Smokers are an easy budget target, and the state government's aim has been focused in their direction quite frequently in recent years.
On Tuesday, the state's tax on a pack of cigarettes increased by 75 cents, to $2.52. In less than two years the state tax on cigarettes has increased by $1.75. The federal government also raised its tax in April by 62 cents to $1.01 per. That's a lot of budgeting on the shoulders of smokers.
Politicians can get away with it, of course, because the effect is to discourage people from continuing to smoke. And who can argue with that? The irony, though, is that when people stop smoking, and hence stop paying taxes on packs of cigarettes, government's financial coffers take a hit.
But that's not the biggest, or the cruelest, irony in the latest state tax increase. No, that belongs to the state Legislature.
The new cigarette tax is expected to generate $522.8 million over the next two years - depending, of course, on what impact the higher taxes have on how much people smoke. But while the state essentially encouraged people to quit smoking, it cut tobacco control grants, which fund programs that help people who are trying to quit smoking. It's not an insignificant cut, either. The base level of tobacco control grants was slashed from $15.3 million in 2008-09 to $6.9 million in each of the next two years.
It's an astonishing contradiction that defies explanation.
It's not as legislators weren't urged to reconsider. Maureen Busalacchi, executive director of Smoke Free Wisconsin, in a statewide op-ed (published June 25 in The Monroe Times), called the cut in smoking cessation funding "counterproductive, even counterintuitive in almost every way."
"The program has faced budget cuts in the past to help balance the state budget," Busalacchi wrote then. "Funding is now below one-fourth of what experts at the Centers for Disease Control recommend to battle the burden of tobacco in Wisconsin - and to counter the $276 million a year Big Tobacco spends marketing its products in our state."
She went on to point out that money spent on smoking cessation programs actually pays for itself in saved health care costs.
Still, the Legislature moved forward with the cuts, relatively minor in the grand scheme of the budget but, as Busalacchi said, a "crippling blow to the effort" of helping people quit smoking.
Cynically, one could call the lawmakers' decisions brilliant. By lowering the level of help they provide citizens to fight their smoking habits, they may be boosting the revenue flow of taxes from cigarette sales. It's a horrible way to help balance a budget.
On Tuesday, the state's tax on a pack of cigarettes increased by 75 cents, to $2.52. In less than two years the state tax on cigarettes has increased by $1.75. The federal government also raised its tax in April by 62 cents to $1.01 per. That's a lot of budgeting on the shoulders of smokers.
Politicians can get away with it, of course, because the effect is to discourage people from continuing to smoke. And who can argue with that? The irony, though, is that when people stop smoking, and hence stop paying taxes on packs of cigarettes, government's financial coffers take a hit.
But that's not the biggest, or the cruelest, irony in the latest state tax increase. No, that belongs to the state Legislature.
The new cigarette tax is expected to generate $522.8 million over the next two years - depending, of course, on what impact the higher taxes have on how much people smoke. But while the state essentially encouraged people to quit smoking, it cut tobacco control grants, which fund programs that help people who are trying to quit smoking. It's not an insignificant cut, either. The base level of tobacco control grants was slashed from $15.3 million in 2008-09 to $6.9 million in each of the next two years.
It's an astonishing contradiction that defies explanation.
It's not as legislators weren't urged to reconsider. Maureen Busalacchi, executive director of Smoke Free Wisconsin, in a statewide op-ed (published June 25 in The Monroe Times), called the cut in smoking cessation funding "counterproductive, even counterintuitive in almost every way."
"The program has faced budget cuts in the past to help balance the state budget," Busalacchi wrote then. "Funding is now below one-fourth of what experts at the Centers for Disease Control recommend to battle the burden of tobacco in Wisconsin - and to counter the $276 million a year Big Tobacco spends marketing its products in our state."
She went on to point out that money spent on smoking cessation programs actually pays for itself in saved health care costs.
Still, the Legislature moved forward with the cuts, relatively minor in the grand scheme of the budget but, as Busalacchi said, a "crippling blow to the effort" of helping people quit smoking.
Cynically, one could call the lawmakers' decisions brilliant. By lowering the level of help they provide citizens to fight their smoking habits, they may be boosting the revenue flow of taxes from cigarette sales. It's a horrible way to help balance a budget.
