco Commission money over those years.
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Gov. Tim Kaine proposes raising Virginia's cigarette tax to help balance the state budget without making further cuts in important services such as Medicaid. There are sound reasons to support such a hike. Cigarettes hardly qualify as essential; people certainly don't need them the way they need, say, medical care. Virginia has a fairly low tobacco tax. And Kaine is not trying to balance the budget on the backs of the Old Dominion's tobacco industry. The tax hike is just one part of a series of measures, including budget cuts and layoffs in the state workforce. . . .
If Virginia had used the settlement money for its intended purposes, then the governor probably would not find it necessary to shore up Medicaid funding now. So the strongest argument against raising the cigarette tax might be this question: If state leaders could not be trusted to use money from the tobacco settlement agreement as they should have then, why should voters trust them with more money from higher tobacco taxes now?
This past fiscal year, Virginia received more than $170 million in cigarette excise tax revenue, $92 million from cigarette sales taxes and an additional $133 million in payments from the Master Settlement Agreement -- nearly equaling the $400 million in annual Medicaid expenses the editorial attributed to Virginia smokers. Cigarette smokers also paid $64 million in excise taxes to local governments.
About half of the price of a pack of cigarettes sold in the state goes to the government. Increasing this burden with a higher cigarette excise tax would be unfair to adult smokers and would harm Virginia's manufacturers, tobacco growers, wholesalers, retailers and the jobs they provide.
Instead, let any tax increase be spread over a broader base, so more of us share the burden. A small tax on cable and satellite television and cellphone service would more than provide the needed revenue.
As Mr. Earley stated, raising the cigarette tax is a "no-brainer" for parents . . .
Perhaps we should insist that any lawmaker who has taken tobacco money should recuse him or herself from voting on cigarette taxes because of a conflict of interest.
The new year will bring a new effort by the City of Norfolk to enact a city-wide smoking ban.
Efforts fell through this year when Virginia lawmakers voted against allowing individual localities to enact bans. That extinguished efforts at Norfolk City Hall.
"If the measure goes through, it will cost us $14,000 to build a patio to accommodate those smokers, so it's an instant out of pocket loss for us," says Eric Stevens, the owner of Bardo, who was making plans earlier this year to move smokers outside.
A spokeswoman confirms the city's lobbyist will ask lawmakers to again consider allowing cities to pass smoking bans.
Video: Norfolk poised to try again to extinguish smoking
Fire officials in Virginia believe a cigarette is to blame for the deadly vehicle fire that claimed the life of a former Greenwich restaurateur.
Maurice Jean Clos-Versailles, 64, died on Dec. 11 after his GMC Yukon burst into flames in Gordonsville, Va. He was the owner of Versailles Restaurant on Greenwich Avenue and had moved to Virginia in 2006, according to Ablemarle County Fire Marshal's Office.
"As it appears now there was a liquid petroleum gas leak inside the vehicle that ignited by a cigarette," said James Barber, Fire Marshal and Assistant Fire Chief with the Albemarle County Department of Fire Rescue.
Congressman Eric Cantor would rather fight than switch. The Republican lawmaker from Richmond is fuming over Governor Tim Kaine's recent proposal to double the state's cigarette tax to about half the national average.
Cantor, who ironically counts many Philip Morris employees as his constituents, branded Kaine's initiative as "an assault on jobs in Virginia, plain and simple ... and an attack on our economy."
Such language might be successful in obtaining bailout funds for banks or automakers, but that dog just ain't gonna hunt. Raising the tax from 30 cents to 60 cents per pack is not going to result in the demand for cancer sticks dropping so significantly that workers will lose their jobs. This is another GOP scare tactic intent on preying upon Virginians, economic fears.
What the congressman fails to understand is that even with the tax, Virginia still will rank 36th in the nation in cigarette taxes. . . .
The tax in actuality brings tobacco products closer to paying for the costs they create for state taxpayers in the first place . . . .
If Philip Morris does happen to have to cut their employment rolls to remain financially solvent, perhaps they can use the thousands of dollars that they dole out to state politicians every year in the form of contributions and bail themselves out. Or, better yet, perhaps we raise the tax to $10 per pack and the cigarette giant goes out of business.
Then we would all breathe a whole lot easier.
If the Kaine proposal flies, the per-pack savings by border-state shoppers visiting the three adjacent states with lower cigarette taxes (Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia) would average 23 cents. The savings to smoking residents of Virginia's neighboring jurisdictions with higher cigarette taxes (Maryland, Tennessee, the District) who would shop here would average 95 cents. Virginia would retain a big surplus in income from bargain-chasing weed fiends.
No, the better argument against a ciggy-tax boost comes from the left: Virginians who are less well educated and paid would be discriminated against if made to shoulder the entire burden of righting the Medicaid account.
Mr. Kaine, citing federal data, says that smoking-linked illnesses cost the state $400 million a year in Medicaid expenses. But what of other iniquitous products and habits? . . .
Verily, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of clean living--or at least almost all. This fact, at a time of fewer dollars to treat Virginia's sick and poor, argues for a general tax, not one pinned on a single group of self-abusers. If a doubled cigarette tax means fewer nicotine junkies, that's a very fine thing. But fairness? Cough-cough. Let's change the subject.
When Gov. Tim Kaine proposed last week to double the tax on cigarettes, he took on a large contributor to state politicians.
Tobacco companies have over the years given millions of dollars to Virginia candidates--including to Kaine himself.
