Virginia senators passed two measures Friday. One increased taxes, the Chichester tax reform plan. Included was a 32.5 cent hike in taxes smokers will pay per pack of smokes. The other measure gives Phillip Morris a tax credit of $6 million dollars a year for its products sold abroad.
So on the one hand, we’re raising taxes because a) we can get more money, b) traditional wisdom (really suspect here) says it should dissuade kids from smoking and c) that extra money will help pay for the people who get sick from smoking.
But on the other hand, we’re paying the company, Phillip Morris, that produces the death sticks in Virginia to pedal them elsewhere because, proponents said, it would save jobs.
Help me out here. I don’t have much sympathy for smokers, especially those that get sick and then sue as if it was somebody else’s fault. But I think smokers have a case. Why should they pay more while the company gets a tax break for producing them? (The $6 million almost covers the cost of Phillip Morris CEO’s bonus last year, according to Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax.))
And how does it save jobs? Well, of course, if we don’t give PM a tax break, they could take their cigarette making factories elsewhere, and Virginia tobacco farmers would have a tougher go of it.
We want to discourage kids from smoking and pay for the health effects through higher taxes but we want Virginians to keep growing the stuff. Someday, some politician is going to stand up and say, “Sorry, tobacco farmers, the gig’s up.” I’d fully support spending money to retrain them and help them turn their land for another profitable but healthy product. But to continue along this conflicted public policy is stupid and, of course, a waster of taxpayer money.
As Sen. Yvonne Miller (D-Norfolk) said, “Our values are twisted. It’s crazy.”
No, senator, it’s old Virginny.