'Health Impact Fee' is a Tax Hike in Drag
Minnesota just passed a 75-cent "health impact fee" (that's political code for "tax hike") on cigarettes as part of their latest budget. The Star-Tribune writes: bq. Minnesota revenue officials estimate that the new tobacco fee would raise $401 million. They calculated that state tobacco sales would drop by 14 percent as some people quit and others buy smokes from other sources: legally, in neighboring states, or on the black market. bq. That estimate was based on the experience of similar states, said Dick Gebhart, director of tax research. He said no one tried to break out how much might be lost because of smuggling per se. bq. Rep. Phil Krinkie, chairman of the House Taxes Committee, said he had little confidence in the Revenue Department's estimates. "Obviously, it's a best-guess scenario," he said. bq. "Someone who was much wiser than I once told me, 'You know, there's the free market. And then there's the ultimate free market, called the black market.'" Read it all. What's particularly annoying about this is that the GOP Governor, Tim Pawlenty, had the audacity to say this wasn't a tax hike, and has thus, fulfilled his "No New Taxes" pledge. Well, he can read our lips as we kiss his 2008 presidential aspirations good-bye.
