Taxing all tobacco products equally makes sense, but the cigarette levy is regressive.
Jump to full article: Maine Today, 2009-05-05
Intro: The bad budget news keeps coming, and while Gov. Badacci has rightly said he would not support broad-based tax increases to make the numbers work, sin taxes and other small levies will no doubt be considered. Included in the discussion will be higher tobacco taxes, which usually make sense as public policy.
These pages have long supported higher cigarette taxes because they provide a steady and predictible source of state revenue and they discourage smoking, especially among teens. This year, however, our support of higher tobacco taxes is limited.
One idea that will get a hearing is to raise the tax on tobacco products other than cigarettes to bring those items in line with cigarette taxes. This makes sense. . . .
Perhaps if the tobacco tax proceeds were given back in the form of a low-income tax credit, the economics could be made to play out differently.
But given the dire condition of the state budget - which has a $570 million hole in it - it's not reasonable to expect that the Legislature would hike the cigarette tax and then send the money out the door to help low-income Mainers.
Considering that reality, it's best that lawmakers equalize tabacco taxes for various products, but keep a hike in the cigarette tax off the table.
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