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New York Governor Pataki would Rob the Smokers to Pay the Rich
The Ithaca Journal recently reported that New York Governor George Pataki expects to propose a doubling of the state tax on cigarettes to $3 a pack outside New York City. He hopes that this tax attack on smokers - a minority of the population, many of whom are among its poorest citizens- will raise about $550 million a year, according to officials.
Neither the officials nor their subservient press pointed out that this tax increase would amount to a wholesale transfer of wealth from some of the poorest in the state to the rich.
Pataki is planning cuts in income, business and estate taxes as he puts the finishing touches on a budget plan he is expected to submit to the Legislature on Jan. 17.
As usual, the politicos and their uncritical friends in the media largely portrayed this enormous one-sided tax increase as a health measure meant to reduce smoking. None of them, however, pointed out the fact that if the tax increase significantly reduced smoking it would also decrease the increased revenue they so desperately need. The obvious conclusion is that they don't expect a serious health benefit. Instead, they are expecting a huge financial benefit - for themselves and for the rich who will get a tax break that is paid for by smokers.
Pataki is considering the recommendations of a panel he appointed last year on tax cuts. The report is "not yet public," that is it is secret, and officials are making no public comments on it. But according to one insider, the recommendations include:
As real wages continue to decline and as smokers continue to be browbeaten into guilty submission, Pataki's tax plans appear to this source to be nothing short of an attack on a relatively poor minority that will result in a massive transfer of wealth to the rich from those who can least afford it. It's high time the public put an end to these practices.
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