According to the Virginia Public Access Project, a database of campaign finance donations in Virginia, tobacco companies, executives and farmers have given state politicians nearly $6 million since 1996.
By contrast, anti-tobacco groups seem to donate much less . . .
Think of a big name in state politics--former Gov. Jim Gilmore, former Lt. Gov. John Hager, former Gov. Mark Warner, former state Sen. John Chichester, former House Speaker Vance Wilkins, former GOP gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore, current Democratic Party Chairman Dick Cranwell, House Speaker Bill Howell, Gov. Tim Kaine--they're all on the list of tobacco donations.
Local lawmakers on the list, in addition to Howell and Chichester, include Sens. Edd Houck and Richard Stuart and Dels. Mark Cole, Bobby Orrock and Albert Pollard.
The largest donor by far is Altria, the Richmond-based parent company of Philip Morris, maker of the Marlboro brand of cigarettes.
Two of the nation's top tobacco-producing states are weighing whether to raise cigarette taxes to plug budget deficits that have sent politicians scavenging for sources of revenue.
The governors of Virginia and Kentucky have each proposed raising their cigarette taxes -- each currently 30 cents per pack -- to help offset revenue shortfalls of $2.9 billion and $456 million, respectively.
Such a move was once unthinkable in Virginia, where Philip Morris runs the world's largest cigarette plant miles from the state Capitol, and ceiling murals in the rotunda include impressions of the golden-brown tobacco leaf.
"I wouldn't be surprised if all the tobacco-producing states aren't at least considering it before long," said Amy Barkley, who directs advocacy efforts in the major tobacco states for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Gov. Tim Kaine wants to double the state's 30-cents-per-pack cigarette tax to minimize cuts in medical care for indigent children, nursing home residents and the disabled. House Republican leaders declared the idea a "job killer" and vowed to defeat the proposal.
Both sides secretly hope President-elect Barack Obama will send Virginia a nice fat stimulus check next year and make the whole unpleasant business go away.
As the state government brainstorms options to counter a looming budget deficit, local politicians and those involved in the tobacco industry resoundingly oppose Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposed sales tax increase on cigarettes.
They cite general economic malaise and particular concerns for Southside residents.
Kaine announced proposals this week to address a projected $2.9 billion budget shortfall, including spending cuts in every sector of the government, from streamlining transportation operations to holding off on state employee salary increases, along with a doubling of the 30-cent tax on cigarettes. . . .
Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, also argued that Virginia retailers close to North Carolina will be hurt as people may just go over the border to purchase cigarettes.
"When they're over there buying cigarettes, they're going to buy other things, too," he said.
For his part, Kaine argued that his proposal isn't a general tax increase that would put a strain on Virginia families already struggling. Rather, he said, it is "targeted to a specific non-essential product."
A little-known fact of business in Virginia is that merchants get to keep a small percentage of the sales tax they collect.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine wants that money back, and retailers across the state are fighting to keep it.
The "dealer discount" was part of landmark legislation in 1966 that established the Virginia sales tax. The idea was to compensate merchants for the newly imposed hassle of accounting for sales tax collections and sending monthly checks to the state.
But times have changed, and Kaine says it's no longer time-consuming for retailers to keep track of the sales tax. Computerized cash registers keep records and remit payments to the state at almost the touch of a button.
Kaine said the $64.3 million a year merchants get to keep - less than 2 percent of the total sales tax take - is money that the recession-rocked state needs. The governor proposed taking the money back in a speech Wednesday that detailed a $2.9 billion shortfall in revenue and asked legislators to cut education funding and stop new enrollments in Medicaid.
Several business interest groups say that Kaine's logic is wrong and that taking away the dealer discount at a time when sales are paltry is a kick in the gut to suffering merchants.
There are indeed Republicans who see the current economic crisis as a moment to put reflexive and parochial political positions aside and seek consensus. Former state Sen. John Chichester from the Fredericksburg area laid out that vision in a recent speech that has many in his party wondering how they can effectively stand up for their principles while cooperating with the governor and other Democrats.
But McDonnell, House Speaker William Howell and other GOP leaders are instead clinging to their tobacco gravy train for dear life.
Why would they do such a thing when public opinion appears to be squarely on the side of cranking up the tobacco tax?
Let's look at the numbers: Altria, the silly name that the Philip Morris corporation has adopted to try to distance itself from its cigarette business, has given McDonnell the largest gift of any it has given any Virginia politician, $15,000 already in this young gubernatorial campaign. (Two of the three Democratic candidates, Brian Moran and Sen. Creigh Deeds, have each received $5,000 from Altria this year.) The cigarette maker has given $93,000 to Republican candidates this year and $65,000 to Democrats. . . .
Republicans argue that picking on the tobacco industry could upset those companies and cause them to pick up and leave the state, leaving hundreds of Virginians jobless. It's a ludicrous argument, especially considering that Altria just got here, having moved its headquarters from New York City to Richmond just last year.
Even the tobacco industry doesn't make that argument, choosing instead to oppose a tax increase as an unfair focus on one industry.
Virginia's tobacco tax is one of the lowest in the nation. Maryland charges $2 a pack and the District's tax is $1 a pack; only deep South states and Missouri are down with Virginia in the sub-50-cents per pack tax range.
Virginia will make severe and very noticeable budget cuts next month; of that, there can be no doubt. And there's little appetite for general tax increases in any political party. But states are searching for relatively harmless ways to bring in at least a little new revenue. Hitting those whose addiction saddles taxpayers with huge medical bills is a helpful way to try to take some of the edge off the service cuts to come